Christian Bale is on the July issue of Details magazine. In the issue he opens up about being in the Dark Knight, never having a plan B, and always swimming against the current.

Christian reveals that in order to wear the Batman suit he had to meditate before putting it on because he didn’t want claustrophobia to cost him the role. He admits he was terrified the first time he put the iconic black suit on and had to learn to over come his fear. He said:

“I was standing on the back lot where they were creating the suit, and I had a few minutes to myself… just thinking, `This isn’t going to work. I’m claustrophobic, I can’t breathe, I’m getting a headache already, and this is all going to go very badly.’”

”I just said to myself, `Breathe deeply for a few minutes. Try this out. Don’t run around yelling and making an ass of yourself trying to pull the whole thing off.’ I wasn’t going to get it off by myself. It takes three people. I just had flashes of what an as*h*le I would feel like saying, `Well, I wasn’t able to play that character, because I panicked every time I got in the suit.’”

On his Dark Knight co-star Heath Ledger he says:

“He was incredibly intense in his performance but incredibly mellow and laid-back. Certainly there was this great anarchistic streak to it – just getting dirtier than anybody’s envisioned the Joker before. Naturally, (the movie) was something I wanted to share with him – and expected to do so. And I can’t do anything else but hope that it will be an absolutely appropriate celebration of his work.”

Check out exclusive video and more on Christian Bale’s Details interview here.