Christian Bale’s making a pretty strong case for his promotion to Everyone’s Favorite Method Actor when Daniel Day-Lewis retires later this year. The actor’s latest transformation is for the role of former Vice President Dick Cheney in Adam McKay’s upcoming film Backseat. Or so he says. I’m not entirely convinced this isn’t a clever excuse for Bale to chow down on some carbs and try out one of those weird and exhausting new eyebrow trends.

Bale appeared at the Telluride film festival this past week to promote his new film, Hostiles, a brutal western drama from director Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace). The actor was also honored with a special tribute, where he showed up looking like this:

To be honest, it’s not that shocking, but Access Hollywood seems pretty shook about it:

Even those with a passing familiarity of Bale’s work are aware of his zealous physical commitment to craft. He famously went from playing a scary skinny insomniac in The Machinist to playing a totally ripped Batman for Chris Nolan in just a few short months. And, lest we forget, that indelible look from American Hustle.

In addition to allowing Bale to indulge in some serious bread products, Backseat reunites the actor with Amy Adams, who plays Cheney’s wife, Lynne, and with Steve Carell, who plays Donald Rumsfeld. Sam Rockwell plays George W. Bush (of course) and Bill Pullman was recently cast as Nelson Rockefeller.

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