Logo

In David O. Russell's upcoming movie, The Fighter Christian Bale plays Dicky Eklund, half brother to famous boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward. Ward, who will be played by Mark Wahlberg, was a boxer from Lowell, Massachusetts who struggled until Eklund's training and guidance helped lead him to a world lightweight championship.

With the film having recently started shooting, JustJared has the first pics from the movie. If you think Bale resembles a drug addict you'd be right. Eklund himself struggled with drugs for some time, spending time in jail and was featured in a 1995 documentary, High on Crack Street.

As you can see Bale has slimmed down quite a bit for this role. Although the effect of the weight loss is pretty shocking, it's not entirely surprising that Bale would choose to drop the weight. Bale's choice to lose weight for roles when it is called for is pretty well known, having once dropped sixty-three pounds for the role of Trevor Reznik in 2004's, The Machinist.