Film + TV
Christian Bale learned to play drums in two weeks listening to Pantera
by Dan MacRae
January 18, 2016
His crash cymbal course focused on Pantera and Mastodon.
Perpetually intense award show staple Christian Bale has unlocked the secret to learning the drums in two weeks. Just listen to a lot of fucking metal, dude.
Bale offered up this bit of dish while engaged in a junket interview with Screen Rant. In The Big Short, he plays hedge fund manager Michael Burry and part of Bale’s gig in portraying the real life Scion Capital founder involved playing the drums. Director Adam McKay was alright with the actor letting a body double do the work, but Bale elected to figure out the blast beats himself despite suffering a knee injury before the film’s production.
That’s sort of Bale’s deal, isn’t it? He slimmed down to a skeleton for The Machinist and killed 80-100 dragons in preparation for his part in Reign of Fire, so this Big Short story syncs up pretty comfortably with Bale’s approach to acting.
Musicians Institute instructor/Zen Robbi member Scott Wittenburg was tasked with teaching Bale how to drum. It was an experience that the Swing Kids alum spoke about in glowing terms.
“It was a wonderful crash course,” said Bale. “Double-kick drum, Pantera ‘By Demons Be Driven.’ A fantastic song to begin with. This is how Mike Burry unwound. This is actually how he calmed down. He would listen to it all day long in his headphones… and not just that, Mastodon as well. But his brain is on fire so much that death metal calms him. He’s a very, very different individual to most of us.
*ducks before someone chucks something over Christian Bale suggesting Pantera and Mastodon are death metal*
Bale’s drum whisperer was tracked down by Pitchfork for an interview. He had nice things to say about his high profile student, although he admits that metal wasn’t exactly Bale’s forte coming in.
“He’s a pretty intense guy,” understated Wittenburg. “He wasn’t there to mess around. He came in ready to rock for sure. He pulled up in the parking lot with the windows down blaring—I think it was Earth, Wind & Fire, old funk bands from the ’70s, which I thought was awesome. He’s into music. He listens to a lot of music, but maybe not the metal thing, but he listens to the loud stuff. Maybe he listens to metal now, I don’t know. I kind of had to hip him to the whole Dimebag Darrell thing. He seemed pretty into it as he went.”
That’s our Christian Bale. A man that’s “pretty into” things.
[h/t Consequence of Sound]
