[bwind22]

There's no question Bale has an ego but I'm not sure I'd consider that asschewing a physical threat. (Although, if I were the guy getting chewed out, I'd certainly be hoping he'd take a swing at me. Cha-ching!)

As for psychological threat, I can only assume that probably exists for everyone except the top dogs on any set. Piss off the wrong person and you're done, not only on the film but quite possibly in Hollywood. This guy pissed off the wrong person. He's actually lucky Bale didn't get him fired because I'm sure he could have if he pressed the issue.

Bale's getting paid bigger bucks to perform a job that this guy was preventing him from performing. I don't entirely condone the way he handled it, but I can see where he's coming from. For all we know, this could have been an incredibly difficult scene that they'd already shot 30 times that day, then they get it perfect and this numbnuts fucks it up, possibly resulting in another 30 takes before they get it perfect again. It could have been at the tail end of a 16 hour day riddled with this guy fucking things up and Bale finally lost his cool. It happens. No one's perfect, not even Christian Bale.