Christian Bale Somehow Got His Hands On The Prestige's Script Without Christopher Nolan Knowing
"Batman Begins" proved that Christopher Nolan could helm a blockbuster and Christian Bale could be the star. Between their first two trips to Gotham City, they took a detour and worked together on a more modest film, "The Prestige," about two dueling magicians in Victorian London. Bale played magician Alfred Borden, opposite Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier.
One might think that since they'd already worked together, Nolan wrote the part with Bale in mind, but that wasn't the case. In fact, the director actually met with Jackman first. In a 2020 interview with Empire, Jackman said Nolan asked him which of the two lead roles he preferred. Jackman thought Angier was a better fit for him, so that's the part he got. Bale, on the other hand, had to lobby Nolan for the part of Borden. According to Nolan in a 2006 interview with IGN:
"Christian actually just called out of the blue. I'm not even sure how he got the script, but in the intervening years, the script had kind of made the rounds. He called me up and said he'd be interested to play Borden."
Bale hasn't explained when he first learned of the script either; a magician never reveals his secrets. It's telling, however, that Borden is the role he wanted. The complementary strengths of Bale and Jackman are reflected in their characters, and that's part of what makes "The Prestige" work.
Two different kinds of magicians
Borden and Angier's rivalry is one part personal, one part professional. On one hand, Angier believes that Borden accidentally killed his wife Julia (Piper Perabo) by tying too tight a knot before she went into a Water Cell. However, they also approach stage magic differently; Borden is a technician, and Angier is a performer. Hugh Jackman explained this dynamic to Empire: "Borden is kind of a genius magician, a better magician ultimately than my character, but my character is much more a natural showman."
Even their stage names reflect this. Borden is "The Professor" (i.e. a modest researcher), while Angier uses a flashier, self-aggrandizing title: "The Great Danton." Who better to play "the Great Danton" than an actor who was brought up in stage musicals? Whether doing a magic trick or belting out ballads, live performers need to keep an audience's attention and Jackman knows how to do that.
Christian Bale relates to Borden's discomfort performing in front of a crowd because "[he's] hardly ever done any stage work." Bale is also a dedicated method actor, as devoted to his craft as Borden is to his. This helps the film's twist. Spoiler alert: "Alfred Borden" is actually a set of twins, who regularly swap identities between Borden and his engineering assistant ("ingenieur") Fallon. Borden's apparent mood swings are because one twin is more hot-headed than the other. To play Borden, an actor would have to disappear into the character(s), and a chameleon-like Christian Bale was perfectly suited for the task.
Nolan may not have written Borden with Bale in mind, but as he told IGN, "It's kind of unthinkable now, anyone else [playing Borden]."