Christian Bale: 'I took it way too far'

Four days after a profanity-ridden audiotape of Christian Bale ranting at the director of photography on the set of "Terminator Salvation" hit the Internet -- launching a veritable tsunami of fan reaction, Web creativity (including a dance remix) and comedic skits on late-night talk shows -- the actor has finally done what many professional public-relations types have advocated all along: He owned up to his mistake and apologized for his bad behavior.

On Friday morning, Bale surprised both his own publicist and Warner Bros., the studio behind both "Terminator Salvation" and the "Batman" franchise (which stars Bale as the Caped Crusader), and called into FM radio station KROQ with a mea culpa.

"I was out of order beyond belief," a contrite Bale told KROQ disc jockeys Kevin Ryder and Gene "Bean" Baxter. "I acted like a punk. There is nobody who heard the tape who is hit harder than me. I make no excuses for it. It is inexcusable."

Bale decided to call the Los Angeles radio station because he had been listening to the DJs replay snippets of the tape -- in which Bale loses his temper at director of photography Shane Hurlbut for walking in his sightline while he was in the middle of shooting a scene -- and mock him about it all week. As Bale told them, "You made me laugh in the midst of all this craziness."

During the interview, Bale explained that he had been trying to summon an air of madness for his character John Connor, who is trying to save the human race from the evil Skynet computers. "I was trying to show a little of that in the blood craziness. It went very wrong. . . ," Bale said. "I made it ugly. That was awful of me. I took it way too far. I mixed up fact and fiction. I'm half John Connor there. I'm half Christian there."

While Bale expressed remorse, his director went on the record to give the incident some context. "We all know how intense and focused Christian is," explained "Terminator Salvation" director McG in an interview with The Times. McG can also be heard on the tape trying to defuse the situation. "What happened, it was a catalyst for some steam being blown off. We felt safe and controlled. In very short order, people were hugging and we had moved on. Shane finished the picture.

"I'm not trying to spin it. I can happily report that Christian doesn't feel good about this. He's given thought to the adjustments he wants to give to his life. Christian is a good man. He's not a fundamentally mean guy. To [Hurlbut], he has made amends and apologized clearly and plainly. In that respect, that has been handled."