Batman Begins: Jake Gyllenhaal Reflects on Losing Role to Christian Bale

Jake Gyllenhaal recalls Christopher Nolan reaching out to him when he lost out on playing Bruce Wayne to Christian Bale in Batman Begins.

Per Deadline, Gyllenhaal made an appearance on The Howard Stern Show where he reflected on not landing the lead roles in the 2005 Batman reboot and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! “I remember getting a call from Christopher Nolan and thinking, ‘I just got a call personally from Christopher Nolan. That’s pretty cool,” Gyllenhaal said. “I’ve gotten pretty far. I went from them going they aren’t sure [about me] to a call saying they’re really thinking about you for this movie. So OK, I should keep going. I should just keep going.”

He added, “When you get that far, there’s a real legitimacy to you potentially getting something. It’s not like they’re going, ‘Oh, thanks so much.’ They are going, ‘I saw these aspects of you that I really wanted in the role and are wonderful, but in the end, I ended up moving this way because it matches better with this person who is opposite you or would be opposite you. The color of their hair or their height, whatever it is!! There are all these non-factors that really are the inexplicable stuff that if you start to pick away at it doesn’t work, it’s not healthy.”

This was not the first time Gyllenhaal was on Hollywood’s radar for a superhero role. In 2003, the actor nearly replaced Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 2 when the star suffered a back injury on the set of Seabiscuit. Maguire ultimately returned to the role, but Gyllenhaal would ironically play the Wall Crawler’s nemesis Mysterio in 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. Additionally, Gyllenhaal was briefly considered for the big screen adaptation of The Green Hornet in 2004 when Kevin Smith was attached to direct.

Is Jake Gyllenhaal still interested in playing Batman?

Recently, Gyllenhaal’s name has been floated as a possible Bruce Wayne in DC Studios’ The Brave and the Bold. Though Batman Begins was a missed opportunity, the actor remains open to playing the Dark Knight if the opportunity arises.

“Oh, man. That’s a classic. It’s an honor,” Gyllenhaal said in an interview with Screen Rant. “Speaking of playing roles that other incredible actors have played in the past, to me actually roles that other incredible actors have played in the past, which, to me, actually, when I think about it, I’m going to play Iago in Othello with Denzel Washington, and I think about like the history of actors that have played that role throughout time, and I’m intimidated by that. So that’s the first level. That’s what I’m working on right now. But of course. It would be an honor always. Those types of things and those roles are classics.”