Robert Downey Jr. Pitched Himself to Play Scarecrow in ‘Batman Begins’

Batman Begins could have had a very different take on its villain. Following a screening of Oppenheimer at the Aero Theater in Los Angeles last weekend, Robert Downey Jr. revealed that he lobbied director Christopher Nolan to play the part that eventually went to Cillian Murphy.

“I’m pretty sure that I heard, like, ‘There’s this role, Scarecrow,’ and I was like, ‘psh, I’m Scarecrow!” the actor told the audience during the post-screening Q&A. He eventually met with Nolan, but it didn’t go super well.

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“I remember meeting for tea, and I was like, ‘He doesn’t seem like he’s really leaning in on this interview,’” Downey recalled. “And he was polite and all that, but I mean, you know, you can tell when someone is kind of like, ‘It’s not gonna go your way.’”

Nolan cast Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane, the Arkham Asylum doctor transformed into the Scarecrow in the 2005 film. Murphy initially auditioned to play Batman, but both he and Nolan quickly realized he wasn’t the best fit for the caped crusader. “It was clear to me from the beginning that I wasn’t Batman material,” Murphy told Entertainment Weekly during a conversation between him and Nolan last year. “It felt to me that it was correct and right that it should be Christian Bale for that part.”

The director added, “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. Everybody was so excited by watching you perform [screen tests] that when I then said to them, ‘Okay, Christian Bale is Batman, but what about Cillian to play Scarecrow?’ There was no dissent.”

Downey Jr. and Murphy are both nominated for Oscars for their performances in Oppenheimer, which is also up for Best Picture. Downey Jr. recently won Best Supporting Actor at the Critics Choice Awards and used his acceptance speech to recount some of his worst reviews.

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