Cillian Murphy ‘Batman’ Audition, Complete Seven Minutes Featurette [Video]

When Cillian Murphy did his screen test for Batman all those years ago, he couldn’t have known that we would be talking about it right now, but we are. It’s just cool to look back and see how things looked then.

A few days ago, the video of Christian Bale auditioning in Val Kilmer’s Batman costume surfaced from the extras on the Blu-Ray release of The Dark Knight Trilogy: Ultimate Collector’s Edition.

Now we have a complete featurette of the process of casting Batman in which director Christopher Nolan talks about finding the right guy for the role and how he wanted someone who wasn’t associated with many roles.

Christian Bale was the first actor he met with in the quest to find his Batman.

Nolan says they had to convince the studio that their choice was the right one, whomever they picked had to be able to play Bruce Wayne and his other self, Batman equally well.

Cillian Murphy is not the only one who didn’t make it, Eion Bailey is also seen auditioning while Nolan recalls that he “had no idea” what he was looking for in a potential Batman.

He only had the costume to go by, but he wasn’t sure what direction the character would take. For Nolan, whoever portrayed Batman had to project massive energy through the costume in order to make a memorable performance.

Christopher Nolan says the voice was critical and Christian Bale nailed it. He made a big impression with his voice while wearing the costume, it had to be completely different from Bruce Wayne’s voice.

Christian Bale as Batman.

This would explain why people who know both Wayne and Batman can’t tell one from the other.

As to Cillian Murphy’s performance, Nolan says as good as it was, he wasn’t right for the role, and one can tell by looking at this new featurette. Do you agree?