Josh Hartnett Thinks Turning Down Batman Cost Him A Role In Another Christopher Nolan Movie

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Only a select few of Hollywood leading men get to play Batman; the movie business is filled with Bruce Wayne would-bes. But losing out on that part can still leave the door open for future opportunities.

William Baldwin lost out on playing Batman under director Joel Schumacher to Val Kilmer and then George Clooney; his consolation prize was getting to voice Batman years later in the animated film "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths." Nicholas Hoult was similarly the runner up to Robert Pattinson to star in "The Batman," but he later got to play Lex Luthor in "Superman" instead. Likewise, Cillian Murphy's screen test to play Batman in "Batman Begins" got him cast as the Scarecrow instead.

Murphy wasn't the only one who lost out on "Batman Begins" in favor of Christian Bale. In a 2015 interview with Playboy, Josh Hartnett revealed that he had "talked about" starring in "Batman Begins" with writer-director Christopher Nolan. In 2023, appearing on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast hosted by Josh Horowitz, Nolan addressed rumors that Hartnett had screen-tested or even gotten an offer for "Batman Begins."

"It never got that far," Nolan said. "As I recall, [Hartnett] was a young actor whose work I was very interested in. I had an initial conversation with him, but he had read my brother's [Jonathan Nolan] script for 'The Prestige' at the time and was sort of more interested in getting involved with that."

Speaking to the Independent in 2023, Hartnett corroborated that he had been more interested in doing "The Prestige" back then. He wasn't interested in playing (or being typecast as) a superhero, but he was interested in working with Nolan:

"I loved Chris as a filmmaker, and I really wanted to work with him, and I was hoping that if I was straight-up honest with him about not wanting to do the superhero movie, maybe I could do 'The Prestige.'"

Of course, that isn't what happened. Instead, Nolan reused his Batman actor (Bale) as one of the leads of "The Prestige." Rubbing extra salt in the wound was the fact that Hartnett's then girlfriend, Scarlett Johansson, got a part in "The Prestige," but he didn't. In the aforementioned Playboy interview, Hartnett summed up his Batman experience as this lesson: "People don't like being told no."

Now, the suggestion that Nolan held a grudge against Hartnett, or deliberately snubbed him from "The Prestige" because he didn't want to be Batman, is pure speculation. It's worth noting that Nolan did eventually cast Hartnett in his 2023 film "Oppenheimer" as physicist Ernest Lawrence. So, if there was a grudge, it clearly wasn't a long-lasting one.

Now, what sets "The Prestige" apart from "Batman Begins" that made Hartnett interested in the former but not the latter? "The Prestige" is a period piece, set in Victorian England, following two rival stage magicians: Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). Their efforts to one-up each other costs both men happiness, love, and their lives. "Batman Begins" was a blockbuster, whereas "The Prestige" was, well, a prestige picture. (Even if it ultimately had two superhero actors headlining it.)

Nolan casting Bale in "The Prestige," and not Hartnett, is likely more simple than Bale being the one who previously told him "Yes." Nolan had already made one movie with Bale, so he knew they worked well together. He also knew firsthand that Bale had the range to play Borden, who is (SPOILER) actually two identical twins sharing a life as the ultimate magic trick. That's not too dissimilar from Bruce Wayne's secret identity as Batman, so of course Nolan got his Batman to do it.

Hartnett himself said in the Playboy interview that he didn't realize the value of building relationships, to make other types of movies, that playing Batman would've brought him:

"That's when I realized relationships were formed in the fire of that first Batman film, and I should have been part of the relationship with this guy Nolan, who I felt was incredibly cool and very talented. I was so focused on not being pigeonholed and so scared of being considered only one thing as an actor."

So, one last piece of speculation: "The Prestige" has two leads, so which one would Hartnett have played? He seems like a more obvious pick for Angier; a handsome gentleman but angry and self-righteous. No one could've played Borden like the Cockney chameleon Christian Bale. Then again, Hartnett's recent performance in "Trap" as Cooper, a suburban dad and secret serial killer, shows he can play a single character with two lives. If he had starred in "Batman Begins" and then "The Prestige," maybe we all would've learned that about Hartnett much sooner.