Christian Bale spoke at length on the red carpet in London’s Leicester Square at the  The Dark Knight Rises European Premiere. The Batman actor talks about new villain Bane, Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman Selina Kyle and how he feel about the end of Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed Dark Knight Saga. Read the full interview below and enjoy some exclusive video footage as well…

How does it feel to be back in London for the European Premiere?

It’s really something else. It’s nice, because there are so many people who are involved in the movies. We’re here with so many other actors and so many crew members as well. We always shot so much of the movies here in England. It’s stunning to be here, it’s very nice to come back here and get this sort of feeling.

How does it feel knowing this is your final film as Batman?

It makes it bittersweet but also you know we’re very fortunate that we got to make all three. You know people were very sceptical about the first one we were making. Christopher Nolan said to me he wasn’t expecting to be making more than one. Then with this one we went wow we’ve got the big three! You know I’m really flattered that people have been interested enough in this incarnation of it and that they’re excited still to see this.

Is it ever distracting playing such an iconic character?

You can’t help that. I remember we were on Wall Street with about a thousand extras waiting for me and Tom to arrive to start shooting and you know you get used to it. I know that it’s just me,  a big old Brat inside the suit but then I walked down on set and everyone just went silent looking at Batman. It’s been a real honour to play this role.

Fans are very excited to see Catwoman, what should we expected from Anne Hathaway’s performance as Selina Kyle?

Anne Hathaway is very good. You know we never actually call her Catwoman throughout the movie but people will see that at the beginning of this movie the Bruce Wayne is not the man he once was and Batman has disappeared. So he needs some sort of re-invigoration and that comes in the form of Selina Kyle and the threat of Bane and the young character of John Blake played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Tom Hardy also plays Bane, what makes him different from villains we’ve seen in the past films?

Yeah I think he’s the most physically capable adversary that Batman’s faced, because whilst previously there’s been very devious characters and obviously Heath did that so well as the Joker, Bane is just pure physical dominance. Batman has to realise that he’s unlike anything he’s seen before.

What were the fight scenes like between you and Tom Hardy as Batman and Bane?

They were very good. Tom and I like to get into it. We tried to do a lot of it ourselves but obviously not the wire work, the jumping off building stuff. I don’t want to take away credit from the fantastic stunt guys. With the fighting we had to really tell a story with those fights and they were real throw down brutal fights. I think they look wonderful, better than any of the fights in the previous movies.

What will you miss most about playing Batman?

I’m going to miss the fact that we established a real community and we knew that we were going to revisit working with each other and the characters. You build up a real short hand. You know we filmed for seven months each time on these. You get used to and enjoy the company of people and working with them.

It looks like Batman has even more fun toys in this films?

There are a number of gadgets in this one and the team should be really proud of that. The tumbler it is an amazing vehicle and there were many different guises of it. But the great thing about Chris is that he tries to make everything really do what it’s supposed to be doing. So when the Tumbler jumps it’s really jumping. It wasn’t CGI with that. Riding inside of it, it will burst your eardrums though,  it’s so bloody noisy!!

Did you or Christopher Nolan ever have any uncertainty about whether or not you could top The Dark Knight?

I think the safe things to say are that Chris wouldn’t have considered making another move if he didn’t believe that he could do something that was bigger and more challenging than the previous movies. I view them all as one movie. So I think we’re very fortunate to have had a beginning and a middle, now with this one you get the end.

Looking back on the three films could you pick a favourite scene?

There were multiples because we had so many scenes that we shot. But there’s the scene between myself and Michael Caine in the plane during Batman Begins where he first kind of talks about the idea and that really set up the entire trilogy.

What do you think is at the heart of Batman that makes him such a fantastic character? How has he changed from Batman Begins to now?

I really think of him as three different characters. You’ve got this one guy who’s had this stunted growth and arrested development. He’s witnessed his parent’s murder and he’s stayed as a child. Then you have the very vacuous playboy billionaire who is the most insincere form of Bruce Wayne. Then you have Batman himself and he’s being absolutely sincere, that isn’t a performance. The great thing about Batman is that he’s always almost turning into a villain himself. He has to remind himself of the ideals that he aspires too.

Check Out the video below for some lovely Broll of Christian Bale walking the red carpet …