Christian Bale on His Stunt-Driving Spouse: "My Wife Terrifies Me"

Christian Bale and wife Sibi Blazic earlier this year

What do you know about Christian Bale’s wife of fourteen years, Sibi Blazic? Chances are, not much. Despite being one of the most popular movie stars on the planet, Bale has managed to keep his marriage and family largely out of the spotlight. In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Bale revealed that his wife was a stunt driver on The Dark Knight Rises. “My wife was a stunt driver — she was chasing me through the city in Batman. She was driving one of the cop cars. She can do 180s and stunts and all that,” says the British actor. “She terrifies me. My wife terrifies me.”

Though Blazic had a stunts credit on the film, this is the first time that the exact nature of her work has been revealed. Ironically, a tabloid report last year claimed that Blazic was forcing her husband to give up motorcycles because they were too dangerous. Sounds like the real daredevil in the relationship isn’t Bale!

Here’s what else we know about the mother of Bale’s two children: She was born in 1970 (making her four years her husband’s senior) and raised in Chicago by Serbian parents. The press tends to refer to her as an ex-model or make-up artist, as in this People article from earlier this year. When she and Bale met, however, Blazic was working as an assistant to his friend Winona Ryder. Bale and Blazic eloped to Las Vegas on his wife’s 26th birthday in 2000, and five years later, she gave birth to their daughter. They also had a son this August, but Bale is even more fiercely private about his children: He has never publicly revealed or confirmed either of their names.

Although he rarely speaks about his marriage, Bale became emotional while thanking Blazic backstage at the 2011 Critics’ Choice Awards, where he won best supporting actor for The Fighter. “I get choked up about that stuff… [My wife] had to be married to so many different characters over our marriage. I know that it truly would be impossible to do it without her,” Bale told the press. “She’s such a good, strong woman.”

He told the Wall Street Journal that Blazic likes some of his movie transformations better than others. “You know, my wife kind of liked Irv in American Hustle, ’cause she looked really skinny standing next to me,” Bale admitted. “That’s what she said. She loved it. She was like, ‘Keep getting bigger. I look fantastic and skinny.’”

Despite Bale’s quest for privacy, he doesn’t appear to have much sympathy for gripes from paparazzi-hounded movie stars. When asked, for instance, about George Clooney’s public complaints about the tabloids, Bale said, “I know, but it’s boring, isn’t it? You know what I mean? It doesn’t matter that he talks about it. It’s like, ‘Come on, guys, just shut up.’ Just get on with it and live your lives and stop whining about it. I prefer not to whine about it.”

Photo credit: Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage