Heath Ledger's Joker may go down in history as the cinematic Batman villain, but could the Clown Prince of Crime throw a punch? That is the gap Tom Hardy fills in "The Dark Knight Rises" as Bane, the most physically devastating opponent Batman has ever faced.

MTV News' Josh Horowitz sat down with Christian Bale while he was promoting the film to ask the actor what those brutal fight scenes were like during filming. Considering how tough they were, Bale was pleased to hear that the pain comes across.

"This is the first adversary that can physically dominate Batman," he said. "And we should recognize also in his somewhat weakened state that this is just not the same Batman that we've been accustomed to seeing before."

For Bale, filming the fight sequence meant completely committing to the task at hand, even if it meant getting some bumps and bruises along the way. "You just have to commit, and you have to trust that you're with another actor who's going to commit as much," he said. "You have to give everything at every single second because those are the only takes that can be used, and when you do give everything, sometimes you end up causing pain, and you just have to accept that."

But before you get too worried about Bale's and Hardy's safety, it's important to remember that this is what they do for a living. "Tom's a tough guy, and I took a few blows as well," Bale said. "It's part of the job. You don't complain about it. We're young. We can take it, and you move on and hope that it makes it really seem believable."

Check out everything we've got on "The Dark Knight Rises."

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