Christian Bale Got Cool Points From His Daughter For Singing With Taylor Swift, But What Really Happened On Set Is Way Less Sweet

When you’re a professional actor in Hollywood, you often get to do some pretty amazing things in some pretty amazing places. Christian Bale has been one of the class of actors who has been able to play Batman on the big screen, which likely impresses a lot of fans, but a whole new class of fan is going to be envious of his new film Amsterdam as it allows him to sing with Taylor Swift.

The new David O. Russell movie Amsterdam co-stars Christian Bale, John David Washington, and Margot Robbie as friends who get caught up in events following a suspicious death. Circumstances bring about a scene early in the movie where Bale and Washington sing alongside Swift, and Bale tells THR that his daughter literally could not believe that. He explains… 

That was a real nice surprise, and I actually didn’t tell anybody about that until afterwards. I went to my daughter and said, ‘You know who I sang with today? Taylor Swift.’ And she was like, ‘Wait, what? Why would you be doing that?’

The reason Christian Bale would be doing that is that in the next upcoming movie from Disney's 20th Century Studios, Amsterdam, he finds himself standing over the body of his former World War I commanding officer. Swift plays the dead man’s daughter. She feels moved to sing a hymn over her father’s body, and Bale and Washington feel compelled to try and sing along.

Of course, Christian Bale may have once been in Newsies, but he’s not exactly Taylor Swift when it comes to singing talent. In the scene, the two men realize they need to just shut up and let the pro do it, which Bale says is pretty much exactly what happened on the set. Bale continues…

It was a very funny scene, actually, because J.D. [John David Washington] and myself had been practicing that song a little bit. David had us sing it all day long, but then there were moments where I would forget the lyrics. So I’d look at J.D., he’d look at me and then he’d forget, too. So I would have to mouth it to him. And then we were going flat. Our pitch was all over the place, but we were like, ‘Yeah, but the feeling is right!’ And then all of a sudden, David just goes, ‘How about Christian and J.D. just shut up for this one and let Taylor do it?’ And it was like we had been drowning out an angel’s voice all day long with our cacophony and our rough, terrible voices. So it’s really something when you have someone with as beautiful a voice as hers, singing right next to you.

Taylor Swift wasn't the only talent Bale was in awe of apparently, as he's said he had trouble hanging out with Chris Rock because he found the man simply too funny. While Christian Bale may not have been the perfect duet partner for Taylor Swift, he still gets to claim for the rest of time that he sang with the biggest musical star in the world, and that’s pretty amazing. You’ll be able to hear them perform together when Amsterdam hits theaters this Friday 

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.