Christian Bale Claims He Only Gets Roles Because Leonardo DiCaprio 'Passed' On Them

Daniel Mitchell-Benoit
A photo of Christian Bale from GQ.
instagram | @gq

Christian Bale is a highly beloved and very well acclaimed actor who's stared in films such as The Dark Knight, American Psycho, and tons of other classics. Recently, he shared with the world that the only reason he scored some of those roles was due to another famous actor, Leonardo DiCaprio.

Turns out the latter receives so many offers that those he turns down then get passed on to people like Bale.

Christian Bale revealed that he's got some real competition in Hollywood.

In a recent interview with GQ, the famed actor claimed that the only reason he was ever cast in any role is because Leonardo DiCaprio "passed on it."

"Look, to this day, any role that anybody gets, it's only because he's passed on it beforehand."

He's adamant about it, too.

"It doesn't matter what anyone tells you. It doesn't matter how friendly you are with the directors. All those people that I've worked with multiple times, they all offered every one of those roles to him first."

He says he knows this because "one of those people", meaning either a casting director or a producer, told him this directly.

He's not all mad, though.

A still from 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'.
IMDb | Paramount Pictures

"So, thank you, Leo, because literally, he gets to choose everything he does. And good for him, he's phenomenal," he said.

In fact, when he was asked if he had any bitterness towards his fellow actor, he said, "No. Do you know how grateful I am to get any damn thing? I mean, I can't do what he does."

"I wouldn't want the exposure that he has either."

"He does it [acting] magnificently," he continued, "But I would suspect that almost everybody of similar age to him in Hollywood owes their careers to him passing on whatever project it is."

It seems that quite a few actors owe their careers to Leo.

Though, maybe not all of them would be as chill with admitting it like Bale did. This glimpse into the casting world really is fascinating and I can only hope more of Hollywood's top dogs will share more secrets with us!

h/t: Honey Celebrity