‘Oppenheimer’s Hearing Took an “Emotional & Heavy” Two Weeks to Film Says Cillian Murphy

The war of the blockbusters is underway with Oppenheimer and Barbie dropping into theaters this weekend, to critical acclaim and massive box office openings. Of the two dueling films, however, it’s crystal clear that Christopher Nolan‘s biographical epic is the far darker story, as it tells the tale of American physicist and father of the atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer as written in Martin K. Sherwin and Kai Bird‘s bestselling novel American Prometheus. While the ethics of the creation of one of the most devastating weapons in history and the effects it had on humanity are heavy topics to broach, Cillian Murphy told Collider’s Steve Weintraub—ahead of the SAG-AFTRA strike—that the hearing sequence was the most emotional for him when filming.

Murphy revealed that the hearing took two weeks to film and stood as his most challenging sequence throughout the entirety of Oppenheimer‘s meaty three-hour runtime. In Oppenheimer’s life story, his security hearing was a pivotal event not just for him, but for the scientific community at large as the government he served for years turned on him for his supposed connections to Communism. The controversial decision to strip him of his Q clearance and effectively end his public life as a trusted scientist and government consultant sent a clear message to others in his field to fall in line. On a personal level, it was a stinging moment for Oppenheimer as some of his colleagues even testified against him.

With all the talented actors involved, the suffocating set, and the emotional gravity of a man’s whole career crumbling to pieces, Murphy called the hearing his favorite part of filming Oppenheimer, saying:

“To be honest with you, they were all like that. [Laughs] But the section of the movie that I loved working on the most was the section in the room, in 2022, when we were all in the hearing. We shot in this tiny, shitty little room. There weren’t any moveable walls or anything like that; it was just all of us in there with this huge camera. That felt almost like doing a play. We did that for two weeks, so all these incredible actors, Jason Clarke and everybody, would come in and do their piece. I found that very emotional and heavy, but in a brilliant way. It was a real challenge. So, that was my favorite chunk of the movie in terms of shooting.”

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Nolan Explored the Titular Scientist’s Inner Workings With Oppenheimer

Although Murphy embodies Oppenheimer in the film, it was Nolan who looked to get into the mind of the scientist during the pivotal moments of his life when penning the film. He previously said he wrote the entirety of the script in first person from Oppenheimer’s perspective to put the audience in his shoes. “This is a story that you experience with him — you don’t judge him,” he explained. “You are faced with these irreconcilable ethical dilemmas with him.” In terms of the hearing, that will only make things more heartbreaking as viewers get to viscerally experience what it was like for the man to lose everything he worked for.

The result is what some, including Murphy’s castmate Bennie Safdie, have called Nolan’s best film yet with a heavy focus on all things practical as it tells the story of the scientist. A stellar cast certainly helps too with Murphy and Safdie joined by Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Jack Quaid, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Gary Oldman, Kenneth Branagh, Alden Ehrenreich, Dane DeHaan, and David Dastmalchian among others.

Oppenheimer is in theaters now. Check out our full interview with Murphy below: