But when Christian Bale (who played the title character in Batman Begins ) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine in the X-Men series) square off in the drama The Prestige , it has nothing to do with superpowers.
“At one point we did talk about that,” Jackman says. “There's a scene early on in which something bad happens while both Christian's character and my character are watching, but we're pathetic because we can't do anything about it. I turned to him and said, ‘You know, for a couple of superheroes, we're not worth much here, are we?'”
They play competing magicians whose rivalry turns increasingly personal and exponentially nasty. The story takes place in the early 1900s, which raises the stakes for their confrontation.
Magicians were the rock stars of that era, Jackman says. “Many people believed that the magicians were doing what they claimed. Now, when David Copperfield makes the Statue of Liberty disappear, we admire his craft but we don't actually think that he made it vanish. But in those days, they thought it was genuine. And that made the magicians huge stars. To be the No. 1 magician in the world, the stakes were very high. There was a lot of money involved.”
And very few scruples. Stealing tricks from other magicians was considered part of the job, he adds. Everyone did it.
In the film, Bale comes up with an over-the-top feat that awes the public and frustrates Jackman, who becomes obsessed with learning the secret of how it's done, no matter what it costs financially or emotionally.
That leads Jackman's character “on a descent into his dark side that I found quite interesting to play,” he says. “I think it's really fascinating what goes on. They mask their ambition quite well, but it still ends up overtaking them.”
Both actors pride themselves on their versatility. Bale's roles range from a man going crazy in American Psycho to a jilted lover in Captain Corelli's Mandolin , while Jackman was nominated for a Tony Award for the Broadway musical “The Boy From Oz” and later this year will provide one of the voices (and sing) in the animated comedy Happy Feet . He's done so many things that Bale didn't even make the Wolverine connection at first.
“I know that might sound daft,” he confesses. “But someone else had to bring it up to me.”
When director Christopher Nolan ( Memento ) sent them the script, he didn't designate which character he wanted them to focus on. As it turns out, Jackman says, each gravitated toward the role that felt natural.
“I would have played either one,” he says. “But I think Christian and I ended up in the roles for which we are best suited. Christian's character is technically the better magician, while my character is the better showman. He's more internal; I'm a bit more flamboyant.”
The characters have much in common beyond their profession.
“Their lives are all about secrets,” Bale says. “There are the secrets behind the tricks, of course, but it's more than that. Borden's (his character) secrets are not just a cerebral device to improve his magic act. They are an emotional necessity. He needs them to survive, even if, in the end, they could bring disaster to him and others.”
Both Bale and Jackman expect to revisit their superhero personae in 2008. Scripts are in the works for The Dark Knight , in which Heath Ledger is penciled in to play Batman's nemesis, the Joker, and Wolverine , a prequel to the X-men trilogy. In the meantime, both actors intend to keep busy tackling other types of roles.
“We're fortunate in that it's easy for us to disappear inside our characters,” Bale says.
© 2006, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
The Prestige releases in theaters Oct. 20.
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