Oppenheimer actor Robert Downey Jr. really likes the tense biopic so much that he believes it’s the best movie he’s “ever been in.” The Golden Globe-winning star made the comments during the film’s premiere back in July. In a resurfaced clip shared by Deadline, Downey Jr. said, “This is the best film I have ever been in, and I cannot wait for you all to experience it.”
In Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy stars as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who helped develop the first nuclear weapons. Downey Jr. portrays Lewis Strauss, one of the original members of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission who had a complicated relationship with Oppenheimer. Additional stars include Matt Damon as Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. — the Army Corps of Engineers officer who was in charge of the Manhattan Project for the government — and Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife, Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer.
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The film is a biopic-thriller about the life and career of Oppenheimer. It is directed, written, and co-produced by Christopher Nolan, and is based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The star-studded cast also features cast Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, Benny Safdie, and David Krumholtz, among many others.
Speaking to ET ahead of the film’s premiere, Damon revealed that Murphy went to great lengths for his performance, with some of his co-stars growing concerned about his diet regimen for the role. “We invited Cillian to dinner every night and he never went,” recalled Damon. Blunt added that Murphy was eating, “like, one almond, I think, most nights, or like, a little slice of apple.”
Damon continued, “He was losing so much weight for the part that he just didn’t eat dinner ever.” Explaining his dieting choices, Murphy quipped, “They were hanging out. I was in the bath, learning lines.” Damon went on to say, “We had dinner every night,” with Blunt adding, “So many margaritas.” Damon then joked “It was like the dining hall, you’d go in and you’d see everybody and so everyone would just end up sitting together. It always helps when you’re kind of immersed with the cast.”
Nolan spoke with ET, as well, offering some insight into the true story behind the film. “When Oppenheimer was running the Manhattan Project and they were doing their calculations, early on they saw the possibility that when they triggered the first atomic device, to test it, they might start a chain reaction that set fire to the atmosphere and destroyed the whole world,” Nolan explained. “A small possibility, [but they] couldn’t eliminate it completely through theory, and yet they went ahead and they pushed that button. As a filmmaker, that’s the kind of story you’re looking to tell.” Oppenheimer is now playing in theaters.
