Batman Begins
As the release of Oppenheimer approaches, director Christopher Nolan and Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy reminisce the latter’s audition for “Batman Begins.”
Speaking with EWChristopher Nolan described how he landed Cillian Murphy the part of ‘Scarecrow’ in the first installment of DC’s megahit trilogy.
Murphy was interested in playing Batman, though he says he didn’t feel ‘right’ for the part.
“It felt to me that it was correct and right that it should be Christian Bale for that part. But I remember the buzz of trying on the suit and being directed by you. Those tests were high production values,” Murphy said.
Nolan also admitted that he knew Cillian Murphy would not play Batman. But the director was certain he wanted the Irish actor in the film.
“I think both of us knew that you weren’t going to wind up playing Batman. But I really wanted to get on set with you, I wanted to get you on film,” Nolan revealed.
“We did those screen tests very elaborately, on 35mm, with a little set. There was just an electric atmosphere in the crew when you started to perform.”¬¬
Nolan set up a screen test with two scenarios and invited the executives to hear Cillian Murphy perform, resulting in unanimous approval on Murphy’s induction.
“We did two scenes — there was a Bruce Wayne scene and a Batman scene — and I made sure that executives came down and watched what you were doing on set. Everybody was so excited by watching you perform that when I then said to them, ‘Okay, Christian Bale is Batman, but what about Cillian to play Scarecrow?’ there was no dissent. All the previous Batman villains had been played by huge movie stars: Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey, that kind of thing. That was a big leap for them and it really was purely on the basis of that test. So that’s how you got to play Scarecrow.”
In Batman Begins, Murphy portrayed Scarecrow, an unethical psychopharmacologist who serves as the Chief Administrator of Arkham Asylum. He uses his position as Dr. Jonathan Crane to serve Ra’s al Ghul’s (Liam Neeson) nefarious agenda, putting Gotham City at risk.
The legendary actor and director team has previously collaborated on projects like as Inception, Dunkirk, and now Oppenheimer, which reaches theaters on July 21.
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