Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in “Oppenheimer”.Photo:Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
In bringingJ. Robert Oppenheimerto life,Cillian Murphytook actorly commitment to the next level.
The Irish actor, 47, has beenpraisedfor embodying the titular role inOppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s retelling of the creation of the atomic bomb. A new book from Jada Yuan,Unleashing Oppenheimer: Inside Christopher Nolan’s Explosive Atomic-Age Thriller(available for purchase now), includes details about the lengths to which Murphy went to do so.
For example, there’s no trickery in the film’s early scene featuring the American physicist as he launches into an academic lecture, unexpectedly, in fluent Dutch.
“It’s a small scene,” Murphy said in interviews published inUnleashing Oppenheimer, but nonetheless one he was “dreading.”
“I remember talking to Chris in preproduction and saying, ‘Chris, what do you want to do about this Dutch scene?’ And he said, ‘What are you going to do about this Dutch scene?'”
ThePeaky Blindersstar added that Nolan always “works at the top of his game, so he expects everyone else to do their work, to do their due diligence.” Murphy previously collaborated with the Oscar-nominated writer-director on 2010’sInception, 2017’sDunkirkand as Batman villain Scarecrow in theDark Knighttrilogy of films.
J. Robert Oppenheimer.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty
Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty
Nolan’s regular cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, who is Dutch, ended up assisting Murphy. Although the exactlectures that Oppenheimer gaveat the Netherlands’ Leiden University in 1928 have been lost, Yuan writes, the producing team took one of his later lectures on quantum mechanics and translated a portion into Dutch.
As the actor revealed toDeadlinein July, he asked van Hoytema to record himself reading the words aloud. “He recorded it and then I slowed it down so I just learned it phonetically over three months.”
In his interviews with Yuan, he said the snippet of Dutch heard inOppenheimeris “one of those things that I will never forget because I did it so many times."
“I can still say it,” Murphy added, although he admitted that’s the extent of his grasp of the language.
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Murphy’sOppenheimercostars have spoken out about his commitment to the role, which included researching theoretical physics and Oppenheimer’s role as director of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory.
“We’d be like, ‘Hey, we got a three-day weekend. Maybe we’ll go antiquing in Santa Fe. What are you going to do?'” he recalled asking Murphy. “‘Oh, I have to learn 30,000 words of Dutch. Have a nice time.'”
Downey Jr. added, “He knew it was going to be a behemoth ask when Chris called him. But I think he also had the humility that is required to survive playing a role like this.”
Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. in “Oppenheimer”.Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures
Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures
Emily Blunt, who plays Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, called Murphy’s work “monumental” in an exclusive interview withPEOPLE. While the rest of the New Mexico-set production felt like “summer camp,” she said, “of course he didn’t want to come and have dinner with us.”
source: people.com
