Batman Begins

Cast

  • Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman:A billionaire socialite who, after witnessing his parents' death in a mugging at age 8, travels around the world seven years before returning home to inherit his family company Wayne Enterprises whilst operating at night as a bat-masked vigilante bringing justice upon the criminal underworld of Gotham City. Bale was relatively unknown when cast.[5] Before he was confirmed on September 11, 2003,[6] having expressed interest in the role since Darren Aronofsky was planning his own film adaptation,[7] Eion Bailey, Henry Cavill, Billy Crudup, Hugh Dancy, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joshua Jackson, David Boreanaz, Heath Ledger, who later played the Joker in The Dark Knight, and Cillian Murphy, who would later be cast as Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow, took interest in it as well.[6][8][9] Josh Hartnett met with Nolan about the role, but decided against pursuing it.[10][11][12] Bale, Bailey and Murphy auditioned using the Batman Forever sonar suit donated by Val Kilmer, but the cape was lost,[13][14][15][16][17] and Amy Adams served as the casting reader for the casting of Bruce Wayne / Batman in a favor to the casting director.[18] Bale felt the previous films underused Batman's character, overplaying the villains instead.[19] To best pose as Batman, Bale studied graphic novels and illustrations of the superhero.[20] Director Nolan said of Bale, "He has exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for."[21] Goyer stated that while some actors could play a great Bruce Wayne or a great Batman, Bale could portray both radically different personalities.[22] Since he had lost a great deal of weight in preparation for his role in The Machinist, Bale hired a personal trainer to help him gain 100 pounds (45 kg) of muscle in the span of only a couple of months to help him physically prepare for the role. After realizing he went over by 30 pounds (14 kg), he lost the excess weight by the time filming began.[22] Bale trained in Wing Chun Kung Fu under Eric Oram in preparation for the movie.[23][24][25][26]
    • Gus Lewis as Young Bruce Wayne.[27]
  • Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth:A trusted butler to Bruce's parents, who continues his loyal service to their son after their deaths as his closest confidant. Nolan offered the role to Anthony Hopkins but he declined.[28][29] Nolan went to Caine's country home to personally deliver him the script, telling what his role would be and describing Alfred as "Batman's godfather".[30] Nolan felt Caine would effectively portray the foster father element of the character.[22] Although Alfred is depicted in the film as having served the Wayne family for generations, Caine created his own backstory, in that before becoming Wayne's butler, Alfred served in the Special Air Service. After being wounded, he was invited to the position of the Wayne family butler by Thomas Wayne because, "He wanted a butler, but someone a bit tougher than that, you know?"[31]
  • Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard / Ra's al Ghul: The leader of the League of Shadows, an ancient society that uses chaos to punish the corrupt and decadent, who goes undercover as an associate of the League and trains Bruce in martial arts, later revealing himself in the film's climax. Writer David Goyer said he felt he was the most complex of all the Batman villains, comparing him to Osama bin Laden; "He's not crazy in the way that all the other Batman villains are. He's not bent on revenge; he's actually trying to heal the world. He's just doing it by very draconian means."[32] Gary Oldman was first choice for the part, but ended up playing James Gordon instead.[33] Guy Pearce, who collaborated with Christopher Nolan on Memento (2000), reported that the pair had discussions about him playing the role, but both of them decided that he was too young for the part.[34] Viggo Mortensen was also considered for the role.[35] Neeson is commonly cast as a mentor, so the revelation that his character was the main villain was intended to shock viewers.[22]
  • Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes: Bruce's childhood friend and love interest who serves as Gotham City's assistant district attorney and fights against corruption in the city of Gotham. Nolan found a "tremendous warmth and great emotional appeal" in Holmes, and also felt "she has a maturity beyond her years that comes across in the film and is essential to the idea that Rachel is something of a moral conscience for Bruce".[36]
    • Emma Lockhart as Young Rachel Dawes.
  • Gary Oldman as James "Jim" Gordon:One of the few uncorrupted Gotham City police officers, who is on duty the night of the murder of Bruce's parents and, in this way, shares a special bond with the adult Bruce and thus with Batman. Oldman was Nolan's first choice for Ra's al Ghul,[33] but when Chris Cooper turned down the part of Gordon to spend time with his family[37] Nolan decided that it would be refreshing for Oldman, who is renowned for his portrayals of villains, to play the role instead.[38] "I embody the themes of the movie which are the values of family, courage and compassion and a sense of right and wrong, good and bad and justice," Oldman said of his character. He filmed most of his scenes in Britain.[39] Goyer said Oldman heavily resembled Gordon as drawn by David Mazzucchelli in Batman: Year One.[22]
  • Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow: A corrupt psychopharmacologist working as Chief Administrator of Arkham Asylum. A specialist in the psychology of fear, he has secretly created a fear-inducing toxin and plots with Ra's al Ghul to expose the entire Gotham population. Nolan decided against casting an Irish actor like Murphy for Batman, before casting him as Scarecrow.[40] Murphy read numerous comics featuring the Scarecrow and discussed making the character look less theatrical with Nolan. Murphy explained, "I wanted to avoid the Worzel Gummidge look, because he's not a very physically imposing man – he's more interested in the manipulation of the mind and what that can do."[41]
  • Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone:The most powerful Mafia boss in Gotham, who shares a prison cell with Joe Chill after he murdered Bruce's parents. Later, after having Chill murdered for his decision to testify against their relationship, he goes into business with Dr. Jonathan Crane and Ra's al Ghul by smuggling in Crane's fear toxins through his drug shipments over the course of several months so that they can be mixed in with the city's water supply.
  • Rutger Hauer as William Earle:The CEO of Wayne Enterprises, who takes the company public in Bruce's long-term absence.
  • Ken Watanabe as decoy Ra's al Ghul:A member of the League of Shadows assigned to impersonate Ra's al Ghul during Bruce's training.
  • Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox:[22]A high-ranking Wayne Enterprises employee demoted to working in the company's Applied Science Division, where he conducts advanced studies in biochemistry and mechanical engineering and supplies Bruce with much of the gear necessary to carry out Batman's mission. He is promoted to CEO when Bruce takes control of the company by the end of the film.

