Longtime Christopher Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphy admitted he declined to read the full “Dark Knight Rises” script to keep the surprise trilogy ending under wraps.
Murphy, who portrayed mad scientist Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow in the superhero films, shared during an oral history alongside director Nolan for Entertainment Weekly that he preferred to be kept in the dark when it came to how the franchise concluded.
“I remember when you called, you said, ‘You want to read the script?’ and I said, ‘You know what, I don’t actually want to read the script. Just tell me what I’m doing, just tell me what my motivation is, and then I want to see the movie,’” Murphy said to Nolan. “I didn’t want to spoil it. So I just came in for that one day, did that little bit on that amazing set, and then waited to see the movie. And it was worth it.”
Similarly, Murphy previously revealed that he avoided studying any science for Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” in which he plays the titular father of the atomic bomb.
“The Dark Knight” director Nolan added during the EW interview that his “favorite” scene with Murphy as Scarecrow in the trilogy is “definitely the kangaroo court scene where he’s on top of that massive pile of desks” from “Dark Knight Rises.”
“I just think, in a world of anarchy, the last judge you’d want to come in front of would be Jonathan Crane,” Nolan said, teasing that the character “never died, just conveniently would be sort of offscreen somehow. Therefore [I was] able to call you up and say, ‘Come on back and put the sack over your head one last time.’”
Murphy had auditioned to play Batman in the films prior to Christian Bale’s casting. Nolan recalled, “Everybody was so excited by watching you perform that when I then said to them, ‘OK, Christian Bale is Batman, but what about Cillian to play Scarecrow?’ there was no dissent. All the previous Batman villains had been played by huge movie stars: Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey, that kind of thing. That was a big leap for them and it really was purely on the basis of that test. So that’s how you got to play Scarecrow.”
Now, Murphy is stepping into his first lead role with Nolan for the highly anticipated WWII period piece “Oppenheimer” complete with an all-star ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and Emily Blunt.
“I have always said publicly and privately, to Chris, that if I’m available and you want me to be in a movie, I’m there. I don’t really care about the size of the part,” Murphy recently said. “But deep down, secretly, I was desperate to play a lead for him.”
