Christopher Nolan has recently recalled his first meeting with Robert Downey Jr while casting roles for his 2005 movie, Batman Begins.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Christopher said, “I 100 percent knew you weren’t the guy. In my head that was already cast.”
However, the director spoke of Robert, stating, “I always wanted to meet you.”
Christopher praised Robert after he called their first meeting as thoughtful yet gratuitous, adding, “I was a huge admirer of yours and therefore selfishly just wanted to take the meeting.”
The movie-maker remarked, “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,” noted Christopher.
Reflecting on his experience with Robert in Oppenheimer, Christopher pointed out, “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.”
“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,” explained the director.
Christopher added, “I always wanted to work with him, really. Once I stopped being afraid of him.”