New Delhi: Director Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer', starring Cillian Murphy in the titular role, is all set to release on July 21. The film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book ‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer’, chronicles the life of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer regarded as the father of the atom bomb. Cillian underwent a major transformation to play the lead. Recently, his co-actor from the film Emily Blunt spoke about Cillian’s weight loss for the film.
Emily, who plays Cillian’s wife in the film, shared that the actor only ate one almond in a day to transform into J Robert Oppenheimer. In a conversation with Extra, Emily said, “He had such a monumental undertaking. And he could only eat, like, an almond every day. He was so emaciated.”
Earlier in May, Cillian Murphy too had spoken about his transformation for the film. “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 told The New York Times.
Cillian also read Bhagavad Gita to prepare for the character and to get into its mindspace. Robert Oppenheimer learned Sanskrit at Berkley. "I have become death, the destroyer of worlds" is the most repeated quote of Oppenheimer. He borrowed it from Geeta.
"I did read the Bhagavad Gita in preparation for the film. I thought it was an absolutely beautiful text. Very inspiring. It was a consolation to him. He kind of needed it. It provided a lot of consolation to him all his life,” Cillian Murphy was quoted by Ians as saying.
The film also stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Florence Pugh, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie among others.