The Oscar-winning English actor Christian Bale, who plays the lead role in the latest Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises, has made a personal visit to the survivors of a recent movie theater shooting in Colorado’s city of Aurora that left 12 people dead and 58 others injured.

The movie star spent almost three hours at the Medical Center of Aurora, meeting with victims of the shooting spree.

“It was good for the patients…We hope it was therapeutic for them, and all the staff really appreciated him coming,” said Bill Voloch, the interim president of the facility.

The masked gunman, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, was immediately arrested in the rear parking lot of the movie theater without any resistance.

Following the incident, the US police said that Holmes had had his hair painted red to look like the Batman movie’s villain.

Bale has also issued a statement, saying that “Words cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.”

Bale, the star of the last three Batman movies, won an Oscar in 2011 for his supporting role in The Fighter.

The massacre occurred early Friday when 24-year-old James Holmes opened fire on viewers during the screening of the The Dark Knight Rises, in Century Theater Cinema in Aurora near Denver, Colorado.