Christian Bale: Moses is just like me

Christian Bale was surprised by how "human" Moses is.

The 40-year-old actor stars as the religious figure in the upcoming Biblical drama Exodus: Gods and Kings, which follows Moses' uprising against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses. Ridley Scott helms the feature and approached Christian for the role while the star was in the middle of filming American Hustle, but he was quick to jump on the bandwagon.

"The first thing that surprised me was how human not only Moses is but God is as well," Christian explained to Empire magazine.

"They fight, they have bust-ups. It's almost like God has to prove himself. And it's b***dy violent. Egypt is a really fascist state. Pharaoh (Joel Edgerton) is believed to be a god, so he's brazen and has a very harsh outlook on life. And this is a place where life is very cheap. I wouldn't b***dy last a second."

A whole Ancient Egyptian city was recreated in the Almería desert of Spain for the film. It took over 300 craftsmen to build.

Ridley wanted to capture the tale of Moses leading the Hebrews out of slavery in as much detail as he could, but Christian admits not everything could be included.

"There was talk about how much we could tell, but for a start, we'd end up making a six-hour-long film," the actor explained. "There are these hideous massacres that happen later on in Moses' life, and you don't get that. [The Bible's] not for kids. It really isn't. I wouldn't want my daughter reading it."

Although there is hype surrounding the movie Christian doesn't let it get to him, always telling himself that "no-one's going to see it anyway".