Young Christian Bale

Steve North and Christian Bale

This is a photo posted by journalist Steve North,  a man whose mike seems to have been near every face of note in his long career as a radio and TV reporter, writer and producer. Steve hung on to this photo of him interviewing a 12 year-old Christian Bale when the actor was promoting his role in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun.  We’ll let Steve carry the story from here (it has a happy ending):

About 10 or 12 years ago, I was chatting with Christian’s new publicist about someone else, and mentioned that I had interviewed him when he was 12.

He said “I bet he’d like to hear that;  if you still have it, here’s his address”  (which was in Malibu, as I recall).

I sent Christian a cassette, told him I’d followed his career since that meeting, and got back the nicest note from him… thanking me for remembering him and sharing the interview, which he enjoyed hearing again.

So, I always thought of him as a major mensch (he was a really nice, smart kid) ,,,

What we find astonishing is how composed and intense Bale looks—he’s 12 for godsakes!—and, of course, how much cuter he is without the Winters Bones style beard…..