Robert Downey Jr. still remembers his unsuccessful attempt to play the Scarecrow in 2005’s Batman Begins.
“I’m pretty sure that I heard, like, ‘there’s this role, Scarecrow,’ and I was like, ‘psh, I’m Scarecrow,” Downey said during a Q&A session at a special screening of Oppenheimer at the Aero Theater (per Entertainment Weekly).
Downey continued by recounting his first meeting with director Christopher Nolan during the early casting phase, which turned awkward. “I remember meeting for tea, and I was like, ‘He doesn’t seem like he’s really leaning in on this interview,’” Downey said. “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.’”
How did Cillian Murphy beat Robert Downey, Jr. for the Scarecrow?
The role of Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow ultimately went to Cillian Murphy, whose breakout performance in 28 Days Later put him on Hollywood’s radar. Ironically, Murphy was high on Nolan’s shortlist for Bruce Wayne/Batman until the actor’s screen test for the Dark Knight proved to be unsuccessful. After Nolan cast Christian Bale in the title role, the director was so eager to work with Murphy that he made him the DC supervillain instead.
“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,” Nolan said at the Oppenheimer screening.
Despite losing out on the Scarecrow role, Downey found his comeback vehicle in the superhero genre three years later with Marvel Studios’ Iron Man. Downey eventually landed the opportunity to collaborate with Nolan as Lewis Stauss in Oppenheimer opposite Murphy 20 years after losing the Scarecrow role. The two stars recently landed nominations for the 96th Academy Awards.
