Cillian Murphy Reveals Christopher Nolan’s Hair Obsession On Oppenheimer Set

Christopher Nolan is notorious for being a stickler for detail and authenticity.

The British auteur likes his special effects practical, not computer-generated. Some of his ‘au natural’ achievements including flipping over a 18-wheeler truck in The Dark Knight, recreating zero-gravity in a rotating set in Inception, and blowing up a Boeing 747 in Tenet.

In Nolan’s latest, Oppenheimer, the historical drama about American physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, he recreated the Trinity Test explosion — the first nuclear weapon detonation — in New Mexico without any CG embellishments.

Elsewhere, Nolan also built his own Los Alamos, home of the Manhattan Project, near Ghost Ranch, about an hour’s drive from the actual Ground Zero. For some of the interior scenes, Nolan filmed them at the original Los Alamos, where he also cast real scientists to increase the film’s credibility.

“We were in the real Los Alamos and we had a lot of real scientists as extras,” Nolan told Entertainment Weekly. “We needed the crowd of extras to give reactions, and improvise, and we were getting sort of impromptu, very educated speeches. It was really fun to listen to.”

He added, “You’ve been on sets where you’ve got a lot of extras around and they’re more or less thinking about lunch. These guys were thinking about the geopolitical implications of nuclear arms and knew a lot about it. It actually was a great reminder every day of: We have to be really on our game, we have to be faithful to the history here, and really know what we’re up to.”

Rock star: Murphy told Vulture that he modelled Oppenheimer’s look on David Bowie from the late 1970s — “when was so skinny and kind of emaciated but had these wonderful tailored suits with the trousers. That was the Oppenheimer silhouette.” To get that emaciated look, Murphy reportedly ate “an almond every day.”

When asked by Class 95’s Yasminne Cheng — at the film’s junket in New York, before the Screen Actors Guild strike — which part of the set he was most impressed with, Cillian Murphy, who plays Oppenheimer, says, “Oh, everything.”

Not only was Nolan meticulous about the sets, he was also picky about the characters’ looks.

“He is obsessed about my hair,” says Murphy. “Because his hair changed quite dramatically over the movie, so for some reason, Chris becomes obsessed about it.”

Watch Yasminne’s interview with Nolan, Murphy and Emily Blunt (who plays Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty)  and Matt Damon (as Lt Gen. General Leslie Groves, who recruited Oppenheimer to lead the Manhattan Project) here:

 

Oppenheimer (M18) is now cinemas. Sunshine is on Disney+. Tune into Yasminne’s full interview on melisten.