Watch Cillian Murphy screen test Batman for Christopher Nolan
Sometimes, a director stumbles upon a rising star so great that they are forced to find a way to work them into every new project they take on. A well-nurtured partnership between filmmaker and actor can lead to a lucrative creative output, such as Martin Scorsese’s long-standing relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio. For Christopher Nolan, that actor seems to be Cillian Murphy.
The Irish actor’s most recent Nolan endeavour came just last year with Oppenheimer, with his considered performance in the titular role earning him award-season acclaim. But long before he received an Academy Award nomination for his work under Nolan’s direction, Murphy came to know the director through the blockbusting Batman trilogy.
Fans of the series, Nolan, or Murphy, will recall that the Irish actor took on the role of DC supervillain Scarecrow, also known as Jonathan Crane. The scale and responsibility of the film made Murphy nervous, but his anxiety was groundless when it came to Nolan. The director had been blown away by him from his initial screen test, though he resolved that he wasn’t quite right for the role he had taken on.
Before Murphy landed the role of the villain, he screen-tested for the hero. “We also had Cillian Murphy screen test for Batman,” Nolan explained in a behind-the-scenes clip via JoBlo Superheroes, “He wasn’t right for that part in the way that Christian was, but the performance was incredible and everybody took huge notice of it while we were shooting and while we watched the tests.”
Though Christian Bale rightfully won the lead part, embracing the gravitas and iconography of the character from the moment he stepped into the frame, Nolan couldn’t let Murphy’s talent pass him by. He approached the studio and posed him for the villain role, emboldened by his stunning screen test.
“I then was able to go to the studio and ask to put him in as Crane, as Scarecrow, in Batman Begins,” he recalled, “Even though, traditionally, in past iterations of Batman films, they’d always insisted on as big a star as possible playing the, sort of, fanciful villains, having seen Cillian’s test they were very very happy to put him in there.”
This more considered approach to acting, the decision to prioritise talent over fame, served the trilogy well as the film won over audiences and critics with its more serious approach to the genre. It also served Murphy well, as he embarked upon a creative relationship with Nolan that now spans six films and almost two decades.
Watch Murphy screen test for Batman below.
