Christian Bale says one aspect of his Thor: Love And Thunder transformation made him feel “pathetic”

You won’t catch Christian Bale with a fresh gel set anytime soon. The Thor: Love And Thunder star says that of all the physical transformations he underwent to play menacing villain Gorr the God Butcher, having long nails was the hardest one.

“It rendered me completely incapable of everything. I was pathetic,” the actor told Deadline at the film’s Hollywood premiere. “I found myself thinking things like, ‘I don’t think I can walk because I’ve got long nails.’ 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.”

Bale also responded to some fans’ comparison of his look to Marilyn Manson, the singer who Evan Rachel Wood has publicly accused of assault. Though Bale said he “hadn’t heard” people make that comparison before, he dispels any idea that his look was influenced by Manson, instead citing two other cultural figures

“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,” Bale explained.

In addition to Aphex Twin, Bale previously shared he and Waititi also looked to another musician for inspiration during production: Kate Bush. Although Bale said the sequence was ultimately cut, he said he and Waititi had initially worked on a scene inspired by the English pop auteur’s music.

“I think he [Waititi] realized he was never going to be allowed to put that in the final film,” Bale said at the time of the decision to omit the scene. Final cut-worthy or not, it seems Max Mayfield isn’t the only character this summer who can’t get enough of Hounds of Love.