Christopher Nolan Was ‘Afraid’ Of ‘Crazy’ Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. revealed earlier this month that he first met his Oppenheimer director, Christopher Nolan, in the early 2000s. RDJ badly wanted to be cast as Scarecrow in Nolan's 2005 Batman Begins. The role instead went to his Oppenheimer co-star and lead, Cillian Murphy. However, Downey realized when he met Nolan for tea but got the sense the director wasn't interested in casting him as the film's villain. In a new joint interview with the Iron Man alum for The New York Times, Nolan fully admitted the exact reason why he passed on him nearly 20 years ago.

Nolan bluntly said to RDJ that he "100% knew" he wasn't the guy to play Scarecrow. The English filmmaker already had an idea in his head of who he wanted to play the role, but he always wanted to meet Robert. Complimenting the actor, Nolan admitted he was a "huge admirer" of him and took their meeting for selfish reasons. Then, he admitted he was "a little afraid of him" because he heard "all kinds of stories" about how RDJ was crazy. Though those stories about RDJ's addiction and prison sentence were in the late '90s, Nolan felt not enough time had passed to shake his thoughts about him.

In 1996, Downey was arrested for possession of heroin, cocaine, and an unloaded gun. He was given three years of probation. A year later, he was jailed for nearly four months for skipping a court-ordered drug test. Skipping another test in 1999, RDJ was sentenced to three years in prison, serving 15 months. Four months after his release, he was arrested again for drug possession. The actor quit drugs for good in 2003 after his wife Susan gave him an ultimatum.

When asked about how he got over his initial worries about Downey, Nolan said in his NYT joint interview that after he was cast as Tony Stark in Iron Man, "It wound up defining our industry." Since he finished up with his Marvel character in 2019's Avengers: Endgame, Nolan wanted to offer Downey a role unlike any he'd had before. That is, once he stopped being afraid of him. For his role as Lewis Strauss, he won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Christopher Nolan is one of the best directors of our era. His way of storytelling is complex and resonates with audiences worldwide, leading his films to gross billions at the box office. The English filmmaker developed an interest in the industry from a young age. Growing up, Nolan was influenced by Ridley Scott's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Star Wars (1977). At just seven years old, he'd borrow his father's Super 8 camera and shoot short films with his action figures. He'd create makeshift sets with his brother Jonathan built from clay, flour, egg boxes, and toilet rolls. At age 11, he aspired to be a professional filmmaker and worked as a script reader, camera operator, and director of corporate and industrial films.

However, with no support from the British film industry, Nolan was struggling to get his projects off the ground. Despite that, Nolan created his first feature film, 1998's Following, which he wrote, directed, photographed, and edited with a £3,000 budget. Following won several awards during its festival run and was well-received by critics. The success allowed Nolan to make Memento two years later, which became his breakthrough film. After that, Nolan approached Warner Bros. with the idea of making a new Batman film based on the character's origin story. He wanted to approach it with a more realistic world than a comic-book fantasy. Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy set the bar for future superhero films in the way he achieved a gritty, realistic tone. With 12 films under his belt, each seemingly his best work to date at the time of their release, it's hard to pick a favorite.

Take a look below at our top five picks of Nolan's best films.

We’re told early on in the film that we shouldn’t try to understand it, but that we should feel it. Starring Robert Pattinson and John David Washington, this 2020 thriller was a fun watch in an empty theater during Covid. Like some of his earlier films, an abstract concept -- in this case, inverting time to experience things in reverse -- makes for an exciting and captivating watch. Also, like his previous films, our future selves hold power over our present-day selves.

As an adaptation of a 1995 novel by critically-acclaimed author, Nolan's 2006 film starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as dueling magicians in late 1800s London showcases how far a person is willing to go to perform the ultimate magic trick: teleportation. Their characters' obsessions with one another teeter the line of charming and sinister.

This 2000 film starring Guy Pearce is told in reverse. It's about Leonard Shelby, who’s been desperately trying to avenge his wife’s death. Because he suffers from short-term memory loss, he forgets everything within minutes. So, his body has hints all over via tattoos. But, the tattoos are revealed to him one at a time and sometimes in hidden places or designed in reverse to be read in a mirror. This is an exhilarating watch, especially for the first time, as we experience everything as it happens to Leonard.

Nolan's second Batman film is hands-down one of the most influential movies of our time. This is our most revisited Nolan film, due to the power it holds of being more than just your average superhero flick. Christian Bale's Batman is tormented by the late Heath Ledger's ruthless, disturbing tactics and every droning moment of the film pulls you in (We'll thank the score, by the legendary Hans Zimmer, for that).

Of all of Nolan's films, this one was the most intriguing conceptually and visually. The 2010 film follows high-tech thieves with the ability to break into people’s dreams and steal hidden ideas from their subconscious. In order to secretly plant an idea in a person’s head, they have to enter that person’s dream -- several dream levels down. Should they go too far down the dream levels, they'll be stuck in a dream forever and their brains will melt. This film makes us appreciate the misdirection used throughout and how dangerous the power of ideas are when implanted.