Cillian Murphy’s Dr. Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow is one of the few supporting characters to appear in all three of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies. Widely praised for his performance as the terrifying villain, Murphy didn’t actually audition for the role. In fact, Murphy was gunning for the lead role of Bruce Wayne — he even screen-tested for the role.
In a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Nolan candidly discussed with Murphy how he knew he wasn’t the right fit for Batman. Despite that, Nolan said he was eager to work with Murphy and went forward with the screentest. “When we had our first conversation I think both of us knew that you weren’t going to wind up playing Batman,” Nolan told Murphy. “But I really wanted to get on set with you, I wanted to get you on film,” the filmmaker continued.
Strategic and playful, Nolan conducted the Bruce Wayne screentest with Murphy in the hopes of convincing Warner Bros. to give the Irish actor the Scarecrow gig. “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,” Nolan said. Murphy appeared in half a dozen of the creative maverick’s films, including “Oppenheimer,” his biggest film to date. And for Robert Downey Jr., missing the train on Scarecrow led to one of the most iconic roles in cinematic history. Sometimes, things just work out.
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