Academy Award nominee Melissa Leo sure has made the most out of her recent jump to Hollywood's A-list. Seriously, check out her IMDb page—the babe has tons of movies in the works, including a flick with Kristen Stewart (that girl-on-girl action will come tomorrow, promise). Up first, we were curious about M.L.'s most recent gig: playing mom to Christian Bale in The Fighter.
We caught up with Mel at the L.A. Film Festival opening of Paper Man last week and had to know how everything's going with the temperamental actor.
Are you nervous at all? Christian has a reputation of getting very into his roles...
"He does, but that's great. I met him on the airplane to Massachusetts a month and a half ago, before he had met his character Dicky. I watched him meet Dicky and right away saw how [Christian] absorbed him. Then, I saw him again a couple of weeks later when we got together to do work, and the transformation—wow. It has been amazing. It just delights me to see. Acting is so precious to me, and to see someone like Christian who really works at it and enjoys it...He's just amazing."
Melissa's praise for Batman was totally genuine, too. We've seen the front many actors put on in this town when they grudgingly have to like their costars, and that was so not M.L. If Miss Leo is that good of a faker she should have won the damn Oscar.
"Christian—and Mark [Wahlberg] for that matter—are just delightful, serious and hardworking. I think we're going to have an incredible time."
Uh, we'll get back to you on that, Melissa, promise.
We've said our piece about Christian Bale and Terminatorgate. Much worse goes on in this town, so we're ready to check out his other roles sans F-bomb bias. Are you?