Today Christian Bale is famous as the Batman star of the Dark Knight trilogy, but he gained his first acting experience as a child actor. His would have life-threatening role in Fantasy movie Mio, my Mio not only be able to end his career before it really began.
Real danger in fantasy films: Christian Bale shot Mio, mein Mio during the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine
The Astrid Lindgren film adaptation of your book * Mio, mein Mio was Christian Bale’s first feature film after two TV projects in 1987 and came out before his breakthrough in Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun. In the Swedish fantasy film shot in English by director Vladimir Grammatikov, he played Jum-Jum, the best friend of the eponymous protagonist.
When Mio is transported from reality to the magical “Land of Afar”, he faces the evil knight Kato (Christopher Lee) as a prince with Christian Bale’s character in order to save the kingdom. But although the boys defeat evil in the fairytale children’s film, it was with the Filming more than dicey.
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Mio, my Mio: Christian Bale (middle)
Because some scenes from Mio, my Mio were shot in the spring of 1986 in Ukraine (on the Crimean Peninsula, then still part of the Soviet Union). And exactly at the time when it was in the country in April to the reactor disaster in Chernobyl came. The shooting was then interrupted – but after less than a month the film team came back. Christian Bale recalled shooting fantasy when he was 12:
It’s unbelievable that I don’t have a second head afterwards. They asked us to go home and stay there for two weeks. As if that had any bearing on the half-life of the radiation. When we came back we had to Radiation meter for our meals use. Radiation damage was not excluded for Christian Bale in Mio, my Mio
The filmmakers of the fantasy adventure were well aware of the danger of a possibly irradiated set. That is why the young actors who asked about it were forbidden swim in potentially contaminated water to go. But apparently they clamored until their wish was granted, which Christian Bale can hardly believe in retrospect: “It’s a wonder you don’t talk about me with two bits of excess today.”
Cinema World/20th Century Fox
Christian Bale: then and now (Mio, my Mio & Le Mans 66)
Even if there are about 500 kilometers between Chernobyl and the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine, it is not a matter of course that Christian Bale apparently did not suffer any long-term damage from the fantasy shoot. After all, the whole of Europe, including Germany, which is much further away, was warned of possible consequential damage caused by acid rain or contaminated food.
Podcast: The 8 best Netflix movies of all time
Since 2015, Netflix has not only released exclusive series, but also films. We looked at the titles of the past few years and selected the eight best Netflix original films. You can find out exactly which ones are involved in this issue of our podcast Streamgegräber.
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From brutal war drama to dreamy fantasy adventures, from blockbusters to insider tips: you can discover some strong original films on Netflix. Even the lost work of a master director has appeared on the streaming service.
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