Sydney Bucksbaum is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly. She has been working at EW since 2019 and is a published author. Her work has previously appeared in TV Guide Magazine, E! News/E! Online, The Hollywood Reporter, Mashable, Bustle, IGN, DCComics.com, Inverse, The Daily Northwestern, and more.
Christian Bale and Maggie Gyllenhaal are resurrecting their friendship nearly 20 years after starring together in The Dark Knight.
The two first met playing love interests in Christopher Nolan's 2008 Batman Begins sequel (after Gyllenhaal replaced Katie Holmes in the role of the caped crusader's longtime love Rachel). But the actors didn't keep in touch for almost two decades after filming that comic book movie.
Now, they've reunited in a different capacity: Bale stars opposite Jessie Buckley in Gyllenhaal's bold new film, The Bride!, loosely inspired by the 1935 horror film The Bride of Frankenstein.
"Christian and me, that's where we met," Gyllenhaal recalls about The Dark Knight, in Entertainment Weekly's latest cover story on her new movie. "Although, even though I really liked him on that movie and I did get to know him, I really got to know him here. Here's where we really became friends and real, I think, deep collaborators, in a different way than on that first time we worked together."
The punk-rock dark romance is a daring twist on the classic tale of Frankenstein's monster (Bale) seeking a companion. This time, his Bride (Buckley) not only comes alive, but also ignites a cultural revolution as the outlaw lovers embark on a cross-country crime spree.
"They think they know it, but they don't know it," Bale tells EW about Gyllenhaal's iconoclastic movie. "It's a great, kick-ass, bold, original film. This is real cinema."
Getting back in touch with Gyllenhaal as the writer-director instead of his costar was thrilling for Bale, who felt like she was a "whole different person" now at the helm of the project -- in the best way.
"She's someone with an acute sensibility for working with actors, whispering in my ear, totally understanding what she's on about, loving what she's going for, allowing me and Jessie to experiment," Bale says. "[She's] someone who is unabashed about saying, 'I don't know,' has that amount of confidence even on her second film, but also does know so much about what she's looking for. She is a wonderful leader on the set and a great partner in crime."
Bale pauses before adding, "It's nice, when you're making a film, to feel like you're getting away with something that you shouldn't be able to get away with."
Gyllenhaal always knew she wanted Bale to take on the male lead role opposite Hamnet star Buckley. But Bale thought it was a mistake when he was first sent Gyllenhaal's script.
"I said, 'I think you might have sent me a $5 million cult movie,'" Bale says. "'I would f---ing love to watch this myself, but I don't think this is the movie that you meant, because you said it's got quite a decent budget.' And then, 'No' -- all right, these bold people are taking big swings. And good for them, because it feels like we're in the dying days of movies and theaters, which is f---ing tragic."
Bale was so impressed with Gyllenhaal's script and vision that he knew he had to sign on. It reminded him of earlier days of the film industry, before it fell into a time of crisis.
"This is one that you absolutely have to see in a movie theater, not when you're distracted staring at your phone while at home," he says. "I couldn't believe that a major studio wanted to make it. It's about a true love for telling original, bold stories. It's tragic in terms of so many talented people not getting any work right now, but I do think that in terms of the quality, not quantity of films, we're about to embark on a tragic but magical era of film storytelling, and I could see that this was that. Maggie and Jessie are a great duo, two incredible storytellers."
Meanwhile, Gyllenhaal was blown away watching Bale transform into "Frank" during filming -- and she means when his real work began after his daily six-hour makeup and prosthetics process -- as she directed him in scenes both massive and intimate in scale.
"Christian always does something new and fresh," she says. "When have you ever seen Christian do the same thing twice? I can't think of it."
The only things Bale can't seem to stop repeating in his big screen roles? Singing and dancing. While The Bride! isn't a musical, it has its fair share of big-budget musical sequences due to Frank's obsession with glamorous Hollywood matinee idol star Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal). Thanks to Frank's parasocial relationship with Ronnie, audiences will see Bale puttin' on the ritz in multiple scenes.
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
"You get to humiliate yourself in a really wonderful way," Bale says of filming the musical sequences. "I love humiliating myself."
See for yourself exactly what Bale means when The Bride! hits theaters March 6. Read more on the movie in EW's cover story here.
%3Amax_bytes(150000)%3Astrip_icc()%3Afocal(983x540%3A985x542)%2FThe-Bride-Cover-Stills-020226-01-928e1d2b775d45a1bf5ffdeb89b921ef.jpg&w=3840&q=75)