Guy Pearce was blocked from Christopher Nolan roles by studio exec who didn’t “get” him as an actor
Guy Pearce has claimed he was blocked from working with director Christopher Nolan by a Warner Bros. executive.
The actor told Vanity Fair that the reason he hasn’t worked with Nolan since the 2000 thriller Memento was due to an executive at the studio who wasn’t a fan of his acting.
While Nolan is known for working with many of the same actors repeatedly, Pearce shared that he’d not worked with the director since he began working with Warner Bros. in 2002 for the thriller Insomnia – his relationship with the studio ended in 2020 with the sci-fi action movie Tenet.
Pearce explained that Nolan had approached him to play Ra’s al Ghul in 2005’s Batman Begins, a role eventually taken by Liam Neeson, as well as a character in The Prestige the following year.
He said: “He spoke to me about roles a few times over the years – the first Batman and The Prestige. But there was an executive at Warner Bros. who quite openly said to my agent, ‘I don’t get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to get Guy Pearce. I’m never going to employ Guy Pearce.’
“So, in a way, that’s good to know,” he added. “I mean, fair enough: there are some actors I don’t get. But it meant I could never work with Chris.”
Pearce said that he was even flown to London to discuss the Batman role, but “I think it was decided on my flight that I wasn’t going to be in the movie. So I get there and Chris is like, ‘Hey, you want to see the Batmobile and get dinner?’”
Warner Bros. did not respond to a request for comment from Vanity Fair.
Nolan ended his relationship with Warner Bros. over its decision to release movies in theatres and on the streaming platform HBO Max simultaneously, something he didn’t want for last year’s Oppenheimer. He also waived certain fees to ensure that Tenet would get a theatrical release.
He moved to Universal Pictures, with Pearce telling Vanity Fair, “So now my time has come!”
Currently, Nolan is working at Universal on an unnamed film coming out in 2026. It’s set to star the likes of Lupita Nyong’o, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron and Anne Hathaway. He turned down the chance to return to Warner Bros., rejecting a seven-figure cheque and a return of the Tenet fees he waived.
Pearce, meanwhile, is set to appear in the upcoming supernatural thriller Killing Faith alongside DeWanda Wise and Bill Pullman, as well as the psychological thriller The Woman In Cabin 10, alongside Keira Knightley and Hannah Waddingham.
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Adam England
NME
