When Cillian Murphy Tortured Himself To Prepare For His Lead Role In Oppenheimer, “It’s Like You’re On A Train That’s…”
Cillian Murphy once revealed that he was no longer eating or worried about food to prepare for the role of Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s film.
Cillian Murphy underwent a rigorous transformation for Oppenheimer ( Photo Credit – Instagram )
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After playing multiple supporting roles in Christopher Nolan films, Cillian Murphy delivered a smashing performance playing the main character in the biopic Oppenheimer.
Murphy’s portrayal of physicist Robert Oppenheimer required the Peaky Blinders actor to undergo complex changes to bring a blend of brilliance, intensity, and depth to the character. While Murphy is known for his dynamic versatility from his previous roles in Inception, Peaky Blinders, Red Eye, Dunkirk, and others, for Oppenheimer, the actor went overboard to impress the director.
To prepare for the explosive role, Murphy underwent a massive transformation. This included reading the Bhagavad Gita, which Oppenheimer would quote from, almost stopping eating to emulate the character’s thin frame, and starting to smoke cigarettes and drink martinis.
In a throwback interview with Extra TV, Murphy’s co-star, Emily Blunt, mentioned, “He had such a monumental undertaking. And he could only eat, like, an almond every day. He was so emaciated.” The actor also spilled the beans on his transformation for the role of Oppenheimer in a throwback interview with The New York Times, explaining that Robert was “very slim, almost emaciated, and 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.”
When asked if the strict diet restricted him of energy, the actor revealed that he had a ton of energy, in fact, he didn’t have time to think about food. He shared, “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.”
Furthermore, the actor once explained his preparation for the role to The Guardian, sharing that “you become competitive with yourself a little bit, which is not healthy. I don’t advise it.”
Oppenheimer grossed over $975 million globally, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 2023.
