Hollywood actor Christian Bale was bullied at school following his breakthrough success in Steven Spielberg's 1987 movie Empire of the Sun.

Bale, who this month (JUN05) becomes the latest actor to play the Caped Crusader in Batman BEGINS, soon found himself the target of jealous classmates after the wartime film was released.

He recalls, "Girls were all over me, boys just wanted to fight me."

Bale's mother JENNY says, "He had a tough time at school. The bullying was quite bad and made him very sad. It really put him off the film and stardom thing.

"At the time he did not want to do any more acting.

"But he got over it and he has done really well - we're so proud of him."

13/06/2005 13:46