Aaron Sorkin Confirms Christian Bale Will Play Steve Jobs

2 minute read

Christian Bale didn’t have to audition to win the role of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic, says screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.

“Well, there was a meeting,” Sorkin told Bloomberg Television in an interview confirming that the Dark Knight star will play Jobs. “We needed the best actor on the board in a certain age range and that’s Chris Bale.”

Sorkin, the writer behind television shows like The West Wing and The Newsroom, is adapting Walter Isaacson’s 2011 biography for the big screen, four years after rendering Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, in the film The Social Network.

The Academy Award winning Bale was rumored to have won the role over other possible contenders, including Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Leonardo Dicaprio, according to The Verge.

But Sorkin confirmed in the interview posted Thursday that Bale will fill the challenging role.

“He has more words to say in this movie than most people have in three movies combined,” Sorkin said. “There isn’t a scene or a frame that he’s not in. So it’s an extremely difficult part and he is gonna crush it.”

Biopic Actors and Their Real-Life Counterparts

Meryl Streep Suffragette
Meryl Streep plays Emmeline Pankhurst in SuffragetteFocus; Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
steve-jobs-michael-fassbender-biopic-actors
Michael Fassbender plays Steve Jobs in Steve JobsUniversal; Bob Riha Jr—Getty Images
ellen-page-stacie-andree-biopic-actors-photo
Ellen Page plays Stacie Andree in FreeheldLionsgate; Tom Spader—AP
joseph-gordon-levitt-the-walk-phillipe-petit
Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Philippe Petit in The WalkSony Pictures; Dave Pickoff—AP
Biopic Actors
Johnny Depp plays James 'Whitey' Bulger in Black MassWarner Brothers; AP
André Benjamin plays Jimi Hendrix in All Is By My SidePatrick Redmond—XLrator Media; Photoshot/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Adrien Brody plays Harry Houdini in Houdini. History Channel; Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Chadwick Boseman plays James Brown in Get On Up.Universal Pictures; Gilles Petard—Redferns/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Ashton Kutcher plays Steven Jobs in Jobs.Open Road Films; Tom Munnecke/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Cate Blanchett plays Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.Weinstein Co.; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
James Franco plays James Dean in James Dean.Getty Images (2)
Biopics Actors
Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.Weinstein Co.; Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate.Disney; Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Anthony Hopkins plays Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock.Fox Searchlight; NBC/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Salma Hayek plays Frida Kahlo in Frida.Miramax; Popperfoto/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Gary Oldman plays Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy.MGM; Richard E. Aaron—Redferns/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Denzel Washington plays Malcolm X in Malcolm X.Warner Bros.; Truman Moore—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Leonardo DiCaprio plays J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar.Warner Bros.; Bachrach/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Ben Kingsley plays Gandhi in Gandhi.Columbia; Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Michelle Williams plays Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn.Weinstein Co.; NBC/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny Cash in Walk the Line.20th Century Fox; David Gahr/Getty Images
Biopics Actors
Daniel Day-Lewis plays President Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln.20th Century Fox; Culture Club/Getty Images
Don Cheadle plays Miles Davis in Miles Ahead.
Don Cheadle plays Miles Davis in Miles Ahead.Brian Douglas, Ton Pouw—AP
Demetrius Shipp Jr. plays Tupac Shakur in All Eyez on Me.
Demetrius Shipp Jr. plays Tupac Shakur in All Eyez on Me.Summit Entertainment; Raymond Boyd—Getty Images

Read next: Remembering Steve Jobs, the Man Who Did Almost Everything Right

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Write to Noah Rayman at noah.rayman@time.com