Movie Stars on the Juice

Daniel Koffler | June 17, 2005

Dave Cullen, who watched Christian Bale make some fairly ludicrous claims on the Charlie Rose show about his weight gain for his role as Batman, raises a point that tends to get overlooked in the midst of our national hysteria over steroids:

We hear these virtual admissions of steroid use from actors prepping for roles all the time. How come no one ever calls them on the obvious? Or even raises the question?

(Link via Andrew Sullivan). The answer, I think, is that most of the outrage and/or posturing over steroid use in sports has to do with nostalgia for a purity that never was, and there's no comparable reserve of sentiment to generate an anti-steroid campaign directed at actors.

Still, many if not all of the arguments for prohibiting steroid use by athletes apply to actors as well. "It's not fair to competitors who don't use the stuff" -- And how are non-using actors supposed to compete for action roles with their beefier enhanced colleagues? "Think of the children" -- Well, if a kid who aspires to be a movie star thinks having a certain kind of physique will open up roles to him, doesn't he then have an incentive to use? "Athletes are supposed to be role models" -- Movie stars aren't?

Comments

|6.17.05 @ 5:13PM|#

1) Actors who bulk up for roles generally do it after they already get the role. Robert DeNiro wasn't walking around all buff before he was cast in Cape Fear.

2) No one gives a damn about competition between actors. Acting and Film fans don't derive their pleasure from the competition during the casting stage of a film.

3) Steroids don't make a you better actor, the way they make you a better power hitter or blocker.

I think steroids make professional sports less enjoyable. I don't think they make movies less enjoyable. That's just me talking as a fan.

|6.17.05 @ 5:14PM|#

Still, many if not all of the arguments for prohibiting steroid use by athletes apply to actors as well. "It's not fair to competitors who don't use the stuff" -- And how are non-using actors supposed to compete for action roles with their beefier enhanced colleagues?

Not that I'm advocating Congress' involvement, but that's a useless analogy, and one that a lot of non-sports fan people keep making.

The assumption implicit is that people watch sports to see athletes throw farther, hit harder, run faster, etc., which is not the case. People watch sports to see the back-and-forth of the competition.

And that's why the analogy breaks down -- the reason nobody cares if actors use steroids is that nobody cares if the competition for acting spots is fair. With sports, the competition is the point; with movies and television, it's not.

|6.17.05 @ 5:16PM|#

Won't somebody think about the child actors?

Somebody besides Michael Jackson, that is?

|6.17.05 @ 5:16PM|#

"We hear these virtual admissions of steroid use from actors prepping for roles all the time. How come no one ever calls them on the obvious? Or even raises the question?"

Acting is different.

There's no rule in the sport of competitive acting that says you can't use steroids. There are rules in baseball that say you can't use steroids. There are rules in baseball that say you can't use corked bats or pine tar too. Using steroids or corked bats or pine tar, according to the rules of baseball, is cheating.

Acting on steroids isn't cheating.

|6.17.05 @ 5:52PM|#

In the context of Bale's extreme weight-loss for his previous role, putting-on 30-lbs. of muscle over your normal weight is not excessive. It's not like he went from 180 to 280-lbs. And having just seen the movie, his body didn't look bulked-up, but athletically fit. In the Machinist he must have looked like an emaciated walking corpse...if anything, for that he should be cautioned.

|6.17.05 @ 5:53PM|#

Christian Bale was able to gain 100lbs because he had lost like 70lbs for his role in "The Machinist" which he filmed just before "Batman Begins".

You don't need steriods if you're gaining weight back after starving yourself for months.

Larry A|6.17.05 @ 6:22PM|#

Actors as role models? I hope not. Young people are more likely to emulate the characters the actors play. I grew up wanting to be Matt Dillon, not James Arness.

And that after I got to meet him. It was at the Boy Scout National Jamboree in Colorado Springs, in 1960.

Boy Scout, "How tall are you, Mr. Arness?"

James Arness, "Oh, 'bout five-eighteen."

Really nice guy.

OTOH, a lot has changed.

