Batman Begins is one of the highest-grossing and fan-favorite movies based on the DC comic character Batman. The movie revolves around the lead Bruce Wayne who lost his parents at a very tender age, hence he learned fighting skills to bring justice to Gotham City. The lead was played by the extremely talented actor and American Psycho fame Christian Bale. Along with him, actor Gary Oldman also plays a prominent role in the franchise.
In the film Oldman plays the role of Commissioner Gordon, however, the Harry Potter actor was initially offered a different role in the movie.
Also read-Gary Oldman Nearly Played THIS Iconic Villain in The Dark Knight Trilogy (But Thankfully Didn’t)
Christopher Nolan wanted Gary Oldman to play Raʼs al Ghul in Batman Begins
Gary Oldman played the role of Commissioner Gordon in the Batman trilogy and was appreciated in the films. His role in the film was taking on all the corrupt and treacherous beings of Gotham City. As per reports, the actor was originally offered the role of Raʼs al Ghul.
Oldman has given a spectacular performance in the role of Commissioner Gordon, but Nolan wanted him to play another character in the first part of The Dark Knight trilogy.
Nolan revealed in an interview on the Warner Brothers Youtube page,
“I met with Gary for Raʼs al Ghul … originally because he’s an actor I admired tremendously, and I wanted to get him in the film.”
It would be an achievement for an actor to get any role in a Christopher Nolan film, however, Oldman was adamant about not doing a particular character.
Nolan shared,
“He had played a lot of villains and he wasn’t really interested in playing another villain in our film. I mean, he met with me, and we got on very well. But something wasn’t sitting right with him about being the villain in a Batman film.”
The role of the villain Ra’s al Ghul ultimately landed with Liam Neeson.
Christopher Nolan offered Gary Oldman the role of Commissioner Gordon in Batman Begins
When Gary Oldman refused to play a villain in the film, the director decided to offer him Commissioner Gordon’s character.
Nolan recalled,
“So I called him a few days later and just completely changed direction. I said, ‘What about—we’ve got this great character of Commissioner Gordon?’”
Nolan shared that he felt the role was not yet explored in detail in any of the previous Batman movies.
He added,
“And Gary was very respectful to the actors who played the part in the past, but my take was they really hadn’t done much with that character in any of the other visual tellings. I really wanted to get someone as great as Gary Oldman so that you could drill into the essential integrity of the character in a corrupt world. [Gary’s] played a lot of extremely fascinating, very deeply flawed individuals, but I’d never seen him play a straightforwardly-good man.”
Christopher Nolan wanted to offer the role to Oldman as it was outside of his area of expertise.
Christian Bale’s Batman Begins is currently streaming on Netflix.
Source-Showbiz Cheat Sheet
