Forum: movies.stackexchange.com
Tags: <character><the-dark-knight-rises><the-dark-knight><batman-begins>
Title: Why does Christian Bale change his voice when playing Batman
Question: Like almost every Batman fan, I enjoy Christopher Nolan's interpretation of the role of Batman in The Dark Knight Trilogy. But why does Christian Bale change his voice to such a great extent when playing Batman?   Is it to scare off/intimidate people? Or to hide he's Bruce Wayne?

Answers:
sents: text: Well, most people often forget how easy it is to recognize somebody by voice and Bruce Wayne is kind of a celebrity.
text: So changing his voice is a natural consequence of Nolan's making Batman more realistic.
text: Of course Superman can't be Clark Kent, as he's obviously missing the characteristic glasses ;)
text: And well, it surely also contributes to his dramatic appearance, but this more as a second goal, I think.
answer_details: author: movies.stackexchange.com/users/49/Napoleon Wilson
score: 40
sents: text: I do agree that disguise is one reason.
text: But this is Nolan, there's always more.
text: In Batman Begins, Bruce tells Alfred: Bruce Wayne : People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathyand
text: I can't do that as Bruce Wayne, as a man I'm flesh and blood
text: I canbe ignored I can be destroyed but as a symbol, as a symbol I can beincorruptible, I can be everlasting.
text: Alfred Pennyworth : What symbol?
text: Bruce Wayne : Something elemental, something terrifying.
text: Though, the consequent scenes do not talk much about the symbol part and everybody pretty much forgets Bruce's original idea of Batman.
text: We start thinking of Batman as Bruce with a costume on and fighting the bad guys.
text: Which is true but to Bruce it's something more, like he says to Alfred.
text: It's a symbol to terrify people.
text: If you were a villain it wouldn't be easy for you to think that Batman is just a guy with a mask on.
text: That makes it more terrifying.
text: The idea of someone powerful than the ordinary human.
text: And Bruce takes every possibility to make the idea a very real and unshakable threat to the bad guys.
text: The voice, the bat ears, the dramatic entrances and exits - all these are trivial to the plot.
text: Either way it's not going to change the output of a scene if Batman enters sneakily with a very chilly line or just through the door.
text: But Bruce takes the extra step to go through all the mumbo-jumbo just to keep the idea real.
text: The idea of a legend.
text: The idea of a permanent warrior who is going to fight the bad guys every turn and forever.
text: It all makes sense.
text: Come to think of it.
text: Joker says something similar to: "You'll be outcast too.
text: They'll see you as a freak when they are done."
text: Joker is a schizophrenic villain who wears face paint all day long and he empathizes with Bruce.
text: He actually identifies himself with Batman.
text: You can understand the similarities - Bruce goes to great extents to protect the man behind the mask.
text: Same thing goes for Joker - he wears face paint 24x7.
text: Without it, he wouldn't be as scary.
text: And scary is important to him.
text: Summary: Bruce takes the idea of Batman more seriously than the audience are led to believe.
text: The outcome of it is one thing - crimefighting.
text: He does take that seriously.
text: But he also takes the very idea of Batman personally and he is proud of it.
answer_details: author: movies.stackexchange.com/users/None/
score: 21
sents: text: Probably a bit of both.
text: The main reason would be to disguise his voice so that people don't recognise him as Bruce Wayne.
text: But in selecting the how to disguise his voice he wouldn't want it to sound intimidating.
text: It would make for a very different movie if he sounded all cute and fluffy!
answer_details: author: movies.stackexchange.com/users/430/AidanO
score: 11
sents: text: Well, firstly, it must be noted that this was actually not Christian Bale's overacting, but Nolan's directing.
text: He even went as far as to push bale to growl more while filming and even more in post.
text: There was a cut detail about the cowl housing some apparatus that disguises his voice to what it sounds like.
text: Being that this is a Nolan move, I'm sure there is a symbolic purpose behind this voice.
text: I would venture to say the batman voice is as different to Wayne's as the characters themselves.
text: All Batman mythos harps on the duality of he character, or characters, rather.
answer_details: author: movies.stackexchange.com/users/4020/Matt
score: 7
sents: text: MTV was able to ask Bale about that process of his bat-voice while he is out doing press for his new movie Out of the Furnace .
text: "I got there.
text: They put me in Val Kilmer's suit.
text: It didn't even fit properly, and I stood in it
text: and I went '
text: I feel like an idiot.'
text: What kind of guy walks around, dressed like a bat?
text: And is then going to go '
text: Hello, how are you?
text: Just ignore that I'm dressed as a bat.'
text: Of course, he's meant to be doing this," Bale said.
text: "If you look at the history of the guy and the pain that he went through.
text: I went 'I can't do this in a normal voice.
text: I have to become a beast in order to sell this to myself.'
text: "
text: you can see his first Batman Audition in the link down below: Bale's Batman Audition
answer_details: author: movies.stackexchange.com/users/33469/Mehrdad Mehraban
score: 6
sents: text: What I got from it was his voice gets lower and darker as the films go on.
text: This to me sounds like he is becoming what he is fighting against.
text: Which was a major theme in dark knight and dark knight rises.
text: Then again he could just be doing it for reasons stated above.
text: But Nolan seems to have a reason for everything in a film.
text: My guess would be he was becoming or he would have to become a bad guy in order to take down other bad guys.
text: In the dark knight he said as much.
answer_details: author: movies.stackexchange.com/users/28343/Daniel Lee Staub
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
It must be noted that this was actually not Christian Bale's overacting, but Nolan's directing. I would venture to say the batman voice is as different to Wayne's as the characters themselves.
All Batman mythos harps on the duality of the character, or characters, rather.