Two Oppenheimer stars competed for the Scarecrow role in Christopher Nolan‘s ‘Batman Begins‘.
In a conversation with American Cinematheque, Robert Downey Jr. shared that he met Nolan for Scarecrow in ‘Batman Begins’ but lost out to Cillian Murphy.
Downey Jr. said, “Or he just considered you. I’m pretty sure that I heard, like, he’s Ro, this real scarecrow, a scarecrow. And then I remember meeting for, I was like, he doesn’t seem like he’s really leaning in on this, uh, this interview. And he was polite and all that, but I mean, you know, you can tell when someone was kind of like, you know, it is, it’s not, it’s not going to go way how much.”
It’s not a big deal that Downey Jr. landed his legendary role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in 2007, marking the inception of the MCU. The first movie ‘Iron Man’ grossed $585 million, and he continued reprising his role until ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ for which he received his final payout from Marvel, amounting to $100 million. See the Iron Man movies ranked top to worst.
Stan Lee, the creator of Iron Man, once remarked that Downey Jr. was born to play the iconic character, stating, “That man was born to be Iron Man, you know? He’d be on the top of the list.” Lee also praised Marvel’s casting decisions, adding, “But, I have to say: whoever does the casting for Marvel is a genius.”
‘Oppenheimer,’ released on July 21, 2023, by Universal Pictures, has earned significant acclaim. The film received 13 nominations each at the 77th British Academy Film Awards and the 96th Academy Awards. Downey Jr. earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 96th Academy Awards for his role as Lewis Strauss, while Murphy was nominated for Best Actor for portraying J. Robert Oppenheimer.
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