"I was coming off of a film where it had been necessary to be sort of rather lacking in muscle," said Bale, as reported by
ComicBook.com. "And then I saw the images and thought, 'Well, that's not gonna be possible... and this g-string thing that's going on there.' He looked in the comic books like physically, you know, someone to reckon with though."
He continued, "And I said, 'Well, you know, that's just not gonna be possible in the state I'm in. And we literally have three days between me finishing one film and heading over to Australia for the quarantine and whatnot. I like to usually have much more time in between, but the pandemic meant that things got worked out that way."
Bale went on to say that both he and director Taika Waititi were able to find a fresh direction for Gorr the God Butcher, despite the limited time to prepare. While the film's version of the villain won't show
nearly as much skin, they decided to "go with the supernatural powers that he does have, that he gets from the Necro sword, et cetera, which I think works really effectively," Bale said. According to Waititi, Bale's depiction of Gorr will make for
the best villain the MCU has seen so far.