Before he was Batman, Christian Bale was just Christian Bale auditioning for the part of Batman in a little Christopher Nolan movie called Batman Begins. Now that everyone is so crazy about Ben Affleck being cast as Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel, it might be an opportune time to look at the audition that got Bale — an actor everyone has loved in this role — the part of the brooding billionaire Bruce Wayne. So, it's a good thing that Warner Bros. basically just released the full clip of Bale's Batman audition for everyone to see.
The clip was released in anticipation of today's The Dark Knight Trilogy: Ultimate Collector’s Edition DVD release. The DVD itself is actually packed with a ton of special features, including the auditions for Anne Hathaway as Catwoman, Tom Hardy as Bane, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, and Cillian Murphy as... Bruce Wayne? Yep, that was a thing — Murphy ultimately got the role of Dr. Jonathan Crane, but he did initially audition for Batman himself, and he looks very delicate and pretty wearing the mask. Other weird casting possibilities that we learn from the DVD set: Jessica Biel, Kate Mara, Natalie Portman, Keira Knightley, and Blake Lively were all considered for the role of Catwoman before it ultimately went to Hathaway. Weird.
Unfortunately, none of those clips have been released, but there are photos from the auditions floating around. You'll either have to pick up the set to see them in full, or wait until someone uploads them onto YouTube (which will probably happen some point).
You can check out Christian Bale's audition below — complete with Amy Adams filling in for the role of Rachel Dawes, the part that ultimately went to Katie Holmes in 2005's Batman Begins. For images from Hathaway, Hardy, Eckhart, and Murphy's auditions, just head on over to Uproxx .
