Christian Bale's mask memento

Christian Bale's mask memento

(BANG) -

Christian Bale has kept his Batman mask.

The actor - who reprises his role as the Caped Crusader in new movie 'The Dark Knight' - was desperate to keep the entire Batsuit, but only has room for the famous headgear.

He said: "I kept the mask. I would love to keep the whole costume but I don't have room for the whole thing!"

Christian recently revealed he nearly turned down the role of the superhero because he felt the suit was too "claustrophobic".

He said: "I was standing on the back lot where they were creating the suit, and I had a few minutes to myself, staring up close in the mirror, just thinking, 'This isn't going to work. I'm claustrophobic, I can't breathe, I'm getting a headache already, and this is all going to go very badly.'

"I just said to myself, 'Breathe deeply for a few minutes. Try this out. Don't run around yelling and making an a** of yourself trying to pull the whole thing off. I just had flashes of saying, 'Well, I wasn't able to play that character, because I panicked every time I got in the suit.' "