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Before Robert Downey Jr. changed the entire landscape of the entertainment industry in 2008 with Iron Man, the Academy Award-nominated actor had spoken with Christopher Nolan about playing the character of Jonathan Crane, a.k.a Scarecrow, in Batman Begins.
While Downey Jr. and Nolan would eventually link up for 2023’s Oppenheimer — which should see them both earn Academy Award gold for the first time — the presumptive Best Supporting Actor winner recently revealed that he had discussions with The Dark Knight trilogy filmmaker about starring as Scarecrow.
“I’m pretty sure that I heard like, ‘There’s this role, Scarecrow,’ and I was like, ‘psh, I’m Scarecrow,’” Downey Jr. said during a recent Q&A session following a screening of Oppenheimer at the Aero Theater in Los Angeles.
“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.’”
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
Funnily enough, the role of Scarecrow would go to Cillian Murphy, who Downey Jr. starred opposite in Oppenheimer. Similar to Downey Jr. being nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Murphy is nominated for Best Actor, while Oppenheimer is also nominated for Best Picture and is the odds-on favorite to win the award.
Had Downey Jr. been cast as Scarecrow, there’s no telling how it might have shaped modern movie history, as his performance as Tony Stark in Iron Man is widely considered to be one of the catalysts that led to the domination of comic book movies over the last decade-plus.