Christian Bale's 'Thor' Acrylics Rendered Him 'Completely Incapable of Everything'

As originally published by Allie Gregory on Exclaim!

As uterus-having individuals mourn the loss of their bodily autonomy today amid the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the US, we may have briefly forgotten about the plight of men having to do Things That Are Uncomfortable. But we've been reminded thanks to Christian Bale, who was rendered "incapable of everything" by a set of acrylic nails on the set of Taika Waititi's Thor: Love and Thunder.

Speaking with Deadline, the actor — who has built a career on morphing his body to fit basically any kind of role — explained how playing the Marvel villain, Gorr the God Butcher, may have been his most difficult transformation of all.

"It rendered me completely incapable of everything. I was pathetic," the actor said, describing the experience of being incapacitated by a gel set.

"I found myself thinking things like, 'I don't think I can walk because I've got long nails,'" Bale continued. "It affected my brain. I was like, 'I can't eat, I've got long nails.' I was trying to type. I couldn't do anything."

Elsewhere in the interview, Bale eschewed a comparison between his MCU character and disgraced rocker Marilyn Manson — who has been known to don nail polish from time to time.

"I hadn't heard that," Bale said of the connection. "I was certainly influenced by the look of Nosferatu and I was influenced by another musician, Aphex Twin, and he's got an incredible video called 'Come to Daddy' — there's a character in that that Taika and I both enjoyed and he was my reference, even though perhaps the children would have run to the exits screaming had we fully embraced that."

Peep Bale's (honestly, pretty modest) set in the trailer below, or check them out on the big screen when Thor: Love and Thunder arrives in theatres July 8.