As the great Whitney Houston once said, “I believe the children are our future.” This is especially true in regard to child actors, and their destiny of growing up to play some of our most famous superheroes – because, by some strange coincidence, actors who turned in two of the greatest child performances in cinematic history both went on to don the sacred spandex for DC and Marvel. We speak, of course, of Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun and Tom Holland in The Impossible, and whatever singular talents they possessed as adolescents that allowed them to carry an entire dramatic epic on their shoulders seem to have made them uniquely qualified to take up the mantle of a cinematic costumed vigilante. In some ways, their experiences on these two films have operated as a trial by fire, more so than most child acting roles, which are frequently less demanding.
Christian Bale was just 12 years old when he was cast in Empire of the Sun, playing the challenging role of Jamie “Jim” Graham. He has to appear to make his character age, maturing from a spoiled, innocent child living a carefree life with his parents in prewar Shanghai to a war-weary teenager who spends the better part of two years in a Japanese internment camp. When he is reunited with his mother at the end of the film, he has to look at her with exhausted, unseeing eyes. What does a 12-year-old even draw upon to develop that sort of a performance? And more than just that, as Jim, he has to be the glue that holds together a three-hour-long Spielbergian war epic. He is the only character who is in Empire of the Sun from beginning to end, and if his performance isn’t perfect, the film doesn’t work. Bale has some sequences where he can rely on more experienced actors, including John Malkovich and Miranda Richardson and Joe Pantoliano. But for large swathes of Empire of the Sun, it’s just him and the camera – there is nowhere to hide.
Tom Holland faced a similar challenge in The Impossible. When he took on the role of Lucas at age 14, he was signing on for a grueling shoot that would place him all by himself for extended sequences within the film. Part of an English family on vacation in Thailand, he is separated from his parents and younger brothers when the Boxing Day Tsunami tears through their resort. Although he finds his mother, she is badly injured, and the responsibility of taking care of her while simultaneously attempting to reunite his family will fall exclusively on him. He is just a frightened, injured boy in a foreign country, but he will have to be an adult for the sake of his family. Alone while his mother receives treatment, his meandering exploration of a field hospital in crisis evokes a similar feeling of melancholic independence that we see from Bale throughout Empire of the Sun. Both are children with the weight of the world on their shoulders, and they will struggle to prove themselves equal to the task.
These two films rank among their strongest performances, but Christian Bale and Tom Holland are both far better-known now for playing Batman and Spider-Man. Is there connective tissue between their early, towering performances, and these superhero roles? In both Empire of the Sun and The Impossible, they prove their ability from an early age to headline a film, something that is essential for superhero fare. There are certainly great villains and sidekicks sprinkled throughout both Batman and Spider-Man canon, but no one would keep coming back if they weren’t emotionally invested in the hero of the piece. From their work as teenagers, Bale and Holland demonstrate a rare screen presence that connects with audiences, and have an innate understanding of how to be the anchor of a film. And these formative acting experiences, playing children whose anxiety around losing their parents is paramount to their characters, carries over into these roles; it’s the same burden of being forced to rely only on themselves.
But this is probably getting a little too far in the weeds. What’s far more likely, of course, is that a child actor who can perform at a high level from a young age is likely to maintain that talent into adulthood, and it just so happens that the most prominent roles for high-profile leading men right now are owned by Marvel and DC. Christian Bale benefitted from years establishing himself as an adult actor before donning the familiar cowl in Batman Begins – 18 years separate the gritty Christopher Nolan action film from Empire of the Sun. And although Tom Holland contains many of the same star qualities, he perhaps suffers from the fact that his transition from child star to superhero occurred so rapidly. Holland made his first appearance as Spider-Man in 2016, just four short years after he broke onto the scene with The Impossible. His early work shows potential, with incredible maturity and emotional nuance, but he isn’t as lauded as Bale. This is partially because he’s simply much younger, but also because he transitioned directly from his teen career to becoming a YA action star, with few opportunities to show range or establish an identity for himself in between.
Both Christian Bale and Tom Holland demonstrated tremendous poise and talent as young actors, each in films that required them to occupy the emotional heart of the narrative. Both parlayed this unique ability into successful acting careers, and eventually roles in superhero franchises that would also see them carry the weight of not just a film, but an entire universe of canon. Although their careers have diverged in many ways, the glimpses of greatness in their child and teen roles have gone on to define the vast potential we see in them as actors.