The Machinist

About The Machinist

The Machinist (also known as El Maquinista) is an English-language Spanish psychological thriller film directed by Brad Anderson that was released in 2004. The film was written by Scott Kosar, and starred Christian Bale. It was produced by the Fantastic Factory label of Filmax and Castelao Productions (Spain).

Despite being set in a West Coast American city, the film was shot in its entirety in, or just outside of, Barcelona, Spain. Brad Anderson hurt his back during filming and directed much of the film while lying on a gurney.

Christian Bale starved himself for over 4 months prior to filming, as his character needed to look drastically thin. Allegedly his eating consisted of one can of tuna and an apple each day (approximately 275 calories), although there are conflicting reports on this because Bale has been a vegetarian since age six. According to the DVD commentary, he lost 62 pounds (28 kg), reducing his body weight to 120 pounds (54.4 kg). Bale wanted to go down to 100 pounds (45.3 kg) but the filmmakers would not let him due to health concerns. He later regained the weight, plus an additional 40 pounds (18 kg) due to weightlifting, in preparation for his role in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins.