AceShowbiz - Christian Bale feared he was heading for a real-life beating on the set of new boxing movie "The Fighter" - because the brawler he was portraying in the film didn't like certain scenes. Tough Boston, Massachusetts boxing legends Mickey Ward and Dickie Eklund lived with the film's star Mark Wahlberg while he and Bale were making the gritty movie with director David O'Russell - and the "American Psycho" star admits there were times the five of them almost came to blows.

He tells WENN, "There were a couple of times where the real Dickie had to be physically restrained from landing one (punch) right on David. We had some initial interesting times when we were rehearsing in Mark's house, where Mark very nicely put up Mickey and Dickie and they actually lived at his house for some time."

"There were some script changes going on and Dickie wasn't initially understanding that sometimes when you put your whole life into two hours a little bit of license has to be taken. He wanted everything to be exactly how it was portrayed and, if it wasn't, a couple of times he was threatening to have a go. That's a serious thing coming from a pro boxer."

"Then we'd talk and David would talk with him. I'm not sure if David ever had to stop him from coming and laying one on me. That could well have happened. He actually came around and seemed to really understand the process. After we showed him the movie he didn't punch any of us and I talked to him almost daily, so I think that's a great achievement."