As Cillian Murphy recalled to Christopher Nolan (per EW), “It was clear to me from the start that I wasn’t Batman materials.” However the expertise of working with Nolan on these display checks gave Murphy a “buzz,” each from enjoying Batman and forging the start levels of a inventive partnership with the director. As Nolan mentioned, they knew from their first dialog that Murphy seemingly would not be Batman, however that was irrelevant — they nonetheless discovered widespread inventive trigger with one another. And Nolan knew Murphy might be a novel and memorable villain for his distinctive tackle Batman.
With a relative unknown enjoying the superhero, it made sense to present him a marquee title antagonist. From Jack Nicholson (because the Joker in 1989’s “Batman”) onward, the “Batman” movie sequence had forged large film stars as its villains, typically considerably larger than the actors enjoying the hero. Murphy, whereas clearly a expertise, wasn’t that, so Nolan shrewdly used the massive display check with Murphy as a way of convincing Warner Bros. executives that the actor had the chops to play the film’s villain.
“There was no dissent,” Nolan remembered after asking executives about casting Murphy. With a superb displaying on the display check, Murphy’s lack of fame on the time proved irrelevant. He and Nolan instantly started working on the character, with Murphy telling Empire on the time that he and Nolan collaborated on a practical and creepy design for the Scarecrow, one the place he could be draped in a burlap sack.
And whereas the director never meant for “Batman Begins” to kick off a trilogy, Murphy’s returning presence because the Scarecrow in each sequels offers the sequence a powerful sense of continuity (one reflective of the fondness between the director and the actor).
