CNN Video: 'Batman' Star Christian Bale 'Roughed Up' by Chinese Guards

BEIJING (AP) — Academy Award winner Christian Bale, in the midst of promoting a film he made in China that some critics have called propaganda, has been stopped trying to visit a blind activist living under house arrest — with a CNN camera crew in tow.

CNN posted footage of a scuffle between Bale and the activist's guards on its website Friday.

The run-in and publicity is likely to cause discomfort in China's government-backed film industry, which hopes Bale's movie "The Flowers of War" might be a creative success at home and abroad. It also raises questions about whether it was prudent to bring the star to see an activist guarded by thugs who have turned away dozens of reporters and fellow activists trying to see him in the past.

Mediate:

“We’re trying to get out of here,” a CNN reporter exclaims. “We’ve been stopped. Stopped right here and as you can see, they’re pushing Christian here, trying to leave peacefully.”

As Bale and the CNN news team began to leave, the Chinese guards gave chase in their car.