“That felt like a fascinating building block”: Christopher Nolan Revealed the Real Inspiration Behind Inception That Came from His Own Experiences
Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey into the world of dreams took everyone by storm in 2010. The acclaimed director, who previously made his name with classics like Memento and The Dark Knight, rose to meteoric fame among critics and audiences alike with Inception. The movie grossed over $837 million worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of 2023. Inception won four Oscars and was nominated for four more at the 83rd Academy Awards.
Christopher Nolan recently revealed the real inspiration behind his masterpiece and it was none other than his own experiences with lucid dreaming.
Christopher Nolan Reveals The Inspiration Behind His Masterpiece Inception
Inception was a result of Christopher Nolan’s deep-seated interest in lucid dreaming and the world-building that can happen within a dream. The mind-bending dream-heist movie challenged the intellect and psyche of many viewers and left them with an ending that is still pondered. There are so many layers to the film and so many truths that it is impossible to just stick to one interpretation.
Recently, the X user @NolanAnalyst posted on the platform about the real inspiration behind Inception. The account posted a vivid description of the mindset of Nolan that made the film possible.
“I remember lucid dreams where I would see there was a book on the table and I would go and look at the book and I’d be able to read the words, and it might even make sense. So you say, Okay, I’m writing this book as I’m reading it at the same time. I found that to be an amazing thing, this notion that you construct a dream that you experience. The other thing that fascinated me was the distortion of time, the idea that a dream, you know, might only take a few seconds but might feel much longer. That felt like a fascinating building block for exploring.”
This was not the first time Christopher Nolan had opened up about his inspiration. In 2019, Christopher Nolan sat down in an interview with AMC+ and talked about how his time in college life when money was sparse to him acted as a great inspiration for Inception, as he would experiment with dreaming at that time.
“A lot of the inspiration for Inception was from a period of my life when I was in university and didn’t have much money, and breakfast was free. I would go to bed at four in the morning or something, set my alarm, wake up to get breakfast, and go back to sleep. So, then you’re in this sleep state where it became possible to be very aware of the fact that you are dreaming.”
Though it was unintentional at first, Nolan slowly got into the habit of lucid dreaming and started to explore its possibilities creatively.
“I would experiment with trying to control the dream and trying to make something. It was frustrating, and the occasional moment where you get something to work and you’re able to actually channel your dreaming, lucid dreaming…that’s the superpower.”
His inquisitiveness about how dreams take shape and how they can be controlled laid the foundation of Inception and gave birth to the genius piece of work we saw years later.
Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer Reminded Christopher Nolan of Heath Ledger
There is no doubt that Heath Ledger was an iconic legend whose on-screen transformation was hard to compete with, even for veteran method actors like Christian Bale. Christopher Nolan recently felt like a flashback had taken over him while shooting Oppenheimer, as he found striking similarities between Cillian Murphy and Heath Ledger.
Murphy brilliantly brought J. Robert Oppenheimer to life by imitating Oppenheimer’s movements, his style, and his signature iconography, like the fedora brim hat, long coat, and cigarette-holding style. His brilliant portrayal made him one of the frontrunners for the 2024 Oscars. Nolan told Variety that during the hair and makeup test, Murphy reminded him of the hair and makeup test he had done with Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight.
“It was really in the hair and makeup tests, which we shoot on IMAX and in black-and-white. You start to see the actor bringing an icon to life, putting the hat on, the cigarette in the corner of his mouth. You’re starting to see how he moves. It’s a thrilling moment. It is on every film. Seeing Cillian put this iconography together, it reminded me of my hair and makeup tests with Heath Ledger for the Joker.”
However, when asked whether Cillian Murphy opted for method acting, he vehemently disagreed and said he opted for a theatrical representation of the nitty-gritty of the scientist’s mind rather than spending day and night with the character.
Inception is streaming on Netflix, whereas Oppenheimer is available to rent on Prime Video.