CodeMonkeySteve|6.17.05 @ 6:33PM|#

Maddog:

Saw "The Machinist" the other night, and as far as I'm concerned, if he can starve himself into skeletor for that role, I have no problem with him juicing up for another.

|6.17.05 @ 6:55PM|#

Congress needs to start regulating acting too then. Don't forget steriod use is even more rampant in pro wrestling than in any other "sport." Where is congress on that one? The other day I was watching ESPN2 at 3am and I saw a little show called "World's Strongest Man" no way those guys are natural. I guess Washington doesn't care about kids who want to emulate those guys.

|6.17.05 @ 7:10PM|#

Dave,
Take it back. Magnus is clean. That needle you saw sticking out of his ass was for his diabetes, not steroids. Just wait for Congressional investigations for the National Spelling Bee and kids taking handfuls of ritalin to memorize the dictionary.

|6.17.05 @ 7:29PM|#

This shit again?!?! Didn't we have something similar when Julia Roberts had a body double for some of the sexy body shots in Pretty Woman? Didn't that supposingly lead to young women everywhere developing eating disorders so they can look like Julia and get a role opposite of Richard Queer in some chic flick?

File this under the mental illness post. People will never be happy with the way they look compared to whomever. They will do some crazy-assed shit, boob jobs, steroids, dick stretching, in order to be something they are not. This madness has to stop, for the kids!

|6.17.05 @ 7:49PM|#

So why don't bodybuilders get tested for steroids? Seems to me they would have an advantage over those bodybuilders who forgo steroids.

Because of the additional muscle mass, you see.

|6.17.05 @ 7:51PM|#

One of the main reasons steroid use is an issue in sports and not in other equally meaningless venues, other than providing the opportunity for a bunch of profoundly pathetic talking combovers to slobber over the same bunch of chemically enhanced homunculuses (homunculi) who picked them last for the kickball team, is the reality of the magnitude of sports gambling in this country.

If you want to see Christian Bale pumped up check him out in American Psycho

I have to return some videotapes.

|6.17.05 @ 7:53PM|#

Actually, it might be only a matter time. Now that steroids have gone from "unfair compeition" to "scourge of children everywhere" the gov't might just include them in the overall war on drugs. Considering that production companies often get federal funds in return for propaganda, it would probably be fairly easy to lean on them.

As long as we don't take away their prescription drugs and cocain, I don't think Hollywood would raise too much of a ruckus.

|6.17.05 @ 7:56PM|#

There's nothing wrong with using steroids if they make you look great.

|6.17.05 @ 8:20PM|#

I think steroids make professional sports less enjoyable.

Not me. I'd love to see teams continue to field enhanced behemoths. Baseball, hockey (if it ever comes back), lacrosse, whatever.

While most people might not decide to sacrifice long term health for present-day results, that's the athlete's choice - the same way it's their choice to eat right or wrong, to practice, to exercise, etc. Players should be able to choose if they want try for the short term flameout or long term burn, the same way they choose their training methods.

And I care about athletes' health about as much as they care about mine. Fuck pro sports making rules against it.

Additionally, this shouldn't stop at steroids either. There was a skit on SNL years back about the "All Drug Olympics". Bring that shit on! Didn't JR Richard throw a no-hitter, or close to it, while tripping on acid? Coke up and get on the mound, Skippy, and see if you can get some Sidd Finch-like action going!

|6.17.05 @ 9:15PM|#

Think potatoe, not steroid.
Think bulking up with a smile!
(and think gravy)

|6.17.05 @ 9:34PM|#

Larry A,
I had the opportunity to meet and bond with Smiley Burnett, aka "Froggy," and his son down in the heart of Tennessee.

http://www.surfnetinc.com/chuck/pals-sb.htm

I haven't been the same since.

Tempt me, and I will tell stories of Roy Rogers.

|6.17.05 @ 9:58PM|#

I have to paraphrase the comedian Doug Stanhope on this one:

"Complaining about athletes using steroids is like complaining that your lap-dancer is a communist."

|6.17.05 @ 10:05PM|#

That was Dock Ellis who threw a no-no while tripping, as Jesse Walker pointed out to us on yjis blog, June 17, 2005, 1:05 p.m.

While Batman Begins did some location work in Chicago, much of it was filmed in Britain and Iceland. Mr. Bale is Welsh. If and when he was "on the juice", he may not even have been under U.S. jurisdiction. Shall we have extraordinary rendition of film stars?

Kevin

|6.17.05 @ 10:38PM|#

So why don't bodybuilders get tested for steroids?

Many of today's top competitions ARE steroid-free, by design. The big money, admittedly, remains with the freaks of Mr. Olympia and such, but clearly there's a market for the drug-free version.

I think steroid-free is preferable in the same way that, oh, Perfect 10 is preferable to the pneumatically-enhanced ladies of Playboy or Penthouse. Many people find the "getting something for nothing" aspect of steroids to be distasteful, just like with fake boobs.

