Cillian Murphy, playing Oppenheimer, finally gets to lead a Christopher Nolan film
Associated PressThe day Christopher Nolan called Cillian Murphy about his new film, “Oppenheimer,” Murphy hung up the phone in disbelief. As Nolan has said, “Like it or not J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived.” “Oppenheimer,” which opens in theaters on July 21, features a starry cast including Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, Matt Damon as the man who hired Oppenheimer for the job at Los Alamos, Robert Downey Jr. as a founder of the Atomic Energy Commission and many more rounding out the pivotal players in and around this tense moment in history. And I just love being on his sets.” Murphy continued: “Any actor would want to be on a Chris Nolan set, just to see how it works and to witness his command of the language of film and the mechanics of film and how he’s able to use that broad canvas within the mainstream studio system to make these very challenging human stories.” Over the years, Murphy has come to appreciate that with Nolan there’s always something deeper to discover than what’s literally on the page. “I’m really proud of that performance.” As with all Nolan endeavors, secrecy around “Oppenheimer” is vitally important.