Across every Christopher Nolan movie, Cillian Murphy has found a role in five of them, but for Oppenheimer, we know the actor will be front and center for the first time in one of the filmmaker’s films. The upcoming summer release will see Murphy portraying J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” and he recently spoke to finally nabbing a leading role in his sixth role in a Nolan movie.
Murphy’s paths first crossed with Nolan in 2003 when he was asked to screentest for Batman Begins, where he played the main villain of the film, Scarecrow. The actor went on to reprise the role in the rest of the Dark Knight trilogy. He was additionally cast in a key role in 2010’s Inception, followed by finding a small part in 2017’s Dunkirk. Ahead of Oppenheimer, Murphy had this to say:
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.
While it may have taken around 20 years to come to fruition, it’s clear Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy have enjoyed working together over the years, and now have cooked up the ultimate project together. In an interview with The Associated Press, Murphy got honest about being grateful for the parts he was given in the past by the beloved filmmaker, but “secretly” hoping one day he’d be a lead in one of his films. His dream certainly came true, as he continued:
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 (expletive) huge one.
When Cillian Murphy read the script for Oppenheimer, a book-to-screen adaptation of the 2005 nonfiction biography about J. Robert Oppenheimer called American Prometheus, he said it was “the best” he’d ever read. He spoke to the moment when Nolan asked him to play the leading role:
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.
‘Oppenheimer’ Exclusive CinemaCon Footage Makes Us Think This Is Christopher Nolan’s Masterpiece
Murphy isn’t only the lead in a Christopher Nolan movie, but Oppenheimer’s cast is also incredibly explosive, boasting a laundry list of big names like Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh and Rami Malek among so many other actors. The upcoming movie tells the story of the theoretical physicist's life as he becomes the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project in World War II, along with the events that led to the creation of the atomic bomb.
Nolan has teased “big practical challenges” on Oppenheimer, sharing that he decided to recreate the Trinity Test, the first nuclear weapon detonation, without the use of computer graphics. Murphy called telling the story a “huge responsibility” that he felt comfortable going into with Nolan because he knew he was working with “one of the great directors of all time.”
The exciting 2023 new movie release hits theaters on July 21.
