Christian Bale is unrecognisable thanks to weight gain for new movie

Actor Christian Bale pictured with Sibi Blazic last year - he doesn't look like this anymore. Photo / Getty Images

Christian Bale, is that really you?

The 43-year-old actor is almost unrecognisable after packing on the pounds to play former US Vice President Dick Cheney in an upcoming movie.

The film is called Backseat and also stars Steve Carell as former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush, both of whom praised Bale for his incredible physical transformation.

This is what Christian Bale looks like for his latest role. Photo / Getty Images

"It's not so much the weight gain but apparently he [Bale] wanted his neck to be thicker for Cheney, so he's doing neck exercises to thicken his - I don't want to give away any of his secrets or anything, but he is gonna be the guy," Carell told Collider.

Rockwell told The Frame that he's "not like Christian" and prefers not to transform physically for roles.

"He's getting up at two in the morning to do hair and makeup. He's gained a bunch of weight. I can't do that. I put on some padding. I put on a moustache and a wig. I come from the theatre and we put on funny hats."

Bale is famous for his physical transformations for roles. He dropped almost 30kg to for The Machinist in 2004 and then beefed up immediately after to play Batman in Batman Begins.

"I've never had a single director ask me to do any of this stuff," he told Uproxx.

"Everyone's kind of gone, 'Well, we can do it with a bunch of makeup and some prosthetics' And then they discover I'm really doing it myself and they go, 'Really? Are you O.K. doing that? I've never really had anyone say, 'You have to get to this place.' It's always been me saying, 'I have to get to this place.'"