Christian Bale Was Hand-Picked For Steve Jobs Biopic As Best Actor In The Game, Says Aaron Sorkin [Video]
Christian Bale has had his fair share of tough, iconic roles to tackle. After all, there aren’t many shoes larger to fill than Batman’s. But Christian is now set to take on a man with a lot more attached to him than fictional reverence — he’ll be playing the part of Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic of the famous technology innovator. Bale’s involvement was confirmed by The Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, whose signature snappy dialogue will tell Steve’s story in Trainspotting director Danny Boyle’s upcoming biography project.
Aaron heaped heavy praise on Christian in an interview with Bloomberg, confirming that he had been selected to play Jobs. No audition process was needed, said Sorkin.
“What we needed was the best actor. You know, it’s the like the NFL draft. There are some people who make a science out of [it]… and the other team just says, ‘Who’s the best athlete on the board?’ We needed the best actor on the board in a certain age range, and that’s who we got.”
Descriptions of the unconventional take of the biopic make it even more understandable why it is so necessary to have a masterful actor like Bale on set. Instead of a traditional chronological survey of Steve’s life, the film will consist of three uncut scenes where Christian will have to convey years of emotion to make a sharp impact with a very small breadth of time. Sorkin recently explained the film’s structure in an interview with The Daily Beast.
“…a half hour for you in the audience is the same as a half hour for the character on the screen. There will be no time cuts. Each of these three scenes is going to take place before a product launch – backstage before a product launch. The first one being the Mac, the second one being NeXT (after he had left Apple), and the third one being the iPod.”
Aaron went on in the interview to express the reverence with which he and Bale would be approaching the material. Jobs is not only famous, but he is credited for being one of the biggest drivers of the technological revolution. There are entire university courses on Steve’s contributions to the way we live today. Christian’s performance, as well as the rest of the film, will no doubt be scrutinized, says Aaron.
“There are so many people out there who know so much about him and who revere him. I saw a minefield of disappointment, frankly, that I was going to do something [wrong] and – hopefully when I’m done with my research I’ll be in the same ballpark of knowledge about Steve Jobs as so many people in this room are.”
Do you think Christian Bale is the right choice for Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs biopic?
[Image via Flickr and Miramax]
