Tessa Thompson Was Afraid She'd Punch Christian Bale On The 'Thor: Love & Thunder' Set

Christian Bale's god-killing Gorr is anything but "cute" in Thor: Love and Thunder, though co-star Tessa Thompson says he was actually a "big sweetie" behind the scenes of the latest Marvel film.

Thompson, who plays Valkyrie in the newest flick, recently told Narcity about how kind Bale was behind the scenes — and how she was secretly terrified that she'd accidentally hit him during the shoot.

"I'm such a big Christian Bale fan, I have been for so long," Thompson confessed.

"So I was like, 'God, please don't accidentally punch him or anything.'"

The actress says she had similar thoughts a few years ago while working with Cata Blanchett, who plays the villainous Hela in Thor: Ragnarok.

"There's this one scene where I have to come behind Cate Blanchett and I'm trying to get her as Hela, and I'm just so nervous on the wire," she recalled. "I was like, 'Please don't hurt Cate Blanchett!'"

Blanchett and Bale each survived their scenes with Thompson, although Thompson's Valkyrie and Bale's Gorr do get into a few intense face-to-face showdowns in the latest film.

One of those scenes involves an up-close meeting between the two, in which Bale taunts her from beneath his grotesque white-and-black makeup.

She says he looked fearsome, but he'd actually pop out of character and check in with her after each shoot, just to be sure things were alright.

"It was so cute," she said. "After every take he'd be like, 'You alright? You alright?'"

"It was so sweet because it's so antithetical to this sort of terrifying person that he was playing (...) He's just a big sweetie."

That's a far cry from the Christian Bale of old, who once blew up at a member of the Terminator: Salvation film crew in a clip that went viral.

But with an Academy Award, a few Dark Knight films and several more years behind him, it sounds like Bale is more "love" and less "thunder" behind the scenes these days.

You can watch Thompson's Valkyrie team up with two Thors (Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman) to take down Bale's God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder.