Whether Oppenheimer or Barbie wins the box office will be decided this weekend. But from looking at the trailers, it can’t be denied that Cillian Murphy has put in probably his career-best effort in the movie. And why not- after all, it is Christopher Nolan who is behind the camera and he demands complete dedication from his actors.
But it looks like, in the effort to satisfy the Dunkirk director, Murphy had to go way overboard. The actor looks emaciated in the trailers and even his co-stars confirmed that it’s because the Peaky Blinders actor almost stopped eating. But to what extreme did he go? To almost total starvation.
Cillian Murphy’s Extreme Diet Left Him Emaciated But Perfect For The Role
In Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy plays the lead role of J. Robert Oppenheimer. To prepare for the role, the actor almost stopped eating. In fact, he imitated the kind of food the real-life scientist would eat. Murphy said:
“I had to lose a lot of weight and we worked with costumes and tailoring; he was very thin, almost emaciated, and he existed on martinis and cigarettes. He had very bright eyes and I wanted to give him that big-eyed look, so we worked a lot on his silhouette and his expressions before we started.”
So was the actor affected by the lack of food? Not really. Murphy said that he had a tonne of energy. Nolan demanded so much from him that he didn’t even have time to think about food. In fact, didn’t even need it. The actor said:
“It’s like you’re on a train that’s being bombed. It’s explosion after explosion. You sleep for a few hours, you get up and you explode again. I had a lot of energy. I reached a limit where I was no longer worried about food or anything. I was in a state of hyper-something. But it was good because the character was like that. He never ate.”
His co-star Emily Blunt backed up these claims and stated that Murphy only ate an almond every day. However, she and Matt Damon praised the actor for taking up the monumental task of leading the movie.
Matt Damon Praised Cillian Murphy For Giving Oppenheimer His All
Matt Damon plays Manhattan Project director Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves in Oppenheimer. He complimented Cillian Murphy for rising to the occasion and doing what Christopher Nolan demanded from him. He said:
“The sheer volume of work that he (Cillian Murphy) had, and the level of detail that Christopher (Nolan) demands, there was always something for him to be thinking about.”
As for Cillian Murphy, he didn’t have any qualms about pushing his body to the extreme because he loves performing with his body and “wanted to get it right.” So he wanted to bring out J. Robert Oppenheimer’s silhouette and physique the best he could. However, he also said that he wouldn’t recommend the kind of dramatic weight loss he went through to anyone else.
Oppenheimer releases in theatres on July 21.
Source: NY Times
