Cillian Murphy has admitted to skipping the technical specifications of designing and building an atomic bomb while prepping for Christopher Nolan’s new war movie Oppenheimer. That’s not to say he hasn’t done any research on the real-life man he’ll be playing, he just didn’t look into the technical side of building a weapon of mass destruction.
“[I prepped by doing] an awful lot of reading,” Murphy told The Guardian. “I’m interested in the man and what [inventing the atomic bomb] does to the individual. The mechanics of it, that’s not really for me – I don’t have the intellectual capability to understand them, but these contradictory characters are fascinating.”
To be honest we’re not sure this is much of a shock. No one asks Robert Downey Jr if he looked into zero-point energy to play Tony Stark in the MCU but I suppose we hold Nolan’s chosen few to a slightly higher standard. Realistically Murphy will have his hands full anyway leading Nolan’s most star-studded cast to date; a daunting task for sure but the Peaky Blinders star admitted he’ll always turn up for Nolan.
“I’ll always turn up for Chris, whatever the size of the part. Chris will call me up and I’m there. Isn’t it wonderful that filmmakers are still making challenging, demanding films within the studio system, shot on film? I think he’s flying the flag,” he said. “Him, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino are fantastic filmmakers making interesting work on a massive scale.”
Noland and Murphy shared the first image from the upcoming Oppenheimer movie just the other day. The film, which will tell the true story of the “father of the atomic bomb”, boasts one of the most impressive casts of any modern blockbuster.
The cast includes Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Dylan Arnold, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, and Kenneth Branagh, among others.
Oppenheimer is set for release on July 21, 2023, and filming has begun. While we wait for that first trailer why not check out our list of the best thriller movies.