A troubled soul

After Batman actor Christian Bale is quizzed over an alleged assault on his mother and sister, his former assistant Harrison Cheung gives a riveting insight into the star’s tantrums

LONELY, BROODING and emotionally tormented, the latest incarnation of Batman shocked the celebrity audience at last week’s London premiere of the film. The noble saviour of Gotham, familiar to generations of comic-book readers and TV viewers, had been replaced by an altogether darker superhero, prone to violence and consumed by hatred for his enemies.

After the show, as the audience came out of the cinema into the heat of a July evening, the first-night fans could hardly have known that the drama was to continue off screen in a similarly troubled fashion - so much so that it has overshadowed the film’s blockbuster release.

With the closing credits barely finished, they learned that Welsh-born Christian Bale, who played the part of Batman to critical acclaim, had been arrested in connection with an alleged assault, which he denies, on his mother and sister in his £6,000-a-night suite at The Dorchester.

What actually took place remains a mystery, although it has been reported that his sister had asked to borrow £100,000 to support her family.

Certainly, Bale is saying little. Released on bail without charge, his only comment was: “It’s a deeply personal matter. I would ask you to respect my privacy in the matter.”

No doubt the 34-year-old would rather let his extraordinary acting do the talking. But there are some for whom the incident came as no surprise.

One in particular is Harrison Cheung, who helped out Bale as a publicist, adviser and general factotum for nearly a decade and paints a portrait of the actor, which is rather closer to his screen persona than many might expect.

It seems Bale truly is a tortured soul, haunted by his parents’ divorce, prone to temper tantrums and plagued by insecurity.

Close confindant

Apart from Bale’s wife Sibi, with whom he has a three-year-old daughter Emmeline, few have a better claim to know him than Cheung, 44, who provides a remarkable insight into the mind of the rising star. In his view at least, the inspiration for Christian’s dark portrayal of the comic-book hero comes from Christian’s own fractured past.

Indeed, for Cheung, Bale’s story shows all the classic rage of a boy who has been simultaneously spoiled and betrayed by a dysfunctional family.

There was no shortage of theatrical know-how in his upbringing. Bale’s mother Jenny worked as a clown and a dancer in a circus, reportedly riding elephants and introducing the various acts. Christian himself recalls spending time as a boy in a caravan, surrounded by beautiful women in little more than fishnet stockings.

His 6ft 5in father David, meanwhile, longed to be a pilot, but according to Cheung got no further than the British Midland airline training scheme.

Bohemian in spirit and nomadic, the Bales moved so frequently that their only son had little chance to put down roots. In one of his rare interviews, Bale said the family moved 15 times, often with the bailiffs in hot pursuit. He also said he had “no idea” of what his father did for a living.

Then came two events which set the course of Bale’s future: first, at 13, and with just a few commercials and one TV part as acting experience, he beat 4,000 hopefuls to win the lead role in the 1987 film ‘Empire Of The Sun,’ about an English boy in Japan during the war.

Then, not long afterwards, even the semblance of a family life disappeared when his parents split up.

Sole breadwinner

Cheung says: “From the moment he got the part in ‘Empire Of The Sun,’ everything changed.

Christian became the family’s main breadwinner.

We would talk about his parents’ unhappy marriage and how his was the ultimate dysfunctional family. He found it hard to trust people because he’d been so hurt as a child.

“His mother wanted Christian to stay at the family home in Bournemouth and go on to university. But his father was insistent he should go to Hollywood and become a star. David’s favourite saying was: ‘If you stay in England son, you will become a civil servant. If we go to Hollywood, you will become a star. You must fulfil your destiny.’ “Emotionally, his parents used Christian as a football.

The marriage had been crumbling for years. His childhood was deeply unhappy because of all the screaming rows.

“Christian adored his dad, a charming, charismatic man who filled the room, but David saw his son as his meal ticket. He also kept on about how Jenny was interested only in Christian’s money. That left Christian deeply insecure about who he could trust.”

In the end, David’s ambition and Christian’s undoubted talent caused the family to split apart. In 1991 when Christian was 17, he, his father and sister Louise - 18 months his senior - moved to LA, while Jenny and the oldest sister Sharon remained in the UK.

Fan club

Cheung, a self-confessed computer geek, first entered Bale’s life when he set up one of the first online fan clubs for the actor in the early Nineties, inadvertently creating a devoted cult fanbase in the process. He corresponded with the then obscure 20-year-old from his home in Canada and in 1994 moved to California at Christian’s suggestion.

“I started off running his fan club,” Cheung explains.

“But, in time, I would cook for him, I designed his website, I’d buy clothes for him, I would organise his finances, sort out medical appointments. Basically I ran his life.”

