Christopher Nolan reveals his first interaction with Cillian Murphy

Christopher Nolan revealed his first impression of Cillian Murphy adding that he was "struck" when he first witnessed a picture of the actor on a magazine cover.

Speaking about their first interaction on the set of Batman Begins, with Entertainment Weekly, the Oppenheimer director revealed that he was drawn to Murphy's "crazy eyes" after seeing a photo in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Nolan said that he called Murphy for the audition of Bruce Wayne, which ended up with Christian Bale.

Nolan revealed that Murphy’s audition created an "electric atmosphere" causing the crew to agree on him playing the role of Dr. Jonathan Crane a.k.a Scarecrow.

"It was clear to me from the beginning that I wasn't Batman material. It felt to me that it was correct and right that it should be Christian Bale for that part," Murphy confessed.

"But I remember the buzz of trying on the suit and being directed by you. Those tests were high production values," he added.

Nolan admitted, "When we had our first conversation I think both of us knew that you weren't going to wind up playing Batman. But I really wanted to get on set with you, I wanted to get you on film."

He continued: "We did those screen tests very elaborately, on 35mm, with a little set. There was just an electric atmosphere in the crew when you started to perform. We did two scenes — there was a Bruce Wayne scene and a Batman scene — and I made sure that executives came down and watched what you were doing on set."

"Everybody was so excited by watching you perform that when I then said to them, 'Okay, Christian Bale is Batman, but what about Cillian to play Scarecrow?' there was no dissent. All the previous Batman villains had been played by huge movie stars: Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Carrey, that kind of thing."

The director said, "That was a big leap for them and it really was purely on the basis of that test. So that's how you got to play Scarecrow."