🎭 Actors

Cillian Murphy Auditioned To Play Batman — And Somehow Walked Away With Six Christopher Nolan Movies Instead

From a doomed Bruce Wayne screen test to an Oscar for Oppenheimer, here's the wild, real path Cillian Murphy actually took through Hollywood casting rooms.

By The Clapperboard Staff · July 20, 2026 · 2 min read

Cillian Murphy Auditioned To Play Batman — And Somehow Walked Away With Six Christopher Nolan Movies Instead

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He Screen-Tested As Batman. He Knew The Whole Time He Wasn't Getting It.

The role he tested for — and the one he actually got instead

The actor Murphy always said was the only right choice for Bruce Wayne

Murphy was one of about ten actors who tested for Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Begins, even suiting up for an elaborate 35mm screen test opposite Amy Adams reading lines off-camera. Christopher Nolan never actually intended to cast him as Batman — he staged the whole test just to convince Warner Bros. executives to hire Murphy as Scarecrow instead, and it worked without a single objection.

28 Days Later Almost Had Him Talking In A Completely Different Accent

The breakout role that almost had a different accent entirely

Auditioned for a small role in the same movie

Danny Boyle cast Murphy off the strength of his stage performance in Disco Pigs, but Jim was originally written and auditioned as an English character. Boyle and Murphy scrapped that mid-production and rewrote him as Irish, and future X-Men star James McAvoy actually auditioned for a small role as one of the Infected in the same film.

He Flew To L.A. Two Days Before His Wedding Just To Get This Villain Role

The role he flew across the world for — days before getting married

His co-star and onscreen target in the thriller

Murphy wanted the part of Jackson Rippner in Wes Craven's Red Eye so badly he took a flight to meet Craven for lunch only two days before his own wedding. Craven reportedly cast him on the spot, later saying it was Murphy's eyes that sealed the deal.

Tommy Shelby Was Almost Played By Jason Statham. One Text Changed That.

Steven Knight's original pick for Tommy Shelby

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight originally wanted Jason Statham for Tommy Shelby, meeting both actors in L.A. before picking Statham because "physically in the room Jason is Jason." Murphy turned it around by sending Knight a simple follow-up text — "Remember, I'm an actor" — and got cast instead.

Inception Kept The Nolan Streak Going — This Time As The Target, Not The Villain

Murphy's third film with Nolan, playing the heist's actual target

After Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Nolan brought Murphy back for Inception as Robert Fischer, the heir whose subconscious the entire heist is built around. It kept Murphy's role in Nolan's world evolving — from screen-tested Batman hopeful to trilogy villain to the guy at the center of a completely different kind of mind game.

In Dunkirk, He Doesn't Even Get A Name — And He Still Almost Ended Up Wearing A Bag On His Head Again

The nameless role Murphy took purely on Nolan's word

Murphy's Dunkirk character is credited only as "Shivering Soldier," a shell-shocked survivor pulled from the sea. When Nolan called about the role, Murphy said his first question was literally whether he'd have to wear a mask again, joking about Nolan's habit of covering his face in nearly every film they'd made together.

He Wrote John Krasinski A Fan Email About A Quiet Place — Then Never Sent It

The role he got because its director became a Peaky Blinders fan

Wrote and directed the sequel, and personally sought Murphy out

Murphy was so taken with A Quiet Place that he drafted an admiring email to Krasinski and chickened out of sending it. Krasinski and Emily Blunt ended up binge-watching Peaky Blinders while prepping the sequel and decided on the spot that Murphy was exactly right for the new, morally ambiguous character Emmett.

Nolan Didn't Call For Oppenheimer. He Flew To Dublin And Handed Murphy The Script In Person.

The lead role, 20 years and six movies in the making

Flew to Dublin himself just to hand over the script

After five films together, Nolan skipped the phone call entirely and personally delivered the Oppenheimer script to Murphy in Dublin. It wasn't Murphy's first brush with the role, either — he'd previously been considered to play J. Robert Oppenheimer years earlier for the short-lived TV series Manhattan before finally landing the part that would win him the Oscar.