After working with Christopher Nolan on 5 films, Cillian Murphy received the opportunity of a lifetime when Nolan offered him the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Murphy at once was elated and daunted. Oppenheimer was no simple man and playing the role came with its own set of challenges, as he had previously touched upon. We now have some more insight on how Murphy approached this immensely complicated role through the film’s recently released production notes.
Oppenheimer was a man whose life was full of paradoxes. As the man who helped created the atomic bomb before fighting for regulating nuclear weapons, his seminal discovery itself became the ultimate paradox. Murphy tried doing justice to the character’s immense intelligence and the moral struggles he faced as the Manhattan Project undoubtedly sealed US victory during World War II, but at a great cost. In his role during and after the war, Oppenheimer stood on both the extreme ends of nuclear regulation, something that Murphy tried to encapsulate through his performance.
We were always chasing after the complexity of Oppenheimer, as he was no simple man. None of the people in this movie are. Having that huge intellect can be a burden; people like that operate on a completely different plane than us mere mortals, and that brings its own complications and challenges to their personal life and moral life. That was one of the trickiest things: plotting Oppenheimer’s moral journey through this story, because he’s kind of dancing between the raindrops through a lot of it, in terms of where he stands morally with his job at the Manhattan Project, and then, years after it, where he stands in terms of nuclear policy after World War II, and how his changing, evolving stances put him in conflict with other people.
Method acting is all the rage these days and actors often go to extreme lengths to familiarize themselves with the character they’re playing. This includes transforming themselves physically, or elevating themselves with all the knowledge their character might have had. Murphy tried to avoid going these routes and refrained from doing an Oppenheimer impression or learning everything about quantum physics in his 6-month research period, reasoning that these are concepts far beyond the understanding of regular humans.
I’m not trying to do an impression of Robert Oppenheimer. It’s an Oppenheimer distilled from the Oppenheimer we see in historical materials and the Oppenheimer that I met in Chris’s script. It was a long process of reaching a synthesis of representation and interpretation.
Most of the population can’t and don’t think about human existence, the structure of the world, and our place in the universe the way Oppenheimer did, certainly not through the lens of quantum mechanics, with its intricacies and appreciation for paradoxes. So, it would have been futile for me to spend six months trying to grasp it all.
Instead, he focused on the moment and tried extracting his humanity, focusing on the more thematic aspects of his portrayal, and how what he went through is in some ways still relevant in present-day conversation.
What you do is try and get the vague conceptual handle on it, then mine and extract the humanity, which is what’s most important for our film. It’s a huge story, thematically, but it’s told in a very human way. It’s not a history lesson, it’s not didactic or prescriptive, it’s not telling people ‘This is what you must learn from this.’ But it’s very clear that people can draw parallels and reflect on what’s happening in the world today in alarming ways. Filmmaking that stimulates thought and exercises you is an important part of the cinematic landscape, and I think Chris is always doing that in an interesting and provocative way.
Nolan had previously talked about scripting Oppenheimer’s subjective experience from a first-person perspective, so that certainly would have helped Murphy and others to get into his headspace. Just how well Nolan’s depiction and Murphy’s portrayal of Oppenheimer translate on screen remains to be seen. Judging by the trailers though, it looks like we’re in for a very intense performance. For now, Murphy is excited and blown away by the movie, labeling it an essential cinematic experience.
Oppenheimer releases in theaters on July 21, 2023. Directed by Christoper Nolan for Universal Pictures, it is adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and features a star-studded cast that includes Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Jack Quaid, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Gary Oldman, Kenneth Branagh, Alden Ehrenreich, Dane DeHaan, and David Dastmalchian. Tickets for the movie are now on sale.
