Frankly, I know nothing about Christian Bale. I have no reason to make any assumptions about his personality whatsoever.
I also agree that a really good actor can play any character whatsoever. However, I think it may be true that many actors are better at playing certain roles than certain other roles. Whether that means that they actually somehow resemble the characters that they are particularly good at portraying is something I just don't know.
Let's consider George Clooney. Is he a particularly warm kind of person with a very warm sort of personality? Frankly I have no idea. But I do think he has done a good job at portraying men with warm characters. So what if George Clooney had been the one who had been accused of using violence against his mother and sister? Would that reflect on the characters he has played as an actor? No, not in the same way, not to me, because any violence that he committed as a private citizen would seem so unconnected with the warm characters he portrayed in movies and on TV. His acts of violence would be a failure on a very personal, private level, not an aspect of the characters he plays professionally.
But if people want Batman to really be The Dark Knight instead of the fatherly mentor of Robin, then I don't expect George Clooney to be picked to play that troubled vigilante. And if the new Batman becomes a smash hit because he is so dark and troubled, then there is a greater 'concordance' between the Batman character that the actor plays and any violence he may commit in his private life.
But of course, for all we know, Christian Bale has been the victim of false accusations. And in any case Christian Bale is in no way identical with the mythic character of Batman.
Which still begs the question of why the Dark Knight is so popular while the smiling Batman and Robin are so outdated.
Ann
