Cillian Murphy is indeed the king of exceptional versatility. With several big-budget cinemas and even more successful theatrical experiences, Murphy remains one of the unfettering famous names on the surface of Tinseltown today. While he is now recognized for being Christopher Nolan’s favored if not the first choice, the scenario was quite different in the early 2000s when he auditioned for the titular role of Batman.

Although one could hardly imagine Nolan making an about-turn for casting Murphy in his world of genius, the same did happen. However, what is even more surprising is that Murphy was even convinced about the rejection beforehand.

What was so convincing for Cillian Murphy to believe he lost his first role for Nolan?

Just recently, Cillian Murphy appeared in Josh Horowitz’s Happy, Sad, Confused podcast to talk about his journey in Hollywood. Speaking about several takeups of his lifetime, Horowitz also posed the question regarding his preparation for the audition for the first role that Nolan offered him for playing Batman in The Dark Knight. Recalling the audition calls, he said that he “knew that Christian Bale was the obvious choice”. He also emphasized how he lacked that “physicality then to cut to do it”, making the loss apparent.

The Irish actor continued how Nolan rang him back “a week or two later” to inform him about his fears turning to reality. Murphy added how his idea at the time was “to be able to get in a room with Christopher Nolan and to be able to say, ‘Oh well I worked with him’”. While it is true that he fell short during the initial eyes-meet with Nolan, it is safe to say that he compensated for the lost time with countless movies with him in the latter part of the decade. 

Not only did he compensate for the snub but right now is managing to do the unimaginable by bagging awards one after another for Nolan’s brainchild Oppenheimer. 

Cillian Murphy sweeps clean the 2024 award ceremonies

Cillian Murphy, who could not meet the cut for Christopher Nolan’s genius, still rings strange to the ears. Having made his meteoric ascent from not being a Nolan choice to consecutively being one, Murphy is currently making Nolan’s name shine with streaks of victories this trophy season. Beginning from the Golden Globes, Murphy has managed to bag the award for Best Actor across various ceremonies.

Following the Golden Globes with 5 wins in the name of Oppenheimer, a similar scenario took place at the Critics’ Choice Awards. Although Murphy did not win the Best Actor, the movie won 8 awards. Recently, at the BAFTA ceremony, Murphy became the first Irish actor to receive an award in a leading category with Oppenheimer winning another 7 awards. Now with 13 nods for the Academy Awards, let’s see if the streak gets stronger for Murphy and Oppenheimer this Oscar. 

Did you know that Cillian Murphy already knew about the turnout for his first-ever Christopher Nolan audition? Let us know in the comments below!