Christian Bale had 'drug addict' difficulties

Los Angeles – Christian Bale found the short shoot on The Fighter difficult.

The Dark Knight actor stars as Dicky Eklund, half-brother and trainer of Boston's 'Irish' Mickey Ward in the movie but admitted transitioning from drug addict to reformed coach in 33 days was tough.

He explained: "The weight loss came through the sparring but also from not eating that much, just from just being bloody hungry.

"I had to take it right to the cusp so that I could go with make-up from being the crackhead to also with the help of make-up being the cleaned up Dicky when he got out of jail. I had to do it without the luxury of losing huge amounts of weight in between because we shot the movie so quickly."

At the height of his own boxing career, Dicky fought Sugar Ray Leonard, but saw his career decline as he got involved in drugs and crime and Christian said getting the opportunity to spent time with the real Dicky was an amazing experience.

He told website Comingsoon.net: "Once you meet Dicky you just have to start with him. He's a character unlike anyone I've ever met, his body language, speech pattern, the way he thinks.

"It just became about using this opportunity, I've never had the character there in front of me before to just hang out and talk to and visit his old haunts. We spent a lot of time at Mark's place in Los Angeles, hanging out, training and sparring and it went from there."