THR reports that Christian Bale has stepped down from the lead role in the Danny Boyle helmed Steve Jobs biopic, written by Aaron Sorkin.
Sources say Bale, after much deliberation and conflicting feelings, came to the conclusion he was not right for the part and decided to withdraw.
While Bale’s exit is probably a blow to the film, you have to respect the guy for taking a long look at it, realizing he wasn’t right, and hitting the eject button at the beginning of the process before the process got too far along. It’s something I wish actors would do more often. There’s such a drive among studios, performers, etc. to create a “personal brand” that people seem reticent to say no to things as often as they probably should.
No doubt Bale will find another great project to work on and you have to to imagine with Boyle and Sorkin on board a new Steve Jobs will be found soon enough.
Dumb alternate titles for this article: iQuit, Steve Job(less)
Glad to see this, because I despise Steve Jobs, and Christian Bale is one of my favorite actors.
Bateman, Batman, Borden, yes.
Jobs…. no thanks.
I think it’s pretty interesting. I can definitely see why they wanted him. But I laud him for stepping up and saying “Hey, this isn’t a good fit” instead of trying to force it and putting out something sub par.