Christian Bale by Harrison Cheung Page B

fact, when a panicky David got ahold of Christian by phone, he was told that perhaps he had eaten something with fecal matter in it.
    â€œMy son was fed shite?” David bellowed at the thought. “This was Jenny’s fault. Everyone knows whilst traveling in a third world country that you don’t drink the water or eat anything suspect!”
    Christian spent a miserable week in the hospital, undergoing test after test. David felt powerless, stuck in Los Angeles while his son was ill in Bournemouth. He did not trust Jenny’s ability to take care of his son. And he did not think that Jenny would ask the doctors the right questions.
    Additionally, David was very concerned about the severity of Christian’s illness. Though actors who are members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) have health insurance—and Christian’s care in England would be covered under the U.K. National Health—an actor’s health is an important part of his/her cast-worthiness. David was worried that if Christian developed a reputation of being sickly, no one would cast him. The issue was a pragmatic one. Producers want to hire actors who are healthy enough to complete a movie shoot.
    David blasted Jenny over Christian’s illness. Jenny had to concede that David was very effective working the phones, calling the doctors and pharmacists back in Bournemouth to find the best treatment they recommended for his son. But it was cruel for David to use Christian’s illness against her and her maternal skills.
    A few months later, it would be David’s turn to have his parenting skills put to the test.
    In December of 1992, David put together a trip to take Christian and Louise back to South Africa to meet their grandfather, Philip, and his second wife, Deborah. Christian recalled, “He had cancer, and he was basically hanging on to meet us.” They would spend Christmas and New Year’s touring the Transkei Coast and visiting the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve.
    A few weeks later, Christian was sick again. In mid-January 1993, he was admitted to Entabeni Hospital in Durban, South Africa, with the same symptoms as his previous illness. Could it be malaria? A burst appendix? David was at wit’s end as Christian was transferred from specialist to specialist. Poor Christian spent his nineteenth birthday in a hospital, suffering through another round of tests and painful exploratory surgeries.
    By the time Christian, David, and Louise left South Africa in February 1993, they had also left behind Christian’s medical bills, which David had hoped SAG would pay. Adding to the family misfortune, David’s father died a few months later.
    But by November, David had to respond to Dr. Peter Jeffrey, a family friend of his father’s who had covered Christian’s medical bills.
    David remembered telling Jeffrey: “I can only apologize. I am embarrassed and feel that I should never darken your door again. I owe you the unrepayable: my son’s life and well-being. Millions would be a mere token, and yet I cannot seem to get even yourfee to you. I feel that I must perforce have lost the friendship of people who were very dear to me, and to whom I am eternally indebted, and that is very sad.”
    As Christian recovered back in his new bedroom on Oak Avenue in the warm California sunshine, David vowed to protect his son even more.

[4]
Newsies
    â€œYou say something bad about Newsies and you have an awful lot of people to answer to.”
    â€”Christian Bale
    I magine in some alternate universe, Christian Bale didn’t get the part in Empire of the Sun . Or imagine if Empire of the Sun had been yet another Spielberg blockbuster. How would Christian have handled the superhot stardom that followed the likes of Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore after E.T .? Would he have had more breakdowns? Would he have ended up a hermit on some deserted island? In this could-have, would-have, should-have scenario,