“I never considered myself the right physical specimen for..”: Cillian Murphy Does Not Regret Losing $9 Million Payday in Christopher Nolan’s Movie
BAFTA award-nominated actor Cillian Murphy began his acting career with Enda Walsh’s 1996 play Disco Pigs, which was later adapted into a movie in 2001 with Murphy reprising the role. Over the years, he has played some of the most complex characters in multiple movies and TV shows.
The turning point of Murphy’s career was Disco Pigs‘ casting director recommended him to director Danny Boyle, who cast the Irish actor in his horror movie, 28 Days Later which was released in 2002 and follows a pandemic survivor who is confused about his surroundings after waking up from a coma. The movie’s success came as a surprise to Murphy. He was nominated for Breakthrough Male Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards for his role in this movie.
Cillian Murphy Has Proved His Acting Potential Over and Over
Cillian Murphy starred in the lead role in the 2003 movie Intermission, which was the highest-grossing independent movie in the history of the Irish box office until the record was broken by The Wind That Shakes The Barley in 2006. The Seagull actor was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his performance in Neil Jordan’s 2005 movie Breakfast on Pluto.
The next big break that Murphy got was the BBC series, Peaky Blinders in which he played the role of Thomas Shelby, popularly known as Tommy Shelby. The series was streamed for 6 seasons from 2013 to 2022. An interesting fact about Murphy’s casting is that he wasn’t the first choice for the role. In fact, it was a text message from him to director Steven Knight that made actor Jason Statham lose the lead role.
Cillian Murphy’s career reached new heights when he was asked to audition for the lead role of Bruce Wayne aka Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins which is the first movie of The Dark Knight trilogy and was released in 2005.
Cillian Murphy Refused to Be Batman
Although Cillian Murphy was rejected from the lead role, Christopher Nolan was so impressed with his acting that he cast him in the supporting role of Dr. Jonathan Crane aka supervillain Scarecrow in The Dark Knight franchise. Later in an interview, Nolan said: “He has the most extraordinary eyes, and I kept trying to invent excuses for him to take his glasses off in close-ups.” The lead role went to Christian Bale who earned $9 million for starring in just 3 movies.
When asked in an interview if he thinks that his losing the lead role of Batman was for the best, Murphy replied:
“Yes, I think it was for the best because we got Christian Bale’s performance, which is a stunning interpretation of that role. I never considered myself the right physical specimen for Batman. To me, it was always going to be Christian Bale.”
Following The Dark Knight trilogy, Murphy also appeared in Nolan’s 2010 sci-fi film, Inception which stars Leonardo di Caprio in the lead role. In Christopher Nolan’s 2017 historical epic, Dunkirk, Cillian Murphy played the role of a shell-shocked soldier. His most recent collaboration with Nolan is the 2023 smash hit Oppenheimer in which he plays the role of American physicist, Robert J. Oppenheimer known for developing the first atomic bomb.
Source: GQ
