Russell Crowe and Christian Bale may have an adversarial relationship in the Western drama 3:10 to Yuma, but the two intense actors had no problem representing the film as a team at a press conference in Los Angeles. The banter between the two actors at the conference was free and easy, with Crowe even good-naturedly throwing a few Batman jokes Bale's way.
In 3:10 to Yuma Crowe plays Ben Wade, the leader of a ruthless gang of thieves and killers. Bale stars as a husband and father who tries to save his land by taking a temporary job as one of the guards in charge of putting the outlaw Wade on the 3:10 train to Yuma.
Russell Crowe and Christian Bale Press Conference
You both played Americans before but were you surprised to be asked to star in a Western?
Christian Bale: “Not for a second, no (laughing).”
Russell Crowe: “Yeah, no, didn't surprise me. I had spent quite a bit of time with James Mangold about six years ago. I didn't realize that he was spending… I was recording an album in the studio at the time [he was] prepping Walk the Line. I didn't realize that at the time, but we sort of became conversational friends and so when he sent me the script I read it. I enjoyed the dynamic between the two characters and that was basically the decision made.”
Russell, you're known as an actor who does a lot of research and prep for period roles. What's the real story of the level of work that you put into these things?
Russell Crowe: “Well, I think that we should decide not to talk about preparation just this once because then it all just becomes about preparation and not about the movie. The thing is that I was working on another movie right up to this and then promoting another film in Europe, and so I didn't really do that much preparation. But as you might know I have a working farm and so there were a lot of things on this movie that are just part of my day to day.”
Would it be okay to ask if there was anything from the last Western that you did, The Quick and The Dead, that also applied here? That was a much more stylized Western.
Russell Crowe: "Yeah, but I had the good fortune of working with a guy called Thell Reed who was an armorer at a point in my life where I'd never even touched a handgun before. He sort of utilized that and put a lot of information in my head because he didn't have to get past things that my dad had taught me incorrectly, or my uncles had taught me badly as he finds with a lot of American actors when he works with period guns. So it was just a matter of taking that same information, refreshing it in my mind, and then changing the style of how this particular guy killed people.”
Can you talk about filming in New Mexico, filming on location, and working together?
Russell Crowe: “You've been silent for a while, Batman. I'm going to do that all day, man.”
Christian Bale: “I was kind of guessing that was going to happen (laughing). New Mexico, when I think about it I don't have any recollections of Santa Fe particularly, but the canyons and being out in the high desert, that was nice. Just being out riding your horses and shooting your guns, that's a lot of fun.”
Russell Crowe: “It was really cold.”
Christian Bale: “It got to be bloody freezing, especially some of the night shoots.”
Russell Crowe: “Just terrifyingly cold.”
Christian Bale: “Then we had like the worst winter storm in recorded history come in.”
Russell Crowe: “We were surrounded by four and a half feet of snow doing scenes where were talking about the drought. It was one of those sort of movie experiences.”
Christian Bale: “Right, yeah (laughing). And he was just a real bastard to work with.”
Russell Crowe: “Peter Fonda started something that I think that SAG should pick up on. One day he actually said that he couldn't act in period costume on location below thirteen degrees.”
Christian Bale: “Which is superb. I'm having that put in my contracts from now on.”
Russell Crowe: “Yeah. I reckon that SAG should work on it because I reckon that you shouldn't do Shakespeare in a drafty hall in tights below, say, eight degrees. There should be a whole scale.”
Christian, you had just come from a really uncomfortable location before this, shooting in the jungle for Rescue Dawn. Was that more uncomfortable than this one or was this one more challenging?
Christian Bale: “I kind of like movies where I get to just be dirty and crawling in the mud. With Rescue Dawn it was all that primordial stuff, and with this one it was all about wearing the same clothes day after day and getting sweaty and dirty exposure to the sun. It's meant to be like that. Westerns are meant to be dirty. They shouldn't be all nice and clean. I like getting my hands dirty.”
Russell, did you like the fact that the bad boy had a conscience? Was that appealing to you at all?
Russell Crowe: “I didn't really read it that way.”
How did you read it then?
Russell Crowe: “He's just very efficient at surviving whatever situation he's in. I mean, the end result is an example of that. Obviously, that group of men that he's gathered together are probably a little dangerous now and so [spoiler deleted]...”
Your character gets away after whistling for his horse to come. How would you explain that special relationship between a horse and its rider?
Russell Crowe: “Well, I'm an absolute horse lover so that's a very complex and long answer in its full sense. But I've always found that, even from the time of being a little kid, that just like people, there are some horses that you sort of have a deep connection with immediately and you can work on that over time. I've found over the years that for me it's the antithesis of some other people's thought processes. The gentler you are and the more constant you are with the horse, the deeper that connection gets. It's funny though, doing these sort of movies - and I've done a few with animals - because you get really close to them as the working relationship is quite intense working 10 or 12 hours a day for a number of months and so it gets hard to say goodbye.”
Page 2: On Working Together and Batman
