Making an appearance on 'Good Morning America', the 'Vice' actor confesses he often thinks to himself that he can't do what he does because he doesn't know what he's doing.

• Dec 27, 2018

AceShowbiz - Christian Bale is amused whenever he's referred to as a method actor, because he really has no idea what he's doing.

"The Dark Knight" star has long been applauded for his commitment to the characters he portrays onscreen, roles which frequently require him to undergo drastic physical transformations, like his latest movie "Vice (2018)", in which he plays former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.

To prepare for the job, Christian piled on 40 pounds (18 kilograms) to his slender frame, and spent hours in the make-up chair each day as he was fitted with prosthetics to complete his look as the balding politician.

His co-star Amy Adams, with whom he also worked on "American Hustle" and "The Fighter", recently marvelled at his "amazing" performance in "Vice", and gushed about his dedication to the role.

"He absolutely disappears (into the character), it's unbelievable," she said. "I've worked with him before, so I wasn't surprised, but I was so impressed with his commitment and dedication. He's always so impressive."

However, Christian claims he isn't worthy of all the high praise, because he's never quite sure what he's doing on set.

"I always think, 'Oh, man, I can't do this. I dunno what I'm doing,' " the 44-year-old confessed on U.S. breakfast show "Good Morning America". "Everyone always says I'm a method actor; I'm not - you have to study Stanislavski (Russian acting coach who developed a strict training system) to be a method actor."

"I just wing it," Bale shrugged. "I don't really have a particular technique, I just go, 'Alright, let's see what happens now...' "

And the Brit insists the months he spends preparing for the onscreen transformations are all just to help calm his nerves about his lack of expert acting training.

"I wing it over a long period of time," he continued. "There's a lot of prep that goes into it, but that's to give myself the confidence and I learn things very slowly, and so it just takes me a long time to get there."

Although Bale is adamant he has no specific acting technique, his methods appear to be working well - he has been nominated for a trio of Oscars to date, winning Best Supporting Actor for 2011's "The Fighter", and is hotly-tipped to earn another nod for the 2019 Academy Awards.

Bale dubs the critical acclaim "very exciting," but he refuses to dwell on what may happen when the 2019 Oscar nominations are announced in January: "Let's not get ahead of ourselves," he smiled.

Prior to fattening himself up for "Vice", Christian famously slimmed down to a skeletal size for "The Machinist", bulked up to play Batman in "The Dark Knight" trilogy, and then piled on the pounds for "American Hustle".