Christian Bale wasn't allowed to meet Dick Cheney

Christian Bale wasn't allowed to meet former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney before portraying him in new movie Vice.

The Fighter star insisted on a sit-down with Cheney before he started work on the movie, but lawyers made it clear that wasn't going to happen.

"I said, 'Wait, every real person I’ve ever played I’ve always met', and they said, 'Yes, but you’ve acquired their life rights'," Bale recalls to Variety. "I would like to be able to sit and look Cheney in the eye and say why I feel like it’s justified to tell his story, you know?"

He still hopes to meet President George W. Bush's number two one day, but in the meantime he has his fingers crossed Cheney likes his portrayal.

"What I really wanted to make sure that I did is that I removed any of my own politics from it...," Christian tells the publication. "I was completely always looking for the good, for the positive, for the understandable aspect of why he would’ve made the decisions that he made."

The actor reteams with his American Hustle and The Fighter co-star Amy Adams in the film, and she also went all out to make sure her portrayal of Cheney's wife Lynne was accurate and fair.

"I still feel the need to defend Lynne when people talk about her," she tells Variety. "For me, it was my relationship with my grandmother. My grandmother who grew up in Provo, Utah, working-class. She reminded me so much of Lynne. I would just think of her and her offering me money to rub her bunions."