Cillian Murphy says losing Batman role to Christian Bale was ‘for the best’

Cillian Murphy has said he was content with Christian Bale beating him to the role of Batman – one reason being his belief that he was not the right physical fit for the part.

The Irish actor portrays atomic bomb physicist J Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s latest film, Oppenheimer, currently in cinemas.

This film marks Murphy and Nolan’s sixth time working together, but the first time with Murphy in the lead role.

Their first collaboration was in the 2005 film Batman Begins, the first film of Nolan’s DC fantasy trilogy.

Bale portrayed the dark superhero, while Murphy starred as The Scarecrow, the villain of Batman Begins.

In a new interview with GQ, the Peaky Blinders star opened up about missing out on the title role. Asked whether he thought it was ultimately the right course of events, Murphy agreed.

“Yes, I think it was for the best because we got Christian Bale’s performance, which is a stunning interpretation of that role,” he explained.

“I never considered myself as the right physical specimen for Batman. To me, it was always going to be Christian Bale.”

Previously, Nolan said that both he and Murphy had been aware that he wasn’t correct for the part early on in the process. Still, the Tenet director knew that he wanted Murphy involved in some way.

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“When we had our first conversation, I think both of us knew that you weren’t going to wind up playing Batman,” he said to Murphy in a conversation for Entertainment Weekly. “But I really wanted to get on set with you, I wanted to get you on film.”

Murphy, 47, and Nolan, 52, spoke to The Independent ahead of Oppenheimer’s release, and the actor admitted that he had jumped at the opportunity to play a lead role for Nolan.

“There was no build-up or warning; he just called me out of the blue and said, ‘Would you like to play him?’” Murphy said.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t desperately want to play a lead for him. I think any actor in the world would want to work with Chris, whatever size the part. It was a dream.”

The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey gave the film a four-star review, describing it as Nolan’s “best and most revealing work”, adding: “It’s a profoundly unnerving story told with a traditionalist’s eye towards craftsmanship and muscular, cinematic imagination.”

Oppenheimer is in cinemas now.