Bale's transformation for American Hustle took him in the opposite direction of most of his physical roles up to this point. Where he previously needed to lose weight or put on muscle, his sleazy character required weight gain — and not in the muscular superhero way.
"I ate lots of doughnuts, a whole lot of cheeseburgers and whatever I could get my hands on. I literally ate anything that came my way," Bale explained his weight gain to People. "I was about 185 and went up to 228. I'm still working it off." He even shaved his hair off for the character, whose use of toupees is a running visual gag in the film.