Oscar-winners Christian Bale and Robert De Niro are among the star-studded list of actors who dove deep into their roles in David O. Russell’s latest feature, “Amsterdam.”
Written and directed by Russell, “Amsterdam,” is set in the ‘30s and follows close friends Dr. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale), attorney Harold Woodman (John David Washington) and artist Valerie Voze (Margot Robbie) who formed a close bond during wartime in Amsterdam. Years later, they all find themselves at the centre of one of the most shocking secret plots in American history.
For Bale, this is the third collaboration with the director – he won an Oscar for his performance in Russell’s 2010 feature “The Fighter” and then starred in 2013’s “American Hustle.”
They began the process at a diner in Santa Monica and kept meeting up to find the right character for the method actor in a story that they felt had to have a great friendship at the heart of it.
Bale, 48, plays an injured World War 1 veteran who returns to New York and devotes his life as a doctor to helping other veterans.
Bale also produced the film and saw more of the editing process than he had ever had access to in his life. He said it was satisfying seeing something from it’s inception and watching Russell gradually build Burt’s story.
“David and I were putting this together for six years and we both have a real love for underdogs and outsiders. We just wanted to create a character that we wanted to hang out with, that we wanted to watch and that we were in awe of in terms of somebody who should have been crushed by what life has thrown at him, but actually has become more joyous, more optimistic, because he refuses to resort to the alternative of cynicism and going numb,” Bale said in a virtual interview with the Star.
The film stars Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Matthias Schoenaerts, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant and Andrea Riseborough. Bale said it was “absolutely incredible that we got a wealth of such talented actors who came and joined us for this film; we were blessed.”
He also said that working with Robert De Niro was “a dream come true.” De Niro, is known for being extremely meticulous when constructing characters and always striving to do something he’s never done before.
When asked what that looked like for this role, De Niro said in a joint virtual interview with Bale, “I just tried my best with the time that I had. David was trying to get me to get involved in it and I wanted to, of course, anything that he did, I’d want to be involved with, but I wasn’t sure and finally he made me aware of who this character was, Smedley Butler and so slowly, things came together.”
De Niro’s General Gil Dillenbeck was inspired by Butler, whose actions helped change the course of history.
“I was not aware that there was this type of person ever, especially at that time in American history. I did as much research on him as I could, watched videos, read material on him, his speeches and stories about him,” he said.
The 79-year-old actor earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an explosive family patriarch in Russell’s 2012 film “Silver Linings Playbook” and returned to work with the director in “American Hustle” and 2015’s “Joy.”
Russell has seen several actors return to collaborate with him on multiple projects — something De Niro and Bale chalk up to a uniqueness in his projects.
“With David, every time that you work with him, you know it’s going to be a special film. Special things will happen that will be spontaneous. Or maybe not, but they’re great, in the planning, and so on. So that’s an easy one to say, ‘Look, I’ll be part of this. I’ll make my best effort to be a part of this film,’” De Niro said of working with the five-time Oscar-nominee.
Bale chimed in: “All great directors have a very unique way of working; what makes them great directors is that they’ve got a unique and singular vision. And David, oh, man, totally different the way he works than anybody else. And I love it. As Bob was saying, there’s kind of a beautiful chaos about the way he works, and it creates a real sense of life on film.”
The Welsh-born English actor recounted filming during the pandemic. “In the first two days, David was calling out to me from another room and that’s not how David works,” he laughed. “He’s usually under the chair as you’re working or he’s hiding under the tablecloth or he’s right behind the cameraman. He’s feeding your lines and he’s running around trying to get out of our shot, but he’s very present, always.”
“We did the first two days and David always had this hat on, his mask and a visor as well … the whole time all I saw was his eyes. But on the first day I said, ‘David, dude, this ain’t you! You can’t be out in another room’ … then he was like, ‘Alright, yeah.’ Then he came back, curled up on the floor and then I felt like, ‘Alright, here we go. This is the David that we all love to work with.’”
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