David O. Russell’s 2013 crime drama American Hustle is one of the most celebrated movies of his career starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams, and several industry prominent actors.
The movie turned out great grossing over $257 million against the production budget of $40 million and the movie was also a critical success. However, there was a dilemma during the casting of the movie as Russell’s text confused Bale supposedly making him think the text was autocorrected.
Christian Bale Had Concerns Over Casting Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle
The autocorrect dilemma began when David O. Russell who previously worked with Christian Bale in The Fighter texted the actor about the new cast for Rosalyn— the unhappy wife of Bale’s character, Irving Rosenfeld. “David texts a lot,” Bale said once. “So he texts me, and he’s been saying, “’You know, I’ve got somebody in mind for Rosalyn.’ I said, ‘Who is it?’” he recalled asking the director.
“And so he sends me – and I think the auto-correct has changed things, because it comes out `J-LA,’ right? And I look at that and I think it must have changed the O to an A. He means J-Lo! Jennifer Lopez! And I think, J-Lo? I just can’t picture that. That’s a real surprise. I never would have imagined J- Lo. So, I text him back, `J-Lo?’”
“‘No, J-Law, OK, right?'” Russel confirmed that he was keen on casting Jennifer Lawrence who worked with the director in Silver Linings Playbook, winning an Oscar for her role. However, Bale was concerned about Lawrence playing the character as she was 16 years younger than The Machinist actor. “In so many films, there’s this expectation that you’re going to get these older actors with these very young actresses, as though that’s the most perfectly normal thing in the world,” Bale said.
“And I thought, that changes everything about Irv. In a way, he’s abusing this young woman– and having an affair on the side. And I’m starting to find it so tricky, that I’m playing this con man in the first place, and I do find him charming, but this relationship seems like it’s giving me so much more work.”
But Lawrence has proven to be a capable actor, even winning an Oscar at a young age, and later Bale’s perception was also bound to change.
Christian Bale Was Surprised With Jennifer Lawrence’s Performance
Lawrence had appeared in several movies before American Hustle and after her Oscar win, she became Hollywood’s one of the most sought-after actors. While Bale was a bit concerned due to the nature of Lawrence’s character and her age, he was surprised to see Lawrence’s performance on the first day of shooting. “And then I realized, on my first day of filming with Jennifer, that what had been created was actually just this wonderful unexpected surprise,” Bale said.
“Because you really have this toxic marriage, and you absolutely can believe that this is a young woman who needed somebody to take care of her and her son, and through all of her issues, one of them is bound to be a father issue, looking for a father figure, and that she’s using her son as leverage against him because she knows he really loves him like his own son.”
Also, from the perspective of his character, Lawrence was perfect, Bale said, “And then from Irv’s point-of-view, of course, he would have been stunned and flattered by this young beautiful woman’s attention.”
“And they would have had a honeymoon, and then reality would have set in and he would have thought, we have nothing to talk about, we have nothing in common. And Irv is someone who needs to talk. He wants conversation. He loves conversation. And he’s looking at her and she’s unhappy, I’m unhappy, what are we doing?”
Lawrence later revealed that she was a bit nervous working with Bale while wanting to make a good impression. The No Hard Feelings actor also revealed that she ate lots of mints before kissing Bale in the film.
Source: The Inquirer.
