The Pale Blue Eye: Christian Bale admits he sometimes doesn't want to work 'at all' (exclusive)

Watch: Christian Bale discusses his working relationship with director Scott Cooper

Christian Bale has admitted he's not a workaholic, and doesn't always feel like working. He's reteaming with director Scott Cooper for a third time on Gothic mystery The Pale Blue Eye after working with him in 2013's crime drama Out of the Furnace and 2017's western Hostiles.

In the Netflix thriller — on the platform from 6 January — Bale plays veteran detective Augustus Landor who is summoned to a military academy in 1830 to investigate a murder, where he meets a young Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling).

But despite the closeness of their creative relationship, Bale said he doesn't instantly say 'yes' to every script Cooper sends his way.

"He is a cheetah and I am a sloth. He wants to work far more than I do," the 48-year-old actor tells Yahoo.

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He added: "Sometimes he's trying to really poke me and I'm like 'I just don't want to do anything at all'.

"But we have a lot of projects that we have discussed and we've got at least a couple that we plan on doing in the future."

"When you work with people [often], you just find that there's an understanding between the two of you," Bale adds, discussing his working relationship with Cooper.

He added: "Obviously, as a director, if you find somebody who seems to get your vision and is achieving what you were hoping to achieve, then they seem to come back.

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"I'm very grateful for that and I really enjoy working with Scott. I love his ideas.

"We have kind of a nice shorthand between the two of us at this point and I enjoy being his right-hand man in trying to achieve his vision for whichever film it is we're making."

The Pale Blue Eye is adapted from Louis Bayard's 2003 mystery novel and drops its audience right into the heart of a chilly winter at a secluded New York military academy.

Melling said it was 'amazing' to be surrounded by this environment when getting into the role of Poe and finding the tone of the Gothic tale.

Read more: Harry Melling looks back on his Harry Potter role

He said: "Just in terms of landscape and how it looks, the feel of it, I think Masa [Masanobu Takayanagi], the DOP, did an amazing job in terms of the feel of it and the look of it.

"To have that landscape and then to drive a real taut thriller whodunnit through that is really exciting.

"I've always enjoyed a twist, so it's very exciting to present our very unique version of it with these wonderful characters."

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Bale and Melling are surrounded by a starry cast of talent, including Gillian Anderson, Lucy Boynton, Toby Jones, Timothy Spall and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

The Pale Blue Eye is available to stream on Netflix UK from 6 January.

Watch: Trailer for The Pale Blue Eye