Christian Bale gives what may be the performance of his career in his latest film, Harsh Times.  The actor plays Jim, a Afghanistan war veteran who has recently returned to Los Angeles.  The ex-solider has a hard time adjusting to life back in America, and subsequently gets into some serious trouble involving gangs and drugs with his best friend Mike (played by Six Feet Under’s Freddy Rodriguez).  Harsh Times, out Friday in theaters, is written and directed by Dave Ayers, the man behind the critically acclaimed 2004 drama Training Day.  CraveOnline talked with the Batman Begins star about his compelling role in Harsh Times, which may earn the thespian his first Oscar. 

CraveOnline: What kind of research did you do to get into character for Harsh Times?

Christian Bale: Dave Ayers himself (Harsh Times writer/director) brought his friends in…[he brought] the military guys in, the gang member guys in, I just spent three weeks hanging out in downtown L.A.   It was funny, because one day we’d be hanging out with an ex-gang member who’d be telling us stories about what he did down that street there then we’d go get a drink in a bar and we’d be chatting—he’d be helping me out with Chicano lifestyle, vernacular and lingo.  Then the next day, we’d be hanging out/driving around with a policeman who was showing us the same streets and telling us what he did down there.  So we saw both sides of the fence and how they intersect an awful lot. 

CraveOnline:  What was it like hanging out with the war veterans?

Christian Bale: I also was lucky enough to talk to the military.  I’m really appreciative to those guys for being good enough to come and spend some time with me—for allowing me to pick their brains.  There are military wars going on and also wars right in the streets of L.A. as well.  Stories that I would not repeat to anybody, just because they were very personal that they offered to me, with the understanding that it was just between the two of us.  It was a fascinating thing.

CraveOnline: Do you think some might misinterpret this film as anti-war in any way?

Christian Bale: We’re not trying to suggest that this is a generic experience of soldiers, not everybody comes back and suffers from PTSD, but many do.  With Jim, however, the problem is he won’t admit it.  He is in denial about that and that’s what really sends him on a downward spiral.  Because he believes himself to be invincible, to be self-sufficient, and so how could he need help from anybody else.  He’s just an unstoppable force.

CraveOnline: Have you got any backlash from soldiers who believe this film portrays soldiers unfairly?

Christian Bale: I don’t believe it portrays him like that in the slightest.  Dave [Ayers] comes from the military himself.  Military people are allowed to question what’s going on.  Sure, you have to be there for the person next to you—that’s what everybody says.  That’s why they fight.  When you stand back and look at the bigger picture, for god’s sake, if they don’t have the right to stand back and question what the hell is going on, who does?  It’s a complex movie.  Jim has basically seen so much trauma he can’t share it with Mike, or anyone.  When he comes back, he is just looking for those days of their teenage years when they could just kick back, smoke out, drink, get into trouble and it was relatively harmless.  You get a pass for that sort of behavior at a certain age.  The problem is, he’s past that age.  He’s a killing machine now.  He ain’t just somebody with a penchant for violence; he’s somebody with which it’s an art form.

CraveOnline: Did you play Jim as someone with a true deathwish towards the end of the film?

Christian Bale: He was looking for it.  He’s past the point of redemption.  It’s a morality tale very much…but it doesn’t start out that way.   Personally, I like Jim very much in spite of himself.  He’s a prick beyond belief, but, you know that there is a good side to him.  You also know that he has been through one hell of a lot.  You know that he has potential, he just keeps on denying.  The way that he knows best how to deal with situations is through violence.

CraveOnline: The relationship with his fiancé is a key part of the film.  How did you reconcile his love for Marta with his rough character? 

Christian Bale: He truly loves his fiancé.  He won’t confess to his buddies back in L.A. about this kind of romance, it’s just too soft for him to admit to.

CraveOnline: What was it like to do such a gritty, independent film after coming off of Batman?

