It's no secret that Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy auditioned for the title role in 2005's Batman Begins, and while Christian Bale was ultimately chosen to play the Dark Knight, the Irish actor still nabbed a lead role.
As the evil Chief Administrator of Arkham Asylum, Dr. Jonathan Crane, Murphy made life very difficult for Batman as Scarecrow. However, he wasn't a big star at the time and his role in the movie came as a surprise to many.
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor revealed that it was filmmaker Christopher Nolan who, eager to cast him in the movie, tricked Warner Bros. executives into watching an audition tape that would get them on board with him playing Scarecrow.
Nolan and Murphy both knew he wasn't right for Batman, but the director took the opportunity to get him to try out as the villain so he could later show that to those calling the shots.
Nolans recalls, "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 [Murphy] were doing on set."
"It was clear to me from the beginning that I wasn't Batman material," the actor responded. "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."
To that, the filmmaker says: "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 [Murphy] got to play Scarecrow."
Murphy later reprised the role in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, making his mark on the Caped Crusader's world in a big way.
What did you guys think about Batman Begins' take on Scarecrow?