Christian Bale Wins Golden Globe For Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical Film

Christian Bale transformed himself like never before to play Dick Cheney in “Vice” — and Bale’s gone through quite a few transformations to make himself unrecognizable throughout his career — and now he’s picked up a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical Film for his efforts. It’s the second Globe he’s won in his career, following a Best Supporting Actor win for “The Fighter.”

In a moment that will surely elicit backlash, Bale thanked Satan for giving him inspiration to play the former Vice President.

Though “Vice” received mixed reviews it led the Golden Globes nominations with six, and almost no one, even the Adam McKay film’s detractors, found fault with Christian Bale’s performance. He beat a competitive field, comprised of Lin-Manuel Miranda in “Mary Poppins Returns,” Viggo Mortensen in “Green Book,” Robert Redford in “The Old Man and the Gun,” and John C. Reilly in “Stan & Ollie.”

Of the other nominees the most likely contender was Mortensen for “Green Book,” which won the Grolsch People’s Choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. But a stunning run of mishaps in the campaigning for the film has cost the movie and Mortensen much momentum: Mortensen himself has drawn fire for using the n-word at an post-screening Q&A for the film, while co-writer Nick Vallelonga (who based this story on an incident in his father Tony Lip’s life) and director Peter Farrelly drew fire by the family Dr. Don Shirley, played by Mahershala Ali in the film, for not consulting them during the development of the fact-based film.

Robert Redford was a sentimental choice, as he’s called “The Old Man and the Gun” his last film, wrapping up an extraordinary career of nearly 60 years. The 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards took place on Sunday, January 6, 2019. They were hosted by Sandra Oh and Andy Samberg and took place at the Beverly Hilton. You can see the full list of winners right here.