Did You Know Cillian Murphy Replaced Robert Downey Jr. In A Christopher Nolan Movie, Years Before Oppenheimer?
In this Christopher Nolan movie, Cillian Murphy replaced Robert Downey Jr. in a role, and now Netflix has removed it from its list of classics. Read on to know.
Cillian Murphy Once Replaced Robert Downey Jr. In A Film(Photo Credit –Facebook)
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Netflix is one of the biggest OTT platforms, offering viewers a wide range of movies, shows, and web series to stream. However, amid the range of movies that were available to stream in the United States, it has removed one of the classics. That is none other than Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005). It was Nolan’s debut in the superhero genre and made everyone go gaga about it. The director went on to make a trilogy of the Batman film series, which Christian Bale led in the titular role.
Many might know that Nolan had initially thought to cast Robert Downey Jr. in the Batman Begins trilogy as the character Scarecrow, but ultimately it didn’t happen. However, instead of Downey, the role was passed on to Cillian Murphy, who created magic onscreen. But do you know how Murphy got roped in for the character and how Downey got rejected? Scroll ahead to read on.
Why Christopher Nolan Was Against Casting Robert Downey Jr. As Scarecrow?
In an interview with The NY Times, Nolan appeared alongside the Sherlock Holmes actor and admitted that even if he had met with Robert Downey Jr., he knew the Scarecrow character would not be given to him. In his head, he had already prepared the cast and didn’t think he was the right fit. In fact, he wanted Cillian Murphy to play the iconic villain character. The Inception maker said, “I 100% knew you weren’t the guy [for Scarecrow].”
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Nova imagem do Robert como Lewis Straus em “Oppenheimer”, de Chritopher Nolan 🎬 pic.twitter.com/pIfVUc6XEx
He continued, “In my head, that was already cast. But I always wanted to meet you … I was a huge admirer of yours, and therefore selfishly just wanted to take the meeting. But I was also a little afraid of you, you know. I had heard all kinds of stories about how you were crazy. It was only a few years after the last of those stories that had come out about you.” Reportedly, their meeting had happened before Marvel could rope Downey as Iron Man. Years after the Batman Begins trilogy, the Nolan-Downey duo worked together on Oppenheimer, and well, that created a history.
How Did Cillian Murphy Get The Role Of Scarecrow?
Cillian Murphy had gone to audition for the lead character, Batman/Bruce Wayne, in the movie. However, both the director and the actor knew that he wasn’t the right fit for the role, but he still made Murphy do the screen tests. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Christopher Nolan said, “When we had our first conversation, 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. 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 further continued to explain how Murphy got Scarecrow’s role and shared, “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.”
Well, Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. later worked together in Oppenheimer. But did you know this little trivia about Murphy replacing Downey for this DC character? Let us know.
