Christian Bale: 'I felt bad for Flowers of War prostitutes'

Christian Bale has confessed that he found it difficult to watch actresses portray prostitutes in The Flowers of War.

In the film, Bale plays an American priest who provides shelter for prostitutes and female students during the 1937 invasion of China's then-capital Nanjing by Japanese troops.

Bale told The AP: "Poor girls, they were always crying their eyes out. When I first arrived, I felt, 'This is just not good'.

"I don't like that - the girls having to be upset for 10 hours a day. They were crying their eyes out for 10 hours a day, I don't know about you but for me it was exhausting - it makes you ill."

However, the Dark Knight Rises star added that the actresses in question were entirely professional, saying: "They were actually really good actresses because they could suddenly stop and kind of go 'Hahaha, we can be like that', and I was so happy to see that."

Bale previously said that starring in The Flowers of War was a "no-brainer" as he was interested in working on a foreign film.

Watch Christian Bale in the trailer for The Flowers of War below: