‘He’s one of my favorites’: Christian Bale reflects on role as Raiders owner in ‘Madden’

Las Vegas Raiders owner Al Davis was a man of multitudes, says the man playing him in the upcoming “Madden” film by Amazon MGM Studios — Christian Bale.

“People loathe Al Davis, or they love Al Davis,” the Academy Award-winning actor said in an appearance on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” this week. “I played Al Davis. I love Al Davis.”

Approaching the release of the film, a biographic sports drama that documents John Madden’s life and journey that included winning a Super Bowl with the Raiders in the 1976 season, on Nov. 11, Bale touted the reverence he gained from playing and researching the Raiders’ legendary owner.

While Davis is widely recognized for his winning, fear-over-respect mentality, Bale grew to understand a different side of Davis.

“He had that motto, ‘once a Raider, always a Raider,’ and he really stood by it. The man said to get respect, you’ve got to be feared, I think he liked people to think about him that way,” Bale said. “But the people who loved him and knew him very well said he didn’t like to broadcast the fact that he had a really big heart and he genuinely took care of everybody who had been in his inner circle within the Raiders. No matter how many years they’d been gone, he still took care of them.”

The only person to serve as an NFL scout, assistant general manager, general manager, assistant coach, head coach, league commissioner and owner of a team, Davis understood every role of an organization.

“He wasn’t somebody with a lot of money who came in and bought the team,” Bale said. “He earned his way up to have that team.”

Davis also broke barriers for many others, championing a strong civil rights record that saw him become the first NFL owner to hire league’s first Black head coach (Art Shell), first female chief executive (Amy Trask) and Latino head coach (Tom Flores).

According to past reports, twice during the 1960s, Davis refused to let the Raiders travel to Southern cities for exhibition and all-star games where the cities did not allow Black and white players to stay in the same hotel. Davis also had a knack for acquiring castaway players who thrived when given a second chance with the Raiders.

“That’s very American. You know, isn’t it?” Bale said. “Everybody getting a chance of having that opportunity? And he so often would bring in players that other teams were benching or getting rid of.

”He saw something in them and they would often go to great heights of glory within the Raiders (organization).”

Bale, who has a decorated resume of roles he’s played from professional boxer Dickie Eklund in “The Fighter,” English motorsports hero Ken Miles in “Ford v Ferrari,” and of course, Bruce Wayne in the Dark Knight trilogy, put Davis at the top of his favorite characters.

“He’s one of my favorites,” Bale said. “Very sad day, when I stopped playing Al.”

Contact Trevor Squire at [email protected]. Follow him at @trevordsquire on X.

"Madden"

What: Biographical film of former Raiders coach and NFL broadcaster John Madden.

Theater release: Nov. 11 on select screenings.

Streaming release: Nov. 18 on Prime Video.