Inside Cillian Murphy’s extreme Oppenheimer physical transformation: How the actor used gruelling and ‘unhealthy’ methods to play the ‘almost emaciated’ physicist who ‘never ate’
Cillian Murphy is soon set to appear on screen to play the leading role in the hotly-anticipated new blockbuster Oppenheimer.
The Peaky Blinders star, 47, took on the role of the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ J. Robert Oppenheimer for the biopic, which is slated for release on Friday.
The Christopher Nolan-directed epic follows Oppenheimer as he directs the laboratory designing the atomic bomb during World War Two as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project.
And Cillian has not shied away from detailing the extreme lengths he went to in a bid to portray the physicist on screen, losing weight to mirror his ‘almost emaciated’ frame.
His co-star Emily Blunt also opened up on Cillian’s drastic transformation, telling how he only ate an ‘almond a day’ amid his gruelling diet to invest himself in the physical changes.
Transformation: Cillian Murphy (left in 2017 and right in July) underwent a drastic transformation to portray the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ J. Robert Oppenheimer in the biopic
Drama: The Christopher Nolan-directed epic follows Oppenheimer as he directs the laboratory designing the atomic bomb during World War Two as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project
In an interview with Extra, Emily – who plays his on-screen wife Kitty – told how he had a ‘monumental undertaking’ in slimming down for the role.
She said: ‘He had such a monumental undertaking. And he could only eat, like, an almond every day. He was so emaciated.’
Cillian himself has told of the drastic physical lengths he went to and even warned that his transformation wasn’t ‘healthy’.
Speaking to the New York Times, Cillian told how he took more than five months before filming to ready himself both physically and emotionally for the role.
He confessed that he ‘loved’ the physicality of the acting and the transformation, telling how he wanted to lose weight to give Oppenheimer a ‘wide-eyed look’.
He detailed: ‘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,’ he added.
Extreme: Cillian has not shied away from detailing the extreme lengths he went to in a bid to portray the physicist on screen, losing weight to mirror his ‘almost emaciated’ frame
Weight loss: His co-star Emily Blunt opened up on Cillian’s drastic transformation, telling how he only ate an ‘almond a day’ (he is pictured left on Peaky Blinders and right in July)
Drastic: Cillian also told how he tested himself on how little he could eat while gearing up for the role, confessing that he ‘doesn’t advise’ the extreme diet
Real life: Cillian explained that Oppenheimer (pictured in real life) ‘never ate’ and lived off ‘martinis and cigarettes’
Cillian also told how he tested himself on how little he could eat while gearing up for the role, confessing that he ‘doesn’t advise’ the extreme diet.
He told The Guardian: ‘You become competitive with yourself a little bit which is not healthy. I don’t advise it.’
The actor also told how he doesn’t want to reveal exactly how much weight he lost for the role, but told how the hectic nature of filming made him stop worrying about eating.
He told how he only slept for a few hours during filming, adding: ‘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… hyper something, but it was good because the character was like that. He never ate.’
Cillian also told how director Christopher Nolan gave the stars around six months to prepare before filming, admitting he ‘immersed’ himself in the project.
He told the Associated Press: ‘We had a long time to prep, Chris always puts a lot of time into prep, which I love, so we had about six months before we were actually shooting.’
‘You dive into it, you immerse yourself into it,’ he added.
Cillian takes on the role of Dr J. Robert Oppenheimer, the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ and, after the Paris premiere earlier this week, critics have tipped it to win big.
Emily Blunt takes on the role of physicist Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty, while Florence Pugh plays Jean Tatlock, a psychiatrist, Communist Party member, and close friend of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The film is being adapted from the 2006 book American Prometheus: The Triumph And Tragedy Of J. Robert Oppenheimer, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
The book, which won the Pulitzer Prize, details Oppenheimer’s personal life and his time leading the Manhattan Project in the early and mid-1940s.
Hotly-anticipated: Cillian takes on the role of Dr J. Robert Oppenheimer and critics have tipped it to win big. He is pictured with Emily Blunt, who plays his on-screen wife Kitty
Cast: Florence Pugh plays Jean Tatlock, a psychiatrist, Communist Party member, and close friend of J. Robert Oppenheimer
The film has already been hailed as a contender to scoop multiple awards.
Journalists have taken to Twitter to share their glowing reviews of the movie, with one critic describing how the film ‘split my brain open’ and ‘left me sobbing through the end credits’.
The Telegraph’s Robbie Collin wrote: ‘Am torn between being all coy and mysterious about Oppenheimer and just coming out and saying it’s a total knockout.’
Elsa Keslassy of Variety added: ‘A sign that French audiences loved #Oppenheimer is that they stayed in front of the Grand Rex theater long after the film ended to debate about it!’
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