Christian Bale: A "Kindred Spirit" to Heath Ledger

Christian Bale opens up to Parade magazine about his Dark Knight costar

By Marc Malkin Jun 25, 2008 8:23 PMTags
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Christian Bale wants people to know Heath Ledger's work as the twisted and morose Joker in The Dark Knight was just that—work!

"I hope in a small way that The Dark Knight can be a celebration of his work," Bale says in the new issue of Parade magazine. "Not like the hideous circus after he died, which I felt was an invasion of a private life. This movie is not a personal home video. This is what he did. I hope people will embrace that in the correct fashion."

Bale misses his late costar dearly. "He was a unique character, a very infectious character," he says. "He was a good man, and I was glad to have spent time with him…He was something of a kindred spirit to myself."

Bale also opens up about his own life, including spending much of his childhood on the road because his mother was a circus dancer. These days, he lives a much more stable existence with his wife, Sibi, and their three-year-old daughter (whose name Bale refuses to reveal publicly).

"There's a hard line you find in yourself when you become a parent, an absolute belief that cannot be questioned," he says. "It's something that you will kill and die for in a way that you never experienced before. I've always enjoyed the gray in life. This is an area of total black and white. This is something that is unquestionable."