Christian Bale startled fans when he appeared in the psychological thriller “The Machinist” 60 pounds lighter, but a co-star claims the dramatic change wasn’t initially in the plot.

Bale is recognized for his dramatic physical changes, the most severe of which occurred in the 2004 film, where he dropped 60 pounds to play the gaunt Trevor Reznik.

Christian’s co-star Michael Ironside stated in a recent interview that the actor’s dramatic weight reduction was the consequence of a simple mistake.

The character was intended for someone considerably shorter than Bale, and the script’s weight description was not adjusted to fit him.

‘The writer is only about five-foot-six, and he put his own weights in,’ Ironside said. ‘And then Chris did the film and Chris said, ‘No, don’t change the weights. I want to see if I make them.’ … So those weights he writes on the bathroom wall in the film are his actual weights in the film.’

“The writer wrote for his reality, but Chris is like 6ft 2, so those weights he writes on the bathroom wall in the film are his actual weights.”

Thankfully, Bale looks considerably sexier and meatier in his current role as Moses in Exodus: Gods And Kings, which will be released on Boxing Day.

Other performers who have taken the risk of losing a significant amount of weight include:

Chris Pratt — The comedian from “Parks and Recreation” lost 60 pounds for his role as chiseled explorer Peter Quill in the summer blockbuster “Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Natalie Portman – Portman earned an Academy Award for her performance in “The Black Swan,” which required her to drop 20 pounds and practice dance for five hours a day.

Robert DeNiro — For his Oscar-winning performance as troubled boxer Jack LaMotta in 1980’s ‘Raging Bull,’ the acting star gained a then-record 60 pounds.

Matthew McConaughey (Matthew McConaughey) In another Oscar-winning makeover, the Texas actor lost 21 pounds for his role as AIDS sufferer Ron Woodroof in the 2013 film ‘Dallas Buyers Club.’

Tom Hanks lost 50 pounds in preparation for his role as a plane crash survivor alone on an island in 2001’s “Cast Away.”

Bale is reported to have dropped the weight in four months on a crash diet consisting of water, an apple, and one cup of coffee per day, a regimen that disrupted his social life as well as his physical well-being.

“One day on set, I hear ‘Psst, Mike’ and I look and it’s Chris, he asks me ‘come here’”, recounts Ironside, “So I go to his little cabana and he says ‘I need you to look at something’, and he dropped his overalls and he’s standing there naked.”

“He turns around and shows me his ass and he looked like he’d just come out of a concentration camp, and his buttocks had dropped. They’d fallen right out of their sockets of his hips.”

The 6-foot actor allegedly began feasting on pizza and ice cream to bulk up in just six weeks for the role of Batman in 2005’s Batman Begins after reaching 121 pounds for the part.

“I overdid it because I was enjoying gorging. I was ignoring advice about taking it slowly because my stomach had shrunk, and I should just go with soups. I was straight into pizza and ice-cream and eating five meals in a sitting. My stomach expanded really quickly. I got very sick during that time, but I enjoyed getting sick. I didn’t mind it at all,” Christian previously said of his yo-yo dieting.

The actor lost 30 pounds for the character of drug-addicted retired boxer Dicky Eklund in 2010’s The Fighter, but he insists that significant weight loss and gain for roles is never deliberate.

He told MTV News: ‘I have no goal of seeing if I can become invisible one day, eat so little that I disappear. I didn’t take this job because I went, “Oh, there’s a physical transformation needed.” I always go, “Damn! There’s a physical transformation needed!”