Bale revealed to GQ that in the case of the 2013 film “American Hustle,” he was a mediator between co-star Amy Adams and Russell. “Look, if I feel like we got anywhere close — and you only ever get somewhere close to achieving; our imagination is too incredible to ever entirely achieve it — but if you get anywhere close to it, and when you’re working with people of the crazy creative talent of Amy or of David, there are gonna be upsets,” Bale said. “But they are fucking phenomenal.” The Academy Award winner added, “Also, you got to remember, it was the nature of the characters as well. Right? Those characters were not people who back down from anything, right?”
Calling back to his own “American Hustle” character, Bale said, “I did what I felt was appropriate, in very Irv style. If I can have some sense of understanding of where it’s coming from, then I do tend to attempt to be a mediator. That’s just in my nature, to try to say, ‘Hey, come on, let’s go and sit down and figure that out. There’s got to be a way of making this all work.’”
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Oscar winner Adams previously told British GQ in 2016 that her experience on “The Fighter” with Russell greatly differed from the “American Hustle” set.
“Even I was surprised on ‘American Hustle,’ because on ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ he had developed this wild, crazy way of working with Bradley [Cooper] and Jennifer [Lawrence]…and it was mania. I was like: wow,” Adams said, adding that Russell made her cry multiple times.
“He was hard on me, that’s for sure. It was a lot,” Adams said. “I was really just devastated on set.”
She added, “Jennifer [Lawrence] doesn’t take any of it on. She’s Teflon. And I am not Teflon. But I also don’t like to see other people treated badly, you know what I mean? It’s not OK with me. Life to me is more important than movies.”
Russell’s notorious behavior on set tracks back to 1999 when he infamously got into a physical altercation with George Clooney while filming “Three Kings,” leading Clooney to say he would never again work with Russell. But Clooney has since they’ve since made up. “Silver Linings Playbook” star Julia Stiles called Russell’s approach “very jarring” as he is “barking” at actors during the take. “Amsterdam” actress Margot Robbie recently said that Russell refused to call cut on the movie, leading to police officers swarming the set.
And of course, Russell’s viral outburst against Lily Tomlin during “I Heart Huckabees” prompted a public apology. Russell was also accused of groping his niece in 2012.
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