They sometimes spent 18 hours a day together, living close to each other in Manhattan Beach. Cheung says: “There was a lot of pressure for a kid in his 20s who was working solidly [he made 13 movies and TV films between 1992 and 1999] but not bringing in the big bucks he is these days.

“After the divorce and the move to LA, Christian’s father never worked - he put himself on Christian’s payroll as his manager.

“David drank heavily. He was politically active in all sorts of Left-wing causes and was into green issues before they were trendy. I was caught in the middle.

David definitely alienated Christian from his mum.”

Turning point

Bale’s career stepped up a gear after he starred in ‘American Psycho’ in 2000.

Cheung says: “Suddenly Christian was red-hot. But success didn’t make him happy. I would always joke with him that he was the saddest guy I knew.

“He had the whole top floor of the house and he would stay there for days listening to music or reading. He was very moody, but his dad and sister treated him like a boy king.

“Every morning his father would prepare Christian’s breakfast tray - scrambled eggs with baked beans and real English tea - and walk up the stairs yelling, “Who is the greatest actor in the world?”

“You’d hear this bleary voice coming back, ‘I am! I am!’ “David thought motivational tricks like that would make his son successful. But all the time, Christian was plagued by insecurities.

Short temper

“He’d never trained as an actor and told me there were demons inside him saying, ‘You can’t do this.

You’re not good enough.’ “He thought about quitting many times. Then he’d say, ‘But who would support my family’?”

Cheung says Bale also had a hair-trigger temper.

“Everything was about keeping Christian happy because he was the meal ticket. If something wasn’t just so, Christian would just erupt. He would yell until he was red in the face. It was very intimidating.

“When he filmed a movie called ‘Metroland’ with Emily Watson, his nickname on set was ‘Tandy’ because he was always throwing tantrums.

“Once, when Jenny and her mum arrived in LA, Christian sent me to the airport to pick them up.

Jenny was in tears because her son hadn’t come in person.

“Fame started to change Christian. He went from earning less than £100,000 a movie to earning millions.

“I know his mum would ask him for money. His sister Sharon got married and had kids and I believe the marriage ended or she separated from her husband. I always liked Christian’s mum. She never asked for help for herself, just for Sharon.

Married life

“That is what I think happened this week. The trouble is, Christian is suspicious of everybody.

Before he got married, he was successful with the ladies, but always found it hard to commit.”

Cheung says Christian dated Winona Ryder, his co-star in the 1994 film ‘Little Women,’ and Anna Friel, who he met on the set of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in 1999.

Cheung adds: “I have read reports about last week’s argument that suggest that his mother insulted his wife. If that was the case, it would push Christian to breaking point. He adores his family. He would defend Sibi and his daughter with his life.” Bale met Sibi Blazic in 2000 when she was Winona Ryder’s personal assistant. Within months, the two eloped to Las Vegas to get married because Christian didn’t want to deal with any more drama from his family. Cheung says: “Sibi was from a big Serbian-American family in Beverly Hills. He embraced Sibi’s family.

They were the big, loving family he’d always wanted.

“When the couple moved into their own home in Santa Monica, it was the first time Christian had lived without his dad.”

Within months, Bale’s father met Gloria Steinem - a feminist icon and founder of Ms magazine - at a fundraising event.

They married the same year and Christian took his father off the payroll.

Cheung says Steinem’s arrival on the scene further widened the family rift.

Bale’s father was distraught when his son stopped his allowance.

Cheung says: “I went to a bar with David the night he learned Christian had stopped his money.

“David got drunk, stood up and said: ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tongue it is to have a thankless child.’ He had a big booming voice and people in the bar thought it was a Shakespearean performance. They started clapping. David burst into tears.”

Cherished mementos

Cheung flips through a huge folder of material he has kept as a memento from his friendship with the actor. There are Christmas cards from Bale, hand-written notes and even printed accounts of the star’s earnings from various movies.

There are also deeply personal notes to Cheung from Bale’s father David, whom Cheung helped with his US residency after his marriage to Steinem. The letters refer to David’s ill health - he died in 2003 from brain cancer.

Then there is a Christmas card with Bale dressed as Jesus on the front. Inside it is inscribed: “H, with eternal gratitude for all you’ve done.

Remember. Jesus died for all of us. Except for you.

You’re a ****. Christian.”

Cheung also plays a taped message left by David after Christian had been verbally abusive to him.

Is this the anger that appears to illuminate his latest screen portrayal? As Bale himself said recently: “I did not read the comics as a kid. I’m not a superhero fan. To me he’s demonic, he has this incredible rage. His parents were killed when he was young, and these are the things that are in his head.

To me, Batman is all about rage, anger and revenge.”

“Christian is not a bad soul, just a deeply troubled one.”

• City Times