Other cast members include Mark Boone Junior as Arnold Flass, Gordon's corrupt partner; Linus Roache as Thomas Wayne, Bruce's late father; Larry Holden as district attorney Carl Finch; Colin McFarlane as Gillian B. Loeb, the police commissioner; Christine Adams as Jessica, William Earle's secretary; Vincent Wong as an old Asian prisoner; Sara Stewart as Martha Wayne, Bruce's late mother; Richard Brake as Joe Chill, the Waynes' killer; Gerard Murphy as the corrupt High Court Judge Faden; Charles Edwards as a Wayne Enterprises executive; Tim Booth as Victor Zsasz; Rade Šerbedžija as a homeless man, who is the last person to meet Bruce when he leaves Gotham City, and the first civilian to see Batman, Risteárd Cooper and Andrew Pleavin as uniformed policemen, Jo Martin as a police prison official, and Shane Rimmer and Jeremy Theobald (the star and co-producer of Nolan's 1998 film Following) as Gotham Water Board technicians. Jack Gleeson, who had previously co-starred with Bale in 2002's Reign of Fire and later found fame for his role as Joffrey Baratheon in the HBO series Game of Thrones, appears as a young admirer of Batman who is later saved by him from Ra's al Ghul's men; Gleeson was cast at Bale's recommendation. Actors John Foo, Joey Ansah, Spencer Wilding, Dave Legeno, Khan Bonfils, Mark Strange, Grant Guirey, Rodney Ryan and Dean Alexandrou portray members of the League of Shadows. Hayden Nickel made his acting debut portraying James Gordon Jr.


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