The strict diet Cillian Murphy went on to play Robert Oppenheimer.
“I got over a threshold where I didn’t care about food or anything…. But it was good because the character was like that,” the actor said in an interview
Oppenheimer is just days away from release and expectations are sky high. Part of this is due to the top-notch cast that director Christopher Nolan recruited to recreate the development of one of the deadliest weapons ever made by mankind. Rami Malek as David Hill, Jack Quaid as Richard Feyman, Tom Conti as Albert Einstein, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss and Cillian Murphy as Robert Oppenheimer, have led several specialized media to predict a shower of awards for the film.
Florence Pugh claimed that Cillian Murphy only ate one almond a day to achieve the gaunt look of Robert Oppenheimer @OppenheimerFilm.
And with the idea of fulfilling expectations, the entire cast has fervently committed to give the best performance possible, especially Cillian Murphy, who took his body to the extreme to give life to an emaciated and psychologically tortured Robert Oppenheimer, knowing that his work would end the lives of thousands of people.
Florence Pugh, who plays journalist and Oppenheimer’s love interest, Jean Tatlock, gave an interview for the program Extra TV where she confessed that Murphy had an unreal commitment to the role, to such a degree that she underwent a very strict diet where she could only eat one almond a day.
“He had a monumental commitment. I could only eat one almond a day. I was so emaciated,” Pugh stated during the conversation.
Previously, Cillian had already shared some details of the diet he had to undergo, but contrary to what Pugh said, the actor didn’t limit himself to eating one almond a day; martini and cigarettes were also key to achieving that svelte figure.
“I love acting with my body, and Oppenheimer had a very defined physique and silhouette, which I wanted to get right. I had to lose quite a bit of weight, and we worked with wardrobe and tailoring; I was very thin, almost emaciated, existing on martinis and cigarettes,” he confessed to The New York Times in May.
Luckily for the Peaky Blinders star, his suffering didn’t last long, as Oppenheimer’s filming lasted only 57 days, a record time compared to the 96-day shoot for Tenet and the 68-day shoot for Dunkirk, films on which Murphy previously collaborated with Nolan.
Cillian’s transformation into Robert Oppenheimer not only left psychological sequels; part of the cast assured in an interview that the actor never went to lunch with them because “his brain was too full”. Murphy reiterated this idea, assuring that “when you have these big roles, this responsibility, you feel it’s overwhelming”.
However, eating in such minimal quantities was not merely a whim for Cillian. Playing such a complex character from such an introspective perspective filled the actor with “adrenaline,” which almost naturally caused him to stop eating and sleeping.
“It’s like you’re on a damn train going full speed. It’s bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. You sleep for a few hours, get up and do it all over again. I had crazy energy; I got over a threshold where I didn’t care about food or anything….. But it was good because the character was like that. He never ate.”
And while Cillian is very proud of his work and will likely be the actor to beat during awards season, he reiterated that what he did for the role was not healthy at all and doesn’t recommend trying to follow in his footsteps.
“You get a little competitive with yourself, which is not healthy. I don’t advise it.”