Over the last few days, a lot of the discourse surrounding Christopher Nolan’s latest has been about Oppenheimer’s box office and other internet momentum surrounding the Barbenheimer double feature phenomenon. But there’s another discourse going around online about the movie, and it has to do with Florence Pugh’s nude scenes.
The actress has been a huge advocate of body positivity even before choosing to go nude in order to play Jean Tatlock in Nolan’s latest historical epic, but her scenes in the movie, which do feature lovemaking and intimate moments where the two characters have candid conversations while undressed, have faced backlash and even censorship in some countries.
Who Is Jean Tatlock?
In the movie, Pugh plays Jean Tatlock, a woman whom J. Robert Oppenheimer was intimately involved with before his marriage. the two met at the University of California Berkeley, where she’d been taking courses toward her psychology degree and the scientist was in his thirties and on the faculty. Oppenheimer reportedly proposed to her more than once while they were dating, but the situation didn’t work out.
As portrayed in the timeline of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, he was allegedly Jean’s rock in times of emotional turmoil, but after he married Kitty Puening, she became more of an occasional mistress. In the movie, it is shown the two had one final meeting as the Manhattan Project was amping up at Los Alamos (and historical records confirm the real-life man visited her up until 1943). In the film, he said he needed to cut back on contact. She subsequently died by suicide in 1944.
Pugh's part in the movie is a small one, but it has made a large impact.
Backlash Over Florence Pugh's Nude Scenes
Pugh has been candid about being asked to lose weight for roles in the past, but she has not spoken out about people commenting on her body in the movie. However, Cillian Murphy was asked about filming the emotionally raw moments with the actress. He told the Sydney Morning Herald that the scenes where Pugh chose to go topless landed the movie its R-rating (for sexuality, nudity and language), but that they made so much sense in context.
Those scenes were written deliberately. He knew that those scenes would get the movie the rating that it got. And I think when you see it, it’s so fucking powerful. And they’re not gratuitous. They’re perfect. And Florence is just amazing.
After the movie premiered, a lot of discourse has surrounded these scenes. On TikTok, various videos have dissected and upacked the nudity. Elsewhere, on Twitter some people have made critical comments about Florence Pugh’s body appearing in the movie unclothed. Other tweets have defended the actress, but it’s clear the topic has become a point of conversation that’s spiraled a bit out of proportion.
i can’t believe the amount of things i’ve seen of people shaming florence pugh in oppenheimer? she’s literally stunning and there’s people still body shaming her? makes no senseJuly 30, 2023
This isn’t the first time the actress has faced backlash for her body. Last year, she chose to wear a sheer Valentino dress that subsequently went viral because she “freed the nipple.” While the moment will likely live for a long time in fashion history, it prompted a lot of Internet comments. Pugh later responded to the Valentino backlash, noting:
I was comfortable with my small breasts. And showing them like that—it aggravated [people] that I was comfortable.
The comment from the actress was about the pink dress she wore to the fashion show, but it would be applicable in this situation as well. Yet the conversation around the nude scenes has only grown after varying countries began censoring it.
Subsequent Censorship Over Oppenheimer Scenes
In some countries, Florence Pugh’s nude scenes don’t exist at all. Instead, CGI was used to cover her up in a black slip in countries like India. Theatergoers in other locations, including Bangladesh and Indonesia, also reported attending Oppenheimer screenings in which the character of Jean Tatlock was fully clothed thanks to a slip that was created to appeal to the censors in those countries.
This strategy has allowed the movie to retain ratings closer to PG-13 (or whatever the country’s rating equivalent is, U/A in India, for example) rather than the R-rating the movie received in the U.S, and it has allowed the film to screen in certain countries with higher cultural sensitivities.
But between this and the online discourse, Pugh’s body has taken front and center in the Oppenheimer conversation, when really it’s her performance that should be highlighted. In fact, a lot of performances from the Oppenheimer cast should be highlighted, from Emily Blunt's quiet struggles and inner determination and strength, to Robert Downey Jr. chewing up scenes, to Cillian Murphy's deliberate and haunted presence. It's a movie that will stick with you for long after viewing, and there are a lot of themes and philosophical conversations that are more interesting to talk about.
This backlash is just the sideshow.
