Christian Bale claims stars only get Hollywood roles if Leonardo DiCaprio rejects them

Christian Bale has praised Leonardo DiCaprio for his acting skills and said the star has the first pick of movies in Hollywood

View 4 Images

Christian Bale has said he owes a lot of his success in Hollywood to fellow actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

The actor, 48, has had a hugely successful career, starring in a number of big hits such as Batman Begins and Thor: Love and Thunder.

However, he claims he might not have got as many roles if the Titanic star, 47, hadn't turned them down in the first place.

Christian admitted that Leo is offered most top roles in the industry, telling GQ : "To this day, any role that anybody gets, it’s only because he's passed on it beforehand."

He added: "I would suspect that almost everybody of similar age to him in Hollywood owes their careers to him passing on whatever project it is.

"It doesn’t matter what anyone tells you. It doesn’t matter how friendly you are with the directors. All those people that I’ve worked with multiple times, they all offered every one of those roles to him first."

View 4 Images

He revealed that he has been told this in the past, claiming Leo is able to "choose everything he does" as he's "phenomenal".

The conversation began after it was raised that the Wolf of Wall Street star was originally cast in American Psycho ahead of Christian. While Christian eventually took on the role of Patrick Bateman in the iconic production, he revealed it was about time as Leo had pipped him to five other movie roles in the era, including Titanic.

But he said it's not just him who has played second fiddle before confessing he wouldn't want the same amount of exposure given to his Hollywood compatriot either.

View 4 Images

Christian continued to lay the praise Leonardo for being "magnificent". He is reported to have lost out on the lead role for films such as This Boy's Life and What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

Despite being second best on a number of occasions, Christian has still paved a hugely successful career in the industry.

As the odds for the latest James Bond continue to point towards the likes of Idris Elba and getting the nod to play the suave agent, Christian already ruled himself out of the position in the past.

View 4 Images

The Oscar-winning was approached after Pierce Brosnan left, but decided against it as he reckoned the franchise was "very British".

Earlier this month, The Mirror exclusively revealed producers would pick their next big villain before choosing a new Bond.

Barbara Broccoli said her team are “nowhere near” choosing their man, or woman, to replace Daniel Craig.

Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct at 0207 29 33033