Christian Bale gained 40lbs for Vice – and he didn't even need to

Christian Bale has revealed he gained 40 pounds for upcoming film Vice – but didn’t realise he wasn’t expected to until it was too late.

The 44-year-old prolific actor, who famously lost an extreme amount of weight for 2004 film The Machinist, plays Dick Cheney, the former vice president to George W Bush, in the upcoming biopic.

In preparation for the role, Bale assumed he would need to gain weight, completely forgetting about makeup and prosthetics.

The stress of piling on the pounds led Bale to seek advice from Gary Oldman over his “weight gain” ahead of his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

He told Esquire: “I talked to Gary about all of that. We had very different approaches to it. I had said, 'I don’t know how to do this except I’ve got to gain the weight myself.’

“I was in the middle of doing that. I was a large toddler. I called up Gary and I said, 'How much weight did you gain for the role?'

“And he said, 'I didn’t gain anything.' I went, 'What?' I was already well down the track. I felt like such an idiot. I didn’t understand that [prosthetics and makeup] had come such a long way.”

The film has been directed by The Big Short’s Adam McKay and centres around Cheney’s life during his time as the vice president under President Bush.

Vice features a star-studded cast including Amy Adams as Cheney’s wife Lynne, Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld and Sam Rockwell as Mr Bush.

In a bid to play the character, Bale also committed to shaving his head and bleaching his eyebrows.

Bale has been nominated for Best Actor at the upcoming Golden Globes and SAG Awards, for his role in Vice.

The film landed a total of six nods at the Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Amy Adams, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Sam Rockwell, Best Director for Adam McKay and Best Screenplay.

Vice is slated for UK cinema release on January 25