It’s late afternoon on a cloudy day in Los Angeles, and everyone in the press room has a reason to be nervous. Packed with journalists awaiting the arrival of the stars and director of The Fighter, the air is buzzing with excitement. As if Bale’s notorious recorded rant and Wahlberg’s well-documented run-ins with the law weren’t enough, the film exhibits the actors’ newfound boxing skills to the fullest effect. It’s hard not to be intimidated by such intensity and talent.
As a moderator announces their names, the cast casually enter the room. The air clears as a smiling Amy Adams makes her way to the far end of the table, followed by Mark Wahlberg, David O’Russell, Melissa Leo and Christian Bale, respectively. Bale does not wait for his name to be called. Rather, he follows his co–stars casually, as if assuring the audience that airs need not be taken around him.
Mark Wahlberg’s storied history growing up in a rough Boston suburb has earned him street cred throughout his career. In The Departed, he used his rough past to his advantage and earned an Oscar nom for playing a brash cop willing to take the law into his own hands. In a well-suited celebrity boxing match, the only contender fair for Mark Wahlberg’s hands would be the legendarily volatile Christian Bale.
Naturally, when casting the brother whom he would square off with both physically and emotionally as Micky Ward in The Fighter, Wahlberg realized this. Seeing Bale at his daughter’s school, Wahlberg said to himself: “There is the guy who is not scared to play this part. Everyone loves the idea of it but nobody really wants to commit and go there.”
“Going there” for Bale entailed a drastic weight loss and a complete transformation into Dickie Eklund, the has-been, drug addicted real-life boxer the film centers around. Of everyone sitting at the front of the room, Bale bears the most lasting similarity to his character. Though he is engaging and humorous in his response to questions, his frame still bears the weight, or lack thereof, of his limitless devotion to the part.
It’s evident how close the cast has become over the course of filming the movie, fitting in a piece that speaks so strongly on behalf of the bond of a family. Melissa Leo describes her first meeting with Bale as something she will never forget, while Wahlberg calls O’Russell his brother and Adams jokingly boasts of the ease she had playing Wahlberg’s love interest.
In just over 30 minutes, the cast lets loose and speaks candidly with the audience. Bale wants you to know that he actually felt great while preparing for the role, despite his drastic weight loss. Adams affirms that she is a girl who can throw a punch, though she may not look like it. Leo couldn’t believe O’Russell wanted her for the part, but felt a connection to her grandmother the moment she met her real-life counterpart. And Wahlberg is still a hustler, after all these years.
Street: Dickie Ekland seems like someone who would take a very active interest in the filming of this movie. Was it necessary to do any Ekland management?
Christian Bale: There were a couple of times when we had to physically restrain Dickie from David. We had some interesting times when we were rehearsing in Mark’s house, when Mark very nicely put up Micky and Dickie. There were some script changes going on, and Dickie wasn’t initially totally understanding that sometimes in putting a whole life into two hours a little bit of license has to be taken. He wanted everything to be absolutely as it happened, and if it wasn’t, a couple of times he was, [grumbling, American accent] “Oh, I’m going to get him,” and that’s a serious thing coming from a pro boxer. But they would talk, and I’m not sure if [David] ever had to stop him from coming and laying one on me, which may have happened as well but it was interesting. He actually came around. He seemed to really understand it. And after we showed him the movie, he didn’t punch any of us, and I talked to him almost daily. So, I think that’s a great achievement to make the story of someone’s life.
Street: You have undergone rapid weight loss many times. What is your regiment for it, and did it help put you play Dickie?
C.B.: No, I felt so good and calm playing Dickie. I was running like crazy, and I could run for hours on end and I felt really healthy. Usually, I always say that I do a lot of coke whenever I lose weight. I’m not sure if that’s so funny for this movie. But there’s not a whole lot of secrets to it. But one really good thing is to have this particular water, Aqua Hydrate … [holds up bottle of water]
Mark Wahlberg: Finally, some honesty …
Street: I want to talk about the Boston accents in the film. Christian, how difficult was it, and what kind of coaching did Mark provide? And for Mark, I imagine you’ve had that accent drawn out of you over the years. What’s it like trying to get that back?
M.W.: It’s a lot harder to get rid of it than to get it back. Every time I would leave Boston it would appear to be like nails on a chalkboard for other people hearing that accent. And I’ve been in other movies that took place around that area and the accents were god–awful, and it was almost to the point that it seemed like we were doing the bad accents — the people actually from that area. But everyone did a fantastic job and didn’t push it too far. Even though you think these characters are so extreme, they’re actually a toned–down version of these larger–than–life characters.
C.B.: Mark was a great deal of help. He wouldn’t ever say anything, but he would just get this look on his face when you said something and you knew that just wasn’t it. Also, Dickie has his own thing going on. He calls it “Dickienese.” And I think everyone will agree that I really had to tone down his natural rhythm and voice because I understand him completely now. My ear is with it, but if I had done it exactly like Dickie we would have needed subtitles.
Street: For Mark: the boxing scenes in this movie are very realistic and convincing. At what point did you gain that confidence to pull off these fight scenes? And Amy, you’re very convincing in fighting with his sisters.
M.W.: Well, I mean the movie was a go and then it fell apart and I just continued to train, so after three and a half years I felt confident enough to go in there and be believeable as a boxer who could possible win the tilte. Had somebody said, “You have to train three and a half years to make this movie” I would have said absolutely no, but the fact was that I was just continuing to do it and never wanted to stop. I figured if I stopped I would be giving up on the movie and I never wanted to do that. So for me it was well worth putting in the work. There were times when it was more difficult to get out of bed, especially while making another film and training for a film that might not have happened, but it was certainly worth it in the end.
