Christopher Nolan Never Lets Casting Two Superheroes Cloud His View of Prestige

Christian Bale was perfectly chosen to play master illusionist Alfred Borden. The actor inhabited Borden's technical mastery and obsession with his craft, while Hugh Jackman's showman of a magician, Rupert Angier, was a perfect fit for the stage musical vet. But it very easily could have gone the other way, with audiences having to make the "Batman vs. Wolverine" connection. In a move that wouldn't necessarily help those comparisons, Nolan even drafted Alfred himself, with Michael Caine playing stage engineer John Cutter.

The author remained unfazed, however. Speaking to Empire, he said:

"I probably made the joke at some point. You know: Wolverine vs. Batman [...] But Christian obviously started out as a child actor and growing up he did a lot of different things, so I certainly didn't consider him Batman, although as Batman he was a great choice. And Hugh, the same thing: there's a great depth to this guy as an actor. Wolverine is just one aspect of his job."

Nolan seems almost perfectly aware of the redundancy of his words here. After all, he's basically saying, "Hey, you know these guys are actors, right? They play different characters? That's kind of their job." Having to clarify that Bale isn't "just Batman" and that Wolverine is "just one side" of Jackman's work must have seemed a little ridiculous to the director, who has apparently always trusted his actors to transcend any association with previous roles. Again, that's pretty much their job, and Nolan knew it.