“I was bracing myself for not feeling great about it”: Oppenheimer’s Grandson Admits He Was Surprised After Watching Cillian Murphy’s Movie
Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer is one of the biggest blockbusters of 2023. The magnum opus project of Christopher Nolan not only performed well at the box office but also went on to become a critical hit. As the sci-fi biographical drama inches closer to its official entry into the billion-dollar club, Oppenheimer has crossed the $900 million mark at the box office already.
Christopher Nolan led Oppenheimer was retelling of one of the most important events in the history of humanity that went on to change the map of the world. Reputed theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Grandson Charles Oppenheimer reflected back on his meeting with Christopher Nolan and believes that a particular scene could have been shown in a different way in the biopic.
Charles Oppenheimer Was Surprised After Watching Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer
Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer is based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. The Pulitzer Prize-winning biopic is one of the most prominent accounts of the theoretical physicist’s life. During an interview with the famous media platform Time, J. Robert Oppenheimer’s grandson Charles Oppenheimer spoke about the movie and was surprised by Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of his grandfather’s life. He said-
” I was bracing myself for not feeling great about it, even though I talked to Chris Nolan and was very impressed by him. I saw him work on the set with an amazing intensity when I visited once or twice, and we had a great conversation. But I didn’t know, am I going to love it? Am I going to hate it? I often have that reaction to biographies and pundits when they talk about my grandfather.”
While talking about the biopic, he mentioned-
” I feel like they’re missing something. And sometimes it really feels personal. Like when somebody wants to start a fight with you on the schoolyard, they’ll talk about your family member. But during the movie, I found myself accepting and liking it. I thought it told a compelling story and I could just take it as art that was really engaging. I was really happy to have that reaction. I didn’t expect it.”
Charles Oppenheimer was born in April 1975, after his grandparents Katherine Oppenheimer and J. Robert Oppenheimer had passed away. According to him, his father Peter Oppenheimer spent the early years of his childhood at the Manhattan Project location, Los Alamos.
Cillian Murphy Talks About The Preparation For Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer
Cillian Murphy marked his mainstream Hollywood entry with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. The Peaky Blinders star played the titular character in the sci-fi biographical drama and gave one of the most successful blockbusters of 2023.
During an interview with the media outlet Deadline, the Irish actor spoke about the preparation behind the character of one of the most important men in history. While talking about losing weight to fit into the physical frame of J. Robert Oppenheimer, he said-
” It’s like anything. If you do anything to a high standard and spend an awful lot of time at it, you’re working 16-, 17-, 18-hour days incredibly focused. So then when you stop, it’s very abrupt and you have an awful lot of displaced energy. It takes a while to figure that out.”
He further mentioned-
“There is a little period where you’re neither one nor the other, you’re not a civilian, you’re still not the character, you’re floating around – but it’s not particularly dramatic it’s just trying to readjust to daily life. “
The Dunkirk actor even spoke about skipping meals in order to maintain the weight loss process, he added-
” Yeah, I was trying to skip meals and reduce calorie intake, but it was just a decision. It’s not that I’m an unsociable person, I loved hanging out with these guys now on the tour, we’re great pals. It’s just focus – you just want to focus on the work. And sleep becomes vitally important cause you’re working every single day and you’re up before dawn, you just want to get as much sleep as possible.”
This was not the first time Cillian Murphy collaborated with the legendary filmmaker. He has been a significant part of The Dark Knight Trilogy, Dunkirk, and Inception
