All 4 Christian Bale Oscar Nominations, Ranked

Pointing out Christian Bale’s skill as an actor at this point is the sort of thing that moves beyond the bounds of a no-brainer. It’s like, of course he’s great. He’s been great for multiple decades now, demonstrated as early as Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, and more than solidified by the turn of the century with American Psycho. His most well-known roles over the next decade or so were in The Dark Knight movies, but in the 2010s, Bale’s success finally translated into some Oscar recognition. If anything, it’s a bit surprising it took the Academy Awards so long to catch up, seeing as American Psycho was an awards-worthy performance, and then in 2004, he made the sort of alarming physical changes that often catch the eyes of Oscar voters in The Machinist.