Christian Bale Gets Roughed Up, Punched in China – Video

While in China to promote his latest film, “The Flowers of War,” the country's first entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2012 Academy Awards, Christian Bale wanted to take some time to meet a personal hero as well.

However, he and a CNN crew were stopped dead in their tracks by plainclothes police guards and thugs, roughed up and then sent back whence they came from.

Bale wanted to use his time in China to meet 40-year-old Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer and activist who has been kept under lockdown by authorities ever since he was released from prison.

Guangcheng first attracted the attention of authorities in the '90s for campaigning against forced abortion practices employed by the government. He was released from prison in 2010 but is a prisoner still.

Bale, CNN correspondent Stan Grant and cameraman Brad Olson attempted to gain access to the village in eastern China where Guangcheng and his wife are being kept isolated from the world.

As the video below shows, when they were nearing the village, they were surrounded by plainclothes police officers, who immediately got physical once they realized they were being filmed by at least two cameras.

The Oscar-winning actor was roughed up and even took a few punches, as the guards repeatedly attempted to knock the camera out of his hand – only to miss and hit him instead.

“I am here to see Chen Guangcheng. Why can I not visit this free man?” he is heard saying, as he's trying to reason with the guards.

Eventually, the three are forced to go back – and the guards make sure they leave for good, trailing their van for a good 40 minutes.

“What I really wanted to do was to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is,” Bale says as they're making their “escape.”

He only wanted to bring more attention to Guangcheng's case by tagging along with the CNN crew.

“This doesn't come naturally to me, this is not what I actually enjoy – it isn't about me. But this was just a situation that said I can't look the other way,” he tries to explain.

Below is the video.