Christopher Nolan taking over the Batman film series in the 2000s marked a major shift for the comic book superhero. Christian Bale starred in the iconic role in 2005's Batman Begins and in the acclaimed sequels The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. But before the first movie, Jake Gyllenhaal was in the running to don Batman's black suit.
For some people, such as Dark Knight trilogy writer David S. Goyer, Gyllenhaal was the only choice to play Batman. After he lost out on the role, Nolan himself called Gyllenhaal to thank him for auditioning. It mirrored a similar experience he had a few years earlier with Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!, where both he and future Brokeback Mountain co-star Heath Ledger were considered for a part that ultimately went to Ewan McGregor.
"To [Nolan’s] credit and to Baz [Luhrmann’s] credit, both of those directors called me personally to tell me [I didn’t get the role]," Gyllenhaal recounted in a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show. "And they will tell you why. When you get that far, there’s a real legitimacy to you potentially getting something. It’s not like they’re going, 'Oh, thanks so much.' They are going, ‘I saw these aspects of you that I really wanted in the role and are wonderful, but in the end I ended up moving this way because it matches better with this person who is opposite you or would be opposite you.'"
"The color of their hair or their height, whatever it is!" he continued. "There are all these non-factors that really are the inexplicable stuff that if you start to pick away at it doesn’t work. It’s not healthy."
The call from Nolan, who became a first-time Oscar winner with last year's Oppenheimer, fueled Gyllenhaal's fire to persevere in his work, rather than disappoint him for getting so close only for him to not be chosen.
"To me, I just go, 'Look at how far you got! So just try and keeping going.' That’s what I felt," he said honestly. "I remember getting a call from Christopher Nolan and thinking, 'I just got a call personally from Christopher Nolan. That’s pretty cool. I’ve gotten pretty far. I went from them going they aren’t sure [about me] to a call saying they’re really thinking about you for this movie. So okay, I should keep going. I should just keep going.'"
There's always the possibility that Gyllenhaal and Nolan can work together again one day. If anything, it would be a full-circle moment for the two talents decades later.
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