Christian Bale credits Leonardo DiCaprio for helping career: 'Any role anybody gets' is 'because he passed'

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Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines October 5

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Christian Bale is getting candid about how Hollywood actors only get offered roles in movies after star Leonardo DiCaprio turns them down.

During a recent interview, the "Batman Begins" actor claimed most roles get offered to DiCaprio first and then become open to everyone else if he decides to pass on the offer. One example of Bale almost losing a role to his fellow actor includes "American Psycho."

Bale said there were a few actors cast in the role before him, one of them being DiCaprio, but Bale never lost hope he would eventually be cast. Bale says it also happens to every other actor working today.

"It’s not just me. Look, to this day, any role that anybody gets, it’s only because he’s passed on it beforehand," Bale explained. "It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you. It doesn’t matter how friendly you are with the directors. All those people that I’ve worked with multiple times, they all offered every one of those roles to him first.

CHRISTIAN BALE WOULD RETURN AS BATMAN UNDER ONE CONDITION: ‘I’D BE IN’

Christian Bale claims all actors going for the same roles as Leonardo DiCaprio are only offered the roles after DiCaprio has already turned them down. (Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

"Right? I had one of those people actually tell me that. So, thank you, Leo, because literally, he gets to choose everything he does. And good for him, he’s phenomenal."

It is reported that throughout their careers, Bale has lost five roles to DiCaprio, including one in the 1997 romantic classic "Titanic." Despite losing out on opportunities because of DiCaprio, Bale says he doesn't hold a grudge against DiCaprio.

Bale is proud of his fellow actor, saying he has gotten to the point where "he gets to choose everything he does" and that "he’s phenomenal" at his craft. At this point, Bale doesn’t care about the roles he loses to DiCaprio and is just thankful for the work he does get. 

"Do you know how grateful I am to get any damn thing? I mean, I can’t do what he does," Bale said. "I wouldn’t want the exposure that he has either. And he does it magnificently."

The "Amsterdam" actor also joked that every actor coming up around the same time as DiCaprio should be grateful to him for their careers.

Christian Bale jokes that every actor similar in age to DiCaprio should thank DiCaprio for passing on whatever project that made them famous. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

"I would suspect that almost everybody of similar age to him in Hollywood owes their careers to him passing on whatever project it is," Bale said. 

Bale also discussed what it was like playing Batman in "The Dark Knight" trilogy, explaining that after the films became popular, he began to feel "like it was a thing that someone else did." It crossed his mind that he could potentially be typecast as a superhero and use that as an excuse to leave the business.

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"I loved that because I was like, ‘This could be it. I could never be anything but that.' And, for a lot of people, I won’t," he explained. "I was like, ‘Ah, maybe I’m going to be forced to go do something different. And maybe this f------ thing that I got forced into doing as a kid that I didn’t f------ want to do in the first place, I’m out. And I’m free.’ And then it didn’t happen."

His latest project, "Amsterdam," also starring Margot Robbie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock and Rami Malek is about a group of friends in Amsterdam in the 1930s who become suspects in a murder they were witnesses to.

His latest project, "Amsterdam," also starring Margot Robbie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock and Rami Malek, is about a group of friends in Amsterdam in the 1930s who become suspects in a murder they were witnesses to. (Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images)

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"Amsterdam" is set to release in theaters Oct. 7.