Amy Adams: When I got the role, David informed me that I looked like a girl who couldn’t punch, which made me want to punch him. So I actually took a couple boxing lessons, and that was fun, with Mark’s trainer who was fantastic. And then we just did some fight choreography. It was about not being afraid of hurting anyone. That was my biggest concern. I didn’t want to hurt the girl I was fighting with. I wasn’t afraid of getting hurt myself. When I was younger, my sister thought it was funny to pretend to punch me in the face, because my mom was concerned about my teeth falling out that were lose for a long time, and she knocked out my teeth. So I have always been afraid of fake punches, but it was fun.
Street: Melissa and Amy, can you comment on your preparation?
Melissa Leo: I have to say that I love acting. That’s maybe the one thing that is known about me. And although it sounded like an extremely exciting and interesting project, and the notion that it was about real people who were still living and would be involved in it — I still had a lot of doubts about going and meeting with David, but it sounded interesting enough that I took the meeting. We kind of dived right into working on it; it wasn’t really an interview. There we were working on Alice together over breakfast, and that went on with another couple of meetings by my recollect, and that was the first stepping off place — David’s belief that I could be Alice.
I thought, “Well golly, I’m only a couple years older than these chaps and I’m not such a pushy gal by my reckoning. You really think so, David?” I don’t know how to describe it except a palpable belief that I could be his Alice. He then gave me the opportunity to meet Alice Ward, and I travelled with Christian, and I’ll never forget it because it was the only time I met Christian before we worked together. I watched him meet Dick and begin to take that on. It was an extraordinary thing to watch. I got to meet Alice Ward, and upon meeting her I saw immediately my maternal grandmother in Alice, and knew then that I had her in there somewhere. It was a thrill to walk out of the trailer and have half of Lowell say, “Oh Alice! You look like my mother!”
A.A.: I will just echo what Melissa said. David’s belief that I could be Charlene — that was half of the preparation. Just knowing that he knew I could do it made me feel like I could do it. And the other half was just research and also David telling me to lower my voice.
Street: In the movie, your character gets labelled as an MTV girl. What’s your opinion of that label and do you think it was fair?
A.A.: Well that was their opinion of her. She was no MTV girl.
M.L.: Oh yes she was …
A.A.: No, I think that MTV then was very different …
M.W.: She’s more of a VH1 girl, with a little sprinkle of BET.
A.A.: They actually showed music videos then, which I liked. I think it meant that she was wild.
M.W.: Spring break, titties out, threesomes — that’s what Micky liked.
A.A.: It was his sisters that said that. They thought she was trash. I still think she gets accused of it. Do I think it’s fair? From Charlene’s perspective, no. She was just a girl trying to make good, trying to do well with what she had. She’s a sweetheart. What struck me about Charlene was that you had all these huge personalities, and she never once was like, “Let me tell you my side of the story.” She was content to sit in the background. As a matter of fact, I think you guys had to really convince her to put herself on tape so I could watch her. She was not about drawing attention to herself. She was really happy that Micky’s story was being told, and she was really supportive.
Street: For Mark and Amy: the chemistry between your characters is fantastic. How much work goes into that before you start shooting?
M.W.: It was instant for me. I was like, “Woah!” She’s a sweetheart. David always says that she doesn’t seem like a girl who would throw a punch but she reminds me of so many girls in my neighborhood. She looks like an Irish–Catholic, tough, no–nonsense kind of girl. And I saw that immediately. They weren’t quite as pretty as Amy, the girls in my neighborhood … but I was such a huge fan of hers. We had actually had the luxury of having lunch before to talk about another movie and it was a bad movie that I did. She dodged a bullet. I don’t want to tell you what movie … alright, The Happening. You can’t blame me for wanting to try and play a science teacher. But she didn’t do the movie and we got the chance to work together again. I was very happy about that because I thought she would bring something special to the table and show a side of herself that I certainly knew she was capable of but hadn’t gotten to show yet.
A.A.: With Mark, it was so easy to work with him. You all saw him, the women in here, how hard is it to pretend that you’re attracted to him. I’m such a good actress. But with all due respect to your wife and my significant other — Mark has a great quality as an actor that he was able to show with Micky of this vulnerability and a man who is powerful and strong, yet is able to show tenderness and vulnerability — that’s really sexy.
C.B.: And he’s got a full set of teeth in his head as well …
A.A.: David really didn’t give us many options, because I remember the first day, there wasn’t a kiss planned, and he was like, “Okay, kiss!” and we were like, “We do?” and it was like, “Oh, hi, sorry …”
D.O'R: And you would be surprised how many women Dickie has at his beckoning call without the teeth. The funny thing is that I think Christian is more like Micky and Mark is more like Dickie, not in a bad way, but in the operator way and the talky–talk way. Christian is more of a quiet guy, and it was very interesting to watch him hang out with Dickie and inhale Dickie. And people would come up to him on set and think he was Dickie, and it kind of led him to talk to everybody all the time, because Dickie never shuts up. So Christian would walk around talking to everyone, and good luck trying to make that happen when he’s not Dickie. And then Micky — as I said, Micky never says two words, he will just take it. He will let everybody say something and he won’t say anything. He lets Dickie do all the talking. So that was a very interesting role for each of them.
M.W.: I’m quiet …
D.O'R: Sometimes. Yes, you do have a lot in common with Micky. It’s a little bit of a paradox but it doesn’t fit my comparison then.
M.W.: I hardly ever shut up. My wife tells me to shut up all the time.
