“I did something that I’ve always avoided doing”: Christopher Nolan Broke His Cardinal Rule to Cast Morgan Freeman in $2.4B Batman Franchise Despite Actor’s Hesitation

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy will go down in history as one of the most successful and iconic superhero series of all time. Once in an interview, the legendary director revealed how he did something very different for Morgan Freeman, something that he hasn’t done before in any of his hits before that like Insomnia and Memento to get the actor to play the role of Lucius Fox in the trilogy.

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Christopher Nolan allegedly wrote the character of Lucius Fox for Morgan Freeman

Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest directors of the 21st century and is known for his unique plots and iconic cinematography in his movies. However, when Nolan started working on the first movie of the Dark Knight trilogy, Batman Begins, he broke one of his rules and wrote the character of Lucius Fox for the legendary actor, Morgan Freeman.

The Insomnia director once talked about the process and said,

“As I started to write the character of Lucius, I did something that I’ve always avoided doing in the past, really, which is I did write with Morgan Freeman in mind. To try to writing characterization around an actor can be limiting, and I tried not to make it limiting. I wrote a part I hadn’t seen him play before. But I knew that I really wanted him in there, and I pursued him for many many months.”

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The Tenet director went to meet with Morgan Freeman to convince him

Christopher Nolan further revealed that Morgan Freeman was initially reluctant to portray the role of Lucius Fox in the Dark Knight trilogy and he had to actually go to meet him in order to convince the actor to portray the role of Batman’s ‘gadget-guy‘. He said,

“Whatever he tells you now, he was very difficult to convince. I actually flew to Memphis to meet with him in person and really explain why the part needed him. And eventually, he said yes and turned up.I was quite relieved when he actually turned up to shoot because I had begun to believe it were never going to happen, but I managed to get him in the end.”

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Casting Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox definitely turned out for the best for the trilogy as the American actor definitely nailed his portrayal. Other than Freeman, the cast of the series was still heavily stacked with the likes of Christian Bale who portrayed the role of Bruce Wayne aka Batman, and Heath Ledger who portrayed the role of Joker in the movies.

All 3 movies of the Dark Knight trilogy are currently streaming on HBO Max.

Source: Warner Bros. Entertainment