In a recent interview, recorded shortly after ‘Oppenheimer’ received 13 Oscar nominations in January, Nolan, 53, and Downey, 58, reminisced about their initial meeting during the casting of Nolan’s 2005 film ‘Batman Begins’.
Downey had previously made headlines by mentioning a one-off meeting with Nolan about playing the Batman villain Scarecrow. Nolan confirmed during the Times discussion that he indeed knew Downey wasn’t the right fit for the role at that time.
“I 100 per cent knew you weren’t the guy. In my head that was already cast,” Nolan admitted. “But I always wanted to meet you.”
Downey, expressing admiration for Nolan, mentioned that the meeting was both thoughtful and gratuitous. Nolan then revealed his initial hesitation, saying, “But I was also a little afraid of you, you know. I had heard all kinds of stories about how you were crazy. It was only a few years after the last of those stories that had come out about you.”
When asked how Nolan overcame his “misgivings” about Downey’s reputation before his iconic run as Iron Man, the actor humorously replied, “You let 10 or 12 years pass and watch the news cycle.”
Downey, nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the upcoming Oscars for his role in ‘Oppenheimer’, had faced legal troubles in the late 1990s but got sober in 2002. Nolan acknowledged the significance of casting Downey as Tony Stark in 2008’s Iron Man, calling it “one of the most significant and consequential casting decisions in Hollywood history.”
Reflecting on working with Downey in ‘Oppenheimer’, Nolan explained the appeal of catching an actor in a moment in their career where there’s something new or different to offer. He praised Downey for shedding his charismatic Tony Stark persona and immersing himself in the dramatic portrayal of Lewis Strauss.
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“You’re always looking to work with great actors, but you’re also looking to catch them in a moment in their lives and careers where you’ve got something to offer them that they haven’t done before, or haven’t done in a long time,” Nolan said. “I just really wanted to see this incredible movie star put down all of that baggage, that charisma, and just lose himself in a dramatic portrayal of a very complicated man.”
“I always wanted to work with him, really,” Nolan added. “Once I stopped being afraid of him.”
– Farheen Ali