Christian Bale: [It was] perfect. Because [after] seven months shooting straight on Batman, the movie obviously was very much helped by the fact that I had gotten that role in between first meeting Dave and then actually making it. I called Dave whilst I was shooting Batman and said, "What's going on about Harsh Times? Let's get this thing done. I'm still thinking about it." He said, "Oh, I thought you would have forgotten about me a long time back." I said, "No, I want to be doing this one. Is it still studio?" No, he said, "I'm going to finance it totally myself." I said, "Great, you're crazy for doing that but it makes me want to believe in it even more." And within six months we had it up and running and going and we shot it in 24 days and it was perfect to go from one style of filmmaking to the total opposite. It's as independent as you can get. You can't get more independent than somebody taking the money out of their own back pocket, remortgaging their house. 

CraveOnline: Did you get trouble from your agents/managers etc...?

Christian Bale: Not at all, not at all. I'd kept on saying to them about Harsh Times, keep your ear to the ground. I don't want to lose track of that one. They also knew that I like Batman immensely. That was one I'd been chasing in and of itself but that I had always maintained, I'm doing this. In no way does this mean I'm going to keep on doing big budget movies. Big budget has nothing to do with whether it's a good movie or not. Everybody knows that. And necessity is the mother of invention in many cases as well. Not having a huge budget for this movie meant that we got true believers working on this movie and you can see that. 

CraveOnline: Playing "Jim" is an intense role I imagine...how long does this character stay with you?

Christian Bale: The intensity as well as the speed of filmmaking meant that he was pretty much there the whole time. I remember Dave getting very freaked out. We were up in the desert on my last day of filming. We went right through the night. We finished at about eight o'clock in the morning. We decided to break open a bottle of tequila and just kind of celebrate. I was suddenly being me again and he was sitting there and he looked at me and he was going, 'Who the fuck are you? Who is this?' and I could see there was a certain amount of 'Well, we've all been played here.' Because we'd become fast friends and that was all completely sincere. But it was all done as Jim. I still am, I do still consider myself to be a great friend with Dave but the fact is, he was freaked out at that point because with that speed of filmmaking, you kind of can't let go of it. But then afterwards actually he was gone pretty quick. I had other things going on in my life, which demanded my attention very quickly, which I wanted and needed to give my attention to, and so Jim was gone pretty fast. 

CraveOnline: Is it hard for you or do you feel pressure to continuously come up with these good characters?

Christian Bale: Listen, it can be but I've definitely had periods of absolutely nothing going on. I have made bad choices as well. I've done things which I'm glad I did because I wanted to experiment with certain styles of filmmaking and just see how I worked out. Usually those ones ended up with just one attempt. It tended to be like okay, I've tried it now. I wanted to try it. I'm done with that. Other than that, I just stick with what gets its hooks into me, what do I keep thinking about. And I just like to figure that as long as you keep that mentality, don't try to be my own kind of marketing man whatsoever, then- - well, personally, any writer, any musician, whatever, I want to see that they're doing it for themselves and hey, hopefully other people are going to get it as well. So man, it's so nice when people do get it. I'm so happy that The Prestige has done so well. So far I'm so pleased with the way that people seem to be getting Harsh Times because in no way was this ever a thing where we wanted to bang people over the head with the layers that there are actually within this movie. And there was always the concern that you could potentially get people just thinking it was some kind of love of violence, a bunch of kind of teenagers making a movie about some cool guys just causing havoc and getting into a whole lot of trouble and causing mayhem in LA. And it ain't that. It ain't that by a long shot. And it's very nice to at least be hearing from the people who have seen it that they seem to be seeing much more into it which is the reason that I did it. 

CraveOnline: Since you've had these opportunities, are you looking forward to returning to Batman?

Christian Bale: I'm looking forward now. I'm getting kind of trickled down information from Chris. I've been seeing bits and pieces of it. I'm aware of the whole basic outline now. I am working on something else currently though. I'm back working tomorrow morning in New Mexico on something so I'm kind of just focused on that completely now. But Chris will be contacting me when he knows it's the right time and when he wants a bit of input. 

CraveOnline: What’s next for you--3:10 to Yuma? How's that going?

Christian Bale: That's going great. I'm just three days in right now but it's going really well. That's a western. It's directed by James Mangold and it's with Russell Crowe. It's based on an Elmore Leonard short story and it was also a movie made I believe in the '50s with Glen Ford and Van Hefflin.