The original big screen Iron Man movie didn’t just kickstart the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It gave Robert Downey Jr. a new act. Back then the actor, who went drug-free in 2003, was still seen as a potential liability, risky to cast. That didn’t stop him from delivering some of his best, most exciting work, in the likes of Zodiac, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and A Scanner Darkly. He was doing so well that he even tried to get into the superhero movie business a few years before Marvel came his way, even if it of course didn’t work out.
RDJ dropping BOMBS at the @am_cinematheque conversation. He apparently met w/Nolan for SCARECROW for Batman Begins only to be beat out by Cillian Murphy. Woah! #Oppenheimer pic.twitter.com/zBE9tts47E
— Griffin Schiller (@griffschiller) February 4, 2024
Per Entertainment Weekly, Downey did a Q&A in Los Angeles after a screening of Oppenheimer. (Yes, it’s still playing in theaters, over six months after its release. Go see it on IMAX 70mm if you can.) At one point he recalled the first time he tried to work with future Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan…only to lose out to his future Oppenheimer costar. That film was, of course, Batman Begins.
“I’m pretty sure that I heard, like, ‘there’s this role, Scarecrow,’ and I was like, ‘psh, I’m Scarecrow!” Downey told the crowd. “I remember meeting for tea, and I was like, ‘He doesn’t seem like he’s really leaning in on this interview. 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.’”
So who wound up getting the role of Dr. Jonathan Crane, aka the Batman baddie with the gas-emitting mask? Cillian Murphy, who went on to become a Nolan regular.
It all worked out, of course. Downey got to play Tony Stark, a hero rather than a villain. Nearly two decades later Murphy and Downey got to square off, this time with the former as the (sort of) hero and the latter as the hissable villain, namely scheming, thin-skinned bureaucrat Lewis Strauss. (Downey even got to finally learn about Nolan’s fastidious on-set rules.) And now both are up for Oscars, with each having a good chance of winning. If only life were always like this.
(Via EW)
