Cillian Murphy auditioned as Bruce Wayne for 'Batman Begins'

As Oppenheimer nears release, director Christopher Nolan and Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy recall the latter's audition for 'Batman Begins'.

Speaking to EW Christopher Nolan recounted how he got Cillian Murphy hired for the role of ‘Scarecrow’ in the first of DC's megahit trilogy.

Murphy was seeking the role of Batman, although he admits he didn’t feel like he was ‘right’ for the character.

“It felt to me that it was correct and right that it should be Christian Bale for that part. But I remember the buzz of trying on the suit and being directed by you. Those tests were high production values,” said Murphy.

Nolan confessed he also knew Cillian Murphy was not going to end up playing Batman. But the filmmaker had no doubts he wanted the Irish actor on the film.

“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,” Nolan said.

“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 set up a screen test comprising two scenes, and summoned the executives to watch Cillian Murphy perform; leading to unanimous agreement on inducting Murphy.

“We did two scenes — there was a Bruce Wayne scene and a Batman scene — and I made sure that executives came down and watched what you were doing on set. 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.”

Murphy played Scarecrow in Batman Begins, an unethical psychopharmacologist who works as the Chief Administrator of Arkham Asylum. He abuses his position as Dr. Jonathan Crane to further Ra's al Ghul’s (Liam Neeson) evil agenda, endangering the entire Gotham City.

The iconic actor and director duo has worked together on other projects as well; including, Inception Dunkirk and now Oppenheimer, which hits the screens on July 21.