Christian Bale avoided Chris Rock on the set of “Amsterdam” because he was too "bloody funny".
The 48-year-old actor is known for his method acting on set, but he struggled to get into character while make David O. Russell's new movie because his co-star kept making him laugh.
He told IndieWire: "I remember his first day, I was excited to meet him, I’m a big fan of his standup. Then he arrives, and he’s doing some things…
"David [O. Russell] told him to tell me some stories that I didn’t know he was gonna tell me, which is the way David works often. And I was loving it.
"But Chris is so bloody funny and I found that I couldn’t act, because I was just becoming Christian laughing at Chris Rock.
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"So I had to go to him, I went, ‘Mate, I love talking to you, and we have mutual friends, but I can’t do it anymore. Because David didn’t ask me to make this film so he could just watch me giggle.
“He wants me to be Burt and I’m forgetting how to be Burt.’ ”
Bale admitted the idea of distancing himself from co-stars is a method he adopts as part of his process when he's working on a project, because he helps him stay in character.
He explained: "I often meet these incredible people, but I isolate myself. Because if I get to know people too much, I find I just don’t believe what I’m doing in the scene.”
It's a contrast to the way Margot Robbie and John David Washington worked on the film, as the cast mates forged a close bond as it was the first time they'd worked under “American Hustle” filmmaker Russell.
Robbie recently said: "We immediately kind of clung to each other, like, 'OK, are you scared? Because I'm scared. Ah! What do we do?
"Then, you dive in headfirst and you have the time of your life, and Christian (Bale's) going like, 'Don't worry. It's always like this. You never know what's going to happen when you go to work that day', and you really don't, and that is thrilling."