If you want to see Christian Bale pumped up check him out in American Psycho

Or Equilibrium.

|6.17.05 @ 10:41PM|#

Oh, and that freak show he pulled for The Machinist creeps me out. I won't see it.

|6.18.05 @ 2:21AM|#

"So why don't bodybuilders get tested for steroids?"

Bodybuilders do get tested for steroids, they just know how to beat the tests.

So do boxers. The European boxers have doctors prescribe them 'roids. Hollyfield was the biggest juicemonkey ever, I am sure he got tested, but Lee Haney was his trainer.

|6.18.05 @ 8:31AM|#

Vitali Klitschko was disqualified from the Olympics as an amateur because of steroids. James Toney tested positive after he decisioned John Ruiz, and Fernando Vargas tested positive after he was stopped by De La Hoya. Boxers don't beat the system that much.

And 100 pounds of muscle in 5 months is ridiculous. I'm a gym rat myself and there are bodybuilders out there with far superior frames and genetics for muscle gain than Christian Bale
who couldn't make gains like that in their dreams.

|6.18.05 @ 8:36AM|#

"Many people find the "getting something for nothing" aspect of steroids to be distasteful, just like with fake boobs."


I find that the guys who take steroids are some of the hardest working, most dedicated guys in the gym. Steroids help with gains, but the muscles don't just grow like weeds.

|6.18.05 @ 10:03AM|#

" Boxers don't beat the system that much."

I beg to differ, I know for a fact that they do beat it much.

I don't know what happened with the guys that you mention that got caught I figure either;
a) They weren't expecting to get tested
b) They fucked up on the countermesures for getting caught.

I would guess that b) is more likely.

|6.18.05 @ 10:11AM|#

Geotech,
I believe that 100 lbs is a big exagerration. But the gym rats that you know are already at their peaks, or close to it. Gaining ounces at your peak is hard, but gaining lbs when you are far from your peak is hard.

I was an emaciated 140+ lbs after I graduated Ranger school. One month later I was a (only slightly overwheight) statuesque 190+ lbs. For bigger guys than me the weight difference was greater.

That said, if I had to take a guess, the actor stuck a needle in his ass.

|6.18.05 @ 10:14AM|#

"I find that the guys who take steroids are some of the hardest working, most dedicated guys in the gym"

I find that some of the women in the bar with fake boobs are some of the most enthusiastically will to please, dedicated women in the place.

|6.18.05 @ 10:44AM|#

Using steroids or corked bats or pine tar, according to the rules of baseball, is cheating.
It's only recently that using steroids became cheating. Proir to 2002 the MLB boys were free to use pumpers till their eyes floated in their sockets and it wasn't cheating.

|6.18.05 @ 11:08AM|#

Meanwhile back in Gotham, no one suspected that the commissioner and his boys in blue had found Batman's stash of bat-roids and were already pumping up for their next confrontation with the most vilified and dreaded of city dwellers, the TaxPayer.

Dan Koffler|6.18.05 @ 2:24PM|#

Count me as agreeing with Owen Tree. Bring on the All Drug World Championships!

|6.18.05 @ 5:25PM|#

There's also the equal treatment issue.

...If we banned actors from using steroids, we might have to ban actresses from using silicone.

|6.19.05 @ 9:23AM|#

I've met three movie stars in my lifetime so far.
1954 Gene Autry
1968 John Wayne
1985 or 86 Billy Dee Williams

All three would be my idea of role models and I doubt that they used steroids or anything else to pump themselves up for their acting roles.

|6.19.05 @ 10:05AM|#

John Wayne may have used cheeseburgers to pump himself up later in his career.

|6.19.05 @ 10:05PM|#

You know, this whole thing is like a Grade B science fiction flick. Scientists discover chemicals that give people super-strength; athletes use this to win at competitions; fans call it cheating, the professional know-it-alls sound off, and it becomes a political issue. That sounds like Grade B SF to me; and we're living in it.

Oh, and as for not testing actors; they're _supposed_ to be phony. Athletes are not supposed to be phony, at least not obviously.

|6.20.05 @ 9:52AM|#

Go easy on the actor, his personal trainer told him it was just flaxseed oil.

|6.20.05 @ 4:52PM|#

Christian Bale actually lost 63 pounds for the movie El Maquinista, released in 2004. As soon as he finished that movie, he started bulking up for Batman. So while 100 pounds sounds like a lot for one year, it's only 37 pounds above his natural weight.