Face-Off: Leonardo DiCaprio vs. Christian Bale

Last Updated on August 3, 2021

It was an all-superhero Face-Off last week as we had the movies THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
battle one another for the victory. It was a close race but in the end Cap was the victor just edging out the God of Thunder.

Two of my most anticipated movies this fall are AMERICAN HUSTLE and THE WOLF OF WALL STREET. With that in mind, I decided to face-off two of the best actors of my generation by featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale in this week’s article.

Mr. Nice Guy

Leo DiCaprio seems like a good egg but he was recently ripped by class act George Clooney for having trash-talking buddies on the basketball court. Leo was also once part of an entourage that was dubbed “The Pussy Posse.” Still, if this is the worst this cat will get then he’s an angel compared to the whirlwind of stupidity other actors dabble in. “Cap” seems like he’s loyal to his girls when he’s with them and if he’s guilty of being overly cocky on the hardwood, I ask you this….who isn’t? Besides, Clooney and his reps recently clarified those comments about Leo’s big basketball mouth and said it was all in fun and more about b-ball than this kid’s character and the way he lives his life.

By the by, Clooney and Co. schooled Leo and his loudmouth pals 11-0. Nice!

Christian Bale seems like an overall decent guy but his temper has made the front pages more than once over the years. On the set of TERMINATOR: SALVATION
a few years ago, the director of photography made the life-altering error of stepping on set to check the lights during a scene. Bale proceeded to verbally rip out this guy’s soul and berated him like the man was an infant. In total, he dropped 39 f-bombs and carried on like somebody just died. Needless to say, whether he had reason to get upset or not, Bale went a little too far with his tirade. I almost wet myself from fright listening to his tongue-lashing and I wasn’t even the guy Bale was demolishing.

Bale: “No, just don’t be sorry….think for one fuckin’ second.”

Bale’s feud with his mother and sister has also made the news over the years and his temper, once again, seems to be a part of that story.

All that being said, it was incredible to see Christian Bale pay a visit to victims seriously injured by the shootings at the midnight screening of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES a couple of years ago. That definitely helped clean up his image a little but he still loses the Mr. Nice Guy category handily to Leo.

Oscars, Oscars, Oscars

Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated for an Oscar three times so far in his career for his performances in the films WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE (1993), THE AVIATOR (2004) and BLOOD DIAMOND (2006). He has yet to walk away as a winner.

Surprisingly, Chris Bale has only been nominated once, for the fantastic 2010 movie THE FIGHTER for which he won. I wanted to call this a tie because Leo has been nominated many more times but it doesn’t seem fair not to give Christian the win considering he has an Oscar sitting on top of his fireplace and all Leo has so far is Jeremy Irons’ autograph from THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK days.

Filmography

DiCaprio’s extremely impressive filmography includes the following films: THIS BOY’S LIFE, TITANIC, GANGS OF NEW YORK, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, THE AVIATOR, THE DEPARTED, BLOOD DIAMOND, SHUTTER ISLAND, INCEPTION and DJANGO UNCHAINED. Six of these films have been nominated for Best Picture and two of them have won the prize. He has worked with such directors as Spielberg, Scorsese, Allen, Tarantino, Cameron, Eastwood, Zwick, Nolan and Boyle. He knows how to pick great roles in epic films and his momentum doesn’t seem like it will stop anytime soon.

Bale’s CV is nothing to be ashamed of either as it includes: AMERICAN PSYCHO, THE MACHINIST, BATMAN BEGINS, THE DARK KNIGHT, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, THE PRESTIGE, PUBLIC ENEMIES and THE FIGHTER. If “Cap” is blessed in being Scorsese’s golden child then Bale is pretty lucky himself to be a favorite of director Terrence Malick’s. At the end of the day, Bale has a few more turkeys in his filmography than DiCaprio and a few less great films as well.

Sex Appeal + Looks

This is always a tough category for me because it’s not like I go around all day rating guy’s looks and junk. Now that I have secured my masculinity a little bit, I can admit that Leo gets better looking with age and he’s got a million dollar smile to boot. Let’s face it, if you’re part of a Hollywood sex gang that was once called “The Pussy Posse”, chances are you’re easy to look at and the ladies dig you. That being said, this handsome devil has his hands full as he’s going up against a gentleman who has played both Patrick Bateman and Bruce Wayne!

Sure, Mr. Bale may blow his top sometimes but there is no denying he is a very good-looking son-of-a-gun. The man has chiseled himself into a Greek God for movies like BATMAN BEGINS and AMERICAN PSYCHO and his English accent goes a long way in making the ladies swoon. Although I personally think Leo is a little bit better looking, I also think that most ladies would give Bale the points for his sex appeal. What does all of this mean? It’s a tie.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Although I feared this Face-off would be a close race and would result in a dreaded tie, when breaking it down into separate categories, Leonardo wins this one pretty easily. He’s clearly been a part of better films, he’s a nicer guy, a bigger movie star, has got the acting chops and he’s a very handsome guy. Bale loses this battle mostly because he can get pissy at times and his filmography is not close to what DiCaprio has accomplished so far.

I’ll leave you all with another classic line from the “Terminator: Salvation Tapes.”

“Ohhhhh, goooood for you. And how was it? I hope it was fuckin’ good, because it’s useless now, isn’t it?”