At the moment, actor Cillian Murphy can be found ruling over cinema thanks to his lead role in Christopher Nolan’s newest film, Oppenheimer. The film had built a huge fan following even before its release owing to its intense storyline and ensemble like never before. And now, Oppenheimer is being termed one of the greatest films of the century.
It’s no secret that actors often go through a lot to prepare for a role and Cillian Murphy is no exception to the role. He had to go through a transformation in order to look the part of the slim J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. While losing so much weight is not easy, Cillian Murphy’s co-stars had a great influence on him which made it a bit easier to reach his goal.
Cillian Murphy’s Co-stars Influenced Him
An interesting fact about Robert Oppenheimer is that the scientist would often forget to eat when he was busy concentrating on his work. One look at his photographs will tell you that the physicist had a bony frame and thus, Cillian Murphy had to look the part to play the part.
In an interview with Brut America, Murphy talked about why it was important for him to lose so-and-so weight to play the Physicist and how his co-stars motivated him to achieve the goal for Christopher Nolan‘s film.
“That’s just the nature of the part. I was kind of on every day. It was a huge role. I kind of had to reduce food because I wanted to get the correct silhouette for Oppenheimer. He was very slim, and that does something very interesting to the clothes you wear. Something very interesting to the way you walk. I think all of these guys that are in the movie with me, they’ve all played those big, big roles, and they’re very demanding, and they consume you, you know?”
Murphy was joined by actors like Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Gary Oldman, Emily Blunt, and so on. While we can see what Murphy meant when he was talking about his co-stars but it’s not like the actor needs to feel intimidated. After all, the Peaky Blinders star is one of the finest actors of today!
Cillian Murphy Ate One Almond in a Day
Talking to Extra, Murphy’s co-star Blunt opened up about the actor’s insane diet where he sometimes ate as less as a single almond throughout the day. Blunt stated, “He has such a monumental undertaking. And he could only eat, like, an almond every day.” Yikes. While we know actors go through extreme diets to look the part, we didn’t know it could get this extreme!
Murphy himself talked about his diet and how the rush would be so high that he would never worry about eating food. The actor told The Guardian,
“It’s like you’re on this f*cking train that’s just bombing. It’s bang, bang, bang, bang. You sleep for a few hours, get up, bang it again. I was running on crazy energy; I went over a threshold to where I was not worrying about food or anything. I was so in it, a state of hyper something. But it was good because the character was like that. He never ate.”
On wanting to get Oppenheimer’s silhouette right, Murphy told The New York Times that the Physicist would mostly exist on martinis and cigarettes, thus his slim physique. Murphy revealed that before he could begin filming for the film, he had to ace the character’s wide-eyed look and silhouette.
“I love acting with my body, and Oppenheimer had a very distinct physicality and silhouette, which I wanted to get right. I had to lose quite a bit of weight, and we worked with the costume and tailoring; he was very slim, almost emaciated, existed on martinis and cigarettes. He had these really bright eyes and I wanted to give him this wide-eyed look, so we worked on his silhouette and expressions a lot before starting.”
Murphy never revealed exactly how much weight he lost for the role as he didn’t want the headlines highlighting it. However, the transformation was so drastic that you can compare his before and after photos to get some idea. He was truly invested in the role, wasn’t he?
Oppenheimer is currently playing in theatres.
Source: Brut America
