Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters this weekend, and for Christian Bale, the film gave him a chance to pivot from playing a beloved hero, Batman, in Chris Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy, to this film’s heavy: Gorr the God Butcher.

The character begins as a devout man, whose god failed him and his people — particularly his daughter — and he gets the chance to get even. Soon, he begins a galaxy-wide vendetta against all gods, including, of course, Chris Hemsworth‘s titular god of Thunder.

“It’s a lot easier to play a villain than it is to play a hero,” Bale enthused at a recent press event. “Everyone is fascinated with bad guys immediately, and then the beauty of it is that Taika can make it bloody hilarious and really moving as well,” referring to writer-director Taika Waititi.

Bale adds, “I don’t know if it’s pushing it too much to say ‘sympathy’, but certainly you sort of understand maybe why this guy is making awful decisions, you know — and he is a monster and he is a butcher — but yeah, there’s possibly a little understanding of why he came to be that way.”

Thor: Love and Thunder also stars Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Russell Crowe, and Chris Pratt and his Guardians of the Galaxy pals. It opens nationwide July 8.

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