Christian Bale has told how he watched Monty Python's Life Of Brian as part of his research for playing Moses in Exodus: Gods And Kings.

The American Psycho star plays the lead character in Ridley Scott's Biblical epic and has spoken for the first time about the role, at a question and answer session held at 20th Century Fox studios following a preview screening of some footage from the film.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Christian revealed that after first meeting with Ridley to discuss the role, he watched Monty Python's Life Of Brian and Mel Brooks' History Of The World: Part I.

"You have to have humour when you are playing something as serious as this. You have to have comedy in your life every day on the set," he said.

But he admitted that fronting such a large-scale production and leading it's enormous cast had felt like a lot of pressure.

Christian described the feeling as: "Look at all the people, what are they waiting for? Oh, me... Ridley, you should have cast somebody else."

The American Hustle star added that his own feeling was similar to that of Moses, who felt incredible pressure put on him after being chosen by God to save his people. Christian added: "He kept trying to get out of the gig."

Christian, who described his religious knowledge as "below Sunday school", revealed: "The big one for me, other than realising I had no idea about Moses at all, was just how complex a character he was,.

"He was a very troubled, tumultuous man and mercurial. But the biggest surprise was the nature of God. He was equally very mercurial."