As Christopher Nolan prepared to reboot Batman after the nipple-clad Batman and Robin drove the franchise off a cliff, Jake Gyllenhaal came very close to nabbing the role of the Dark Knight. In fact, he was the top choice of Batman Begins screenwriter David Goyer.
Obviously, Christian Bale walked away with the coveted role and cinematic history was made. No stranger to rejection after narrowly missing out on the lead role in Moulin Rouge, Gyllenhaal took the casting decision in stride. However, a phone call from Nolan made all the difference in the world to the young actor.
Here’s what Gyllenhaal recently revealed to Howard Stern via Variety:
“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 said. “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! There are all these non factors that really are the inexplicable stuff that if you start to pick away at [why] it doesn’t work, it’s not healthy.”
The call from Nolan particularly meant a lot to Gyllenhaal as it spurred him to land career-defining roles in Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead.
“I just got a call personally from Christopher Nolan,” Gyllenhaal recalled. “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.”
Road House is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
(Via Variety)