London - Christian Bale made a special phone call to a Batman fan in hospital with leukaemia.
The 38-year-old actor - who plays the superhero in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy - made eight-year-old Zach Guillot's dreams come true when he called the youngster in Seattle, Washington, and asked him about his interest in the DC Comic book character.
In a heart-warming video posted online, Zach can be seen in his hospital bed holding a cellphone and talking to Christian, who asks him: "So tell me about yourself?"
Zach replies: "Well, I can’t really explain it...”
Zach’s mother then prompts him to tell the actor about his younger brother believing he is the real Batman.
Laughing at the statement, Christian asked: "Oh really? You are?"
Zach explained: "I have my own little Batmobile made out of cardboard, I've got the real mask and everything."
Christian replied: "Oh that's fantastic. You know what? I had to give mine back. They wouldn't let me keep mine. You're lucky you get to have one and run around and tell people you are Batman."
The Welsh actor - who is father to seven-year-old Emmeline with wife Sibi Blazic - has reached out to young cancer victims before. He flew four-year-old Jayden Barber and his family out to Disneyland in California for lunch last September, and this time round Christian encouraged Zach to keep dressing up as his favourite superhero so he could make people "happy" and spread good will into the world.
He said: "Anybody can be Batman. Anybody can be as strong as that, and help people and put good out into the world.
"It makes us all so happy, so thank you for doing that for us. Thanks for carrying the torch and keepin' on playing Batman, okay?” - Bang Showbiz