Full-immersion mode

In the opening sequence of the remake of the 1957 Western "3:10 to Yuma," which opens Friday, Christian Bale limps toward a burning barn with the desperation of a man who has nothing left to lose. While the flames dance behind his shaggy head and sun-scarred face, it's difficult to find any part of the real-life Bale, even around the edges of Dan Evans, the character he plays. The 33-year-old, Welsh-born actor has so slipped inside Evans' skin that it's difficult to believe he is anyone but a Civil War vet who is trying to scratch out a living as an Arizona rancher, struggling with bankruptcy, starvation and the loss of his family's respect.

For Bale, the roots of finding his way inside a role are deep. When he was a child there was a game he liked to play.

1. Choose a word.

2. In every situation where you have a choice to make, let the word inform your decision.

Is he playing that game now, long after the cameras have stopped rolling, as he strolls down red brick walkways swept by maids in white uniforms, past swans and streams and sago palms, into the wood-paneled bar of L.A.'s Hotel Bel-Air?

"It just became fascinating to me to see how very different you could be but absolutely believe what you were saying," he says. "How easy it is not only to fool other people but actually to fool yourself as well. It almost sounds like an obsessive thing, but because I have been doing it pretty much my entire life, I wouldn't know how not to do it any longer, really."

"Obsessive" is certainly a word that describes Bale -- who capped his teeth to play a yuppie serial killer in "American Psycho" (and kept an impression of his original choppers as a memento), lost more than 60 pounds to portray a guilt-ridden insomniac in "The Machinist," maintained an American accent during interviews for "Batman Begins" and ate maggots and endured a snake bite for Werner Herzog's recent "Rescue Dawn." And even though the long-limbed actor is sipping a glass of water while seated on a blue velvet sofa, it's easy to imagine him out-machoing Russell Crowe in "3:10 to Yuma."

"It sounds like a very strange thing to say, but the older weapons really feel beautifully crafted and they have a wonderful smell to them, and you do actually feel quite personally attached to a gun, which I've never experienced before," says Bale, who has famously wielded weapons ranging from chain saws to his own teeth in various roles.