Four minutes: it's not just the deadline by which Madonna and Justin Timberlake had to save the world; it's also the time it took for Christian Bale, Hollywood's most in-demand actor, to deliver what has become arguably his defining perfor-mance to date.

In February, an audio file was leaked on to the web in which the 35-year-old Welshman is heard hurling a tirade of 'f'-word-laden abuse at cinematographer Shane Hurlbut, who had unwisely wandered into Bale's eyeline during the filming of a particularly intense scene with co-star Bryce Dallas Howard on the set of Terminator Salvation.

This all blew up just months after Bale had been questioned by police in London over an alleged assault in a hotel room involving his mother and sister (he was released without charge).

After the audio file was leaked, Bale publicly apologised for his "inexcusable" behaviour, but not before the four-minute clip had gone viral, inspiring mash-ups, remixes and even a Family Guy parody.

Needless to say, the on-set tirade continues to dog Christian Charles Philip Bale. The perception exists that Bale may be an exceptionally talented actor, but he's also just the slightest bit mad despite, or more likely because of, that talent.

Therefore, when he sits down with Day and Night over a glass of orange juice on a showery, overcast day in Paris, it comes as quite a shock when he turns out to be almost eerily calm, patient and even, gasp, good-humoured (this might be due to the movie's box office stats coming in: it grossed a respectable $70m in four days).

He's dressed simply in navy jeans and shirt, with a pair of Ray-Bans hanging down the front. His hair is scruffy-neat, and he sports light brown facial hair on a surprisingly thin face, where his cheekbones seem just a bit too hollow. Despite such recent immensely physical roles, such as Batman in The Dark Knight and John Connor in the rejuvenated Terminator, Bale seems much smaller and thinner these days, though, it must be said, not frail or unhealthy.

He also speaks in a strong British accent. This is especially surprising, because his famous tirade was delivered in a full-blown American twang (fuelling the theory that it wasn't Bale that exploded that day, but rather the character).

But we'll get to that. We start talking about Terminator Salvation, the fourth movie in the franchise originally made famous by the now Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and directed this time by the unpromisingly monikered McG (he of Charlie's Angels fame/notoriety).

The action is set in a post-apocalyptic 2018, where an adult John Connor must team up with mysterious stranger Marcus Wright (played by Aussie newcomer Sam Worthington) -- whose last memory is of being on death row in 2003 -- in order to protect teenager Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), so that Reese can live long enough to grow up and come back in time as Connor's father. Confused yet?

It's been a long journey to get the movie on the screen. The only man McG wanted for the role was Bale, the boy from South Wales. The son of a circus-performer mother and an animal-rights activist dad, Bale made his big screen debut aged 13 in the lead role of Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun and from this, he has made an extraordinary transition to adult roles by playing a yuppie serial killer (in the controversial American Psycho), an emaciated factory worker in The Machinist (requiring him to lose 62lbs), a maggot-eating PoW (Rescue Dawn) and, eventually, Batman in Christopher Nolan's re-booted series Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

But Bale repeatedly turned down Terminator, before eventually coming on board. Why the change of heart? "It seemed like part three [the lacklustre Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines] had been the nail in the coffin for the series," he replies slowly. "So when I got a script that said Terminator on the front, I thought, 'Uh, come on. We're done with that, right?' Then equally I thought, 'Who the hell is McG? Why is he the right guy to do it?'

"He insisted on flying to London to meet me, which was no small feat because he had a phobia about flying. I had to give him half an hour of my time then, didn't I? At that time, he was talking about me playing Marcus, and Connor was a very small role. He then said he was going to rewrite the whole thing, and that's when I told him to keep me posted."

Bale adds that there was also some reverse psychology at play in his decision to sign on the dotted line. "I am a bit bloody-minded," he admits, with a tiny smile. "It was to do with people telling me I really shouldn't do it. I had that so much when I was doing American Psycho; I had it from people when I was doing The Machinist.

"Then there were people taking it a step further by saying, 'No you're too good to do a Terminator movie'. I'm not precious like that. I love a good action movie, where it's all about the adrenaline created in a crowd of people enjoying what the big screen was created for."

He seems relaxed and chatty, so it seems a good time to bring up "the incident", or as I refer to it, his "soliloquy" on set. Bale smiles at that description. "Did you enjoy it that much that you call it a soliloquy?" he enquires.

I continue by asking if the row has created a certain perception of him in popular culture that he might not be able to shake off, and which might even impede his career choices? Bale pauses, shuts his eyes tight for a moment, before turning his gaze to the floor to avoid eye contact.

"No, because I don't read stuff about me," he says in an even tone. "I really don't like reading entertainment things at all. So I'm probably unaware of a lot of what you're talking about. I've just got to move on. It was four minutes out of a 77-day shoot. Me and the guy, we're fine together now. We kept working together. We had no problems.

"Hey, I know it got out there, but beyond a couple of friends who sent me a very funny remix, I really don't know about it, and I like to keep it that way."

He continues: "I've always enjoyed actors who stay under the radar. With the combination of that and The Dark Knight coming out, I've probably found myself in a place where I'm not comfortable, but I do ignore it as much as possible. I do like to keep my head down and just stick to what I enjoy doing, and I hope that I will return to a place where I'm back under the radar again, and people just really don't care any longer about me."

Bale will next be seen on our screens in a very different kind of movie, playing the John Dillinger-hunting Melvin Purvis opposite Johnny Depp in Michael Mann's crime biopic Public Enemies, but he denies that there was any strategy behind picking a more character-based role to counter-act his recent blockbuster successes.

"I'm the least strategic person you'll ever meet," he laughs. "I'm fairly myopic in what I approach. I only make movies because I like doing something that allows me to get immersed in the extreme and be quite obsessive, and be surrounded by people who, when they're at the top of their game, get likeminded and obsessive and immerse themselves incredibly too.

"I never expected that anyone would offer me movies like Terminator or Batman. It was never part of an idea I had, but I like the opportunity to try them, and view them no differently to the other movies I like to try, which often don't have much of an audience whatsoever."

With that, our time is up but, as he leaves, I ask if he will ever play a light, comedic character rather than the dark, brooding, intense kind that has become his stock-in-trade?

Bales smiles and gives quite possibly the most revealing reply of the interview: "That dude in American Psycho seemed pretty funny to me."

- Declan Cashin