Christian Bale is unrecognizable as former Vice President Dick Cheney in a first look at Vice, the latest film from The Big Short director Adam McKay.
With a bald head and a heavier figure, Bale, 43, has undergone another jaw-dropping transformation for his new role.
To pack on the pounds for the part, Bale previously said that he ate a Thanksgiving favorite.
“I’ve just eaten a lot of pies, so far,” he told Variety.
Vice is said to tell the “epic story” behind how a Washington insider became Vice President to George W. Bush and impacted history.
Amy Adams costars as Cheney’s wife Lynne Cheney, with Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld and Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush. Rockwell’s take on the former president is glimpsed at in a preview of the trailer, teased on Tuesday by McKay on Twitter.
Bale’s look to play Cheney is a far cry from the emaciated figure he had in 2004’s The Machinist, when he weighed in at just 120 lbs. It was the first role where the actor drastically altered his body, and he has made a habit of it ever since.
Soon after The Machinist, Bale regained the 70 lbs. he lost and added 30 lbs. of muscle to play Batman in 2005. He lost weight again for The Fighter in 2010, and added a pot belly for 2013’s American Hustle.
He admitted in 2013, though, that he can’t mess with his body as much as he used to.
“I thought I was going to lose the weight I gained for American Hustle. I said, two months, flat, that’ll do it. I was 185 and I went up to 228 for it. And I’m still working that off! It’s almost six months later,” Bale told USA Today. “Now, I know that when I was in my early twenties it would have been two months and that’s it.”
Vice opens nationwide on Christmas Day.
