- Cillian Murphy has admitted that he wasn't much fun to hang out with on the set of "Oppenheimer."
- "I get very consumed by the work, and I don't really have time for hanging out," he told GQ.
Cillian Murphy has admitted that he wasn't much fun to hang out with on the set of "Oppenheimer."
In an interview with GQ, the Irish actor was asked about some of the recent comments his costars have made about his commitment to the role in the Christopher Nolan-directed film, which affected their working relationship while shooting the movie.
Murphy plays the titular character in "Oppenheimer," a historical drama about J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist known as the father of the atomic bomb.
Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, who also star in the film, told People that Murphy didn't join cast dinners with the rest of them because his "brain was too full," while another one of Murphy's castmates, Robert Downey Jr., said in a separate interview with Extra that he felt "a little bit iced out" by the actor.
In response, Murphy told GQ: "I get very consumed by the work, and I don't really have time for hanging out."
"And in this movie, I was skipping dinner, you know, so I wasn't great craic to hang out with," he continued. "But that's just the way it was. It's just the nature of the work."
Murphy added that because the film was "grappling" with "huge ethical, moral questions," and the script had been written from the perspective of his character, he felt "that a lot of the weight was on my shoulders, even though we have this incredible ensemble."
"There was a responsibility that I felt about playing the part," said. "That's just the way I work."
Murphy went on to say that while he didn't stay in character the whole time on set, he said he "inevitably" employed some aspects of method acting as he researched Oppenheimer's life for six months before shooting the film, which would see him play the character for "18 hours a day every day."
"By osmosis, you're exchanging atoms, You become consumed or immersed, that's just the way it is," Murphy said.