Christian Bale has admitted he "went overboard" when scolding a technician on the set of Terminator Salvation.

An audio clip of the 35-year-old actor swearing at the film's director of photography after his scene was interrupted was leaked on to the web earlier this year.

Speaking about the incident to Total Film, Christian said: "I did what I did, I'm not hiding from that - I went overboard."

He continued: "But there is an essential trust and it's not a tacit one, it's a verbal one, a spoken one, which is every sound guy says, 'We are not only not recording, we are not listening.' So, well, there goes that."

Christian added he was worried the fuss caused by the clip would ruin people's enjoyment of the film.

"It's not in anyone's interest to know that much... I'm actually someone that's very anti the whole B-rolls, DVD extras and stuff like that. I understand people are interested, I get that they want to hear about it, but to me I look at it as old-school movie magic and with magic you do not reveal your secrets," he said.

:: The full version of the interview can be read in the next issue of Total Film, out on Friday.