Cillian Murphy Talks About OPPENHEIMER and Says He "Was Desperate" To Lead a Christopher Nolan Movie
Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy have had a long and successful working relationship over the years with the Batman trilogy, Inception, Dunkirk, and now the upcoming Oppenheimer film, which looks incredible!
Oppenheimer is the first time that Murphy is taking the lead role in a Nolan movie, and this is something that he’s desperately wanted for a long time. He takes on the role of theoretical physicist and “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer, and in a recent interview with the Associated Press, the actor explained:
“I have always said publicly and privately, to Chris, that if I’m available and you want me to be in a movie, I’m there. I don’t really care about the size of the part. But, deep down, secretly, I was desperate to play a lead for him.”
Murphy was offered the lead role in the film during a cold call from Nolan, and when talking about how that went down, Murphy said:
“He’s so understated and self-deprecating and, in his very English manner, just said, ‘Listen, I’ve written this script, it’s about Oppenheimer. I’d like you to be my Oppenheimer.’ It was a great day… We have this long-standing understanding and trust and shorthand and respect. It felt like the right time to take on a bigger responsibility. And it just so happened that it was a huge one.”
There’s no doubt that Murphy was on cloud 9 after Nolan offered him the role, but he also realized that this is a huge responsibility. The actor went on to say:
“You realize this is a huge responsibility. He was complicated and contradictory and so iconic. But you know you’re with one of the great directors of all time. I felt confident going into it with Chris. He’s had a profound impact on my life, creatively and professionally. He’s offered me very interesting roles and I’ve found all of them really challenging. And I just love being on his sets.
“The question will be how Chris presents it. I think people will be very surprised and wowed by what he does. Anything I say will just seem a bit lame as compared to seeing this in an IMAX theater.”
The movie is based on the 2005 book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, and the story centers on the scientist who ran the Manhattan Project that led to the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II. The film has been described as an “epic thriller that thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.”
The movie looks incredible, and we’ll be getting a new trailer soon. I recently saw the upcoming trailer at CinemaCon, and you can watch our reaction video for it here.
Murphy is joined in the film by Emily Blunt as biologist and botanist, Kitty Oppenheimer; Robert Downey, Jr. as founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Lewis Strauss; Matt Damon as Manhattan Project director, Leslie Groves Jr.; Florence Pugh as psychiatrist Jean Tatlock; Benny Safdie as theoretical physicist Edward Teller; and Josh Hartnett as pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence. The movie also stars Rami Malek, Gary Oldman, Michael Angarano, Olivia Thirlby, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Alden Ehrenreich, Jason Clarke, David Krumholtz, Kenneth Branagh, and David Dastmalchian.
Oppenheimer hits theaters on July 21st, 2023.