Christian Bale in Beijing brouhaha

• Reprints

Director Zhang Yimou and Actor Christian Bale on the set of “The Flowers of War.”

Updated: February 22, 2012 8:00AM

LOS ANGELES — Christian Bale has never been afraid to speak his mind. But the Oscar-winning actor took his outspokenness to new levels during a visit to Beijing last month for the premiere of his film “The Flowers of War.”

Days after appearing at the official unveiling of director Zhang Yimou’s epic, the 37-year-old actor drove eight hours to visit the home of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. The blind lawyer has been under house arrest since September 2010 after speaking out against the government’s alleged human rights abuses.

The resulting footage, from a CNN crew traveling with Bale, shows the actor being roughed up by government-backed guards. “What I really wanted to do was shake the man’s hand and say ‘thank you,’ tell him what an inspiration he is,” Bale told CNN.

Liu Weimin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, later said Bale should be embarrassed by the incident, adding that the “Dark Knight” star “was not invited to fabricate news or shoot films in a certain village.”

Perhaps compounding the public-relations fallout for the government, Bale is starring in what’s touted as the most expensive Chinese film in history (at an estimated $94 million).

Though it was the country’s official submission to the Oscars, “The Flowers of War” (now showing at River East and Evanston Cinemark) was not among the nine titles announced this week as being on the Motion Picture Academy’s short list for best foreign film. As director Yimou noted, the film has the potential to raise Bale’s profile.

“Everyone in China is really familiar with his work,” said Yimou. “But after this movie, Christian is going to be a really big star. Everyone is going to fall in love with him.”

Gannett News Service