CHRISTIAN BALE CAN DO MAGIC

(VIDEO) Christian Bale was only taught the necessary magic tricks for The Prestige.

Christian Bale stars in The Prestige as a master illusionist in turn of the century London. Christian had personal memories to draw upon as his grandfather was a member of the Magic circle, the premiere organization in the world for magicians, sometimes pulling out his box of tricks from the attic. For the film Christian worked with magic consultants Ricky Jay and Michael Weber who taught him only what he needed to know.

The Prestige which reunites Christian with his Batman Begins director Christopher Nolan is much more than two magicians getting up on a stage and performing an illusion. It’s about how far these obsessed men will go to discover the secret of the other’s trick and that is what attracted Christian to the story.

“They were fantastic. They would show me tricks and I’d always push them to explain. They taught me a few but primarily dexterity of hands. That’s what I was most in awe of is the up close magic especially with these guys. They would tell me how they’re gonna do something and then do it and I’m still stunned by what they were doing.”rn

Next Christian will play a cowboy riding horses and shooting guns in 3:10 to Yuma based on an Elmore Leonard short story and then onto Batman again in The Dark Knight once again directed by Christopher Nolan.rnrn

“And especially with magicians it’s not a straight forward competition. There are many angles and layers. You think they’re coming at you from one direction and it’s absolutely the other. That’s constantly intriguing but also by the end of the script with the movie you realize the whole thing was a magic trick itself.”