For this movie about an insomniac machine worker whose past trauma has left him paranoid and unable to sleep, Bale shed about 60 pounds to depict the emaciated, physically shrinking character — but, as he told Star2, he didn't go about it in a healthy way. When he tried it again for a later role, it caught up to him.
"When I did The Machinist, I came up with the absolutely brilliant method of just smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey to lose weight.
But then when I tried it once again in my 40s, that didn't work quite as well. I was waking up with heart palpitations and just not feeling right at all."