Christopher Nolan is currently considered one of Hollywood’s greatest directors. For his latest film “Oppenheimer” he used real scientists as extras.
Who is it about? Christopher Nolan is considered one of the greatest film directors of our time and has been nominated for an Oscar several times – most recently for “Dunkirk” in the categories “Best Picture” and “Best Director”.
Nolan is known to film fans for the Batman trilogy “The Dark Knight”, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk and Tenet, among others.
On July 20, 2023, the 52-year-old director’s latest film “Oppenheimer” will be released, in which Cillian Murphy plays the leading role and which tells the story of the development of the atomic bomb.
Top 5 TV series based on video games
More videos
Real scientists as extras
What is it about the scientists? Christopher Noland and leading actor Cillian Murphy spoke to US magazine Entertainment Weekly about their joint film “Oppenheimer”.
During the interview, Murphy gushed about the quality of the actors in the film and how professional and well-prepared they were. Christopher Nolan then added that the same was true of the extras who appear in the film.
Nolan explains that real scientists were used as extras because the film (Oppenheimer) deals with the development of the atomic bomb and is therefore a scientific topic. Nolan says that he worked on film sets with extras who only thought about lunch during the shoot.
However, Nolan wanted to remain true to the story behind the film and promised reactions and the ability to improvise from the extras:
We were in the real Los Alamos and had a lot of real scientists as extras. We needed the extras to give reactions and improvise, and we got sort of impromptu, very educated speeches. It was really fun listening to them.
You know that from filming where you have a lot of extras around you who are more or less thinking about lunch. These guys thought about the geopolitical implications of nuclear weapons and knew a lot about it.
It was really a great reminder of every day: we have to really try, we have to be true to the story here and really know what we’re up to.
Christopher Nolan via Entertainment Weekly
What kind of film is this? Oppenheimer is a historical drama. The film tells the story of Julius Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist who was commissioned with the Manhattan Project, i.e. the construction of the atomic bomb.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer is played by British actor Cillian Murphy, who previously worked with Christopher Nolan on Inception. With Rami Malek, Robert Downey Jr. and Matt Damon, he has other well-known Hollywood actors at his side.
Incidentally, Christopher Nolan is not the only director who did without classic extras for his film. For the 1993 Super Mario movie, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel drew on North Carolina strippers.
Mario Movie – Actor of Luigi Reveals Spicy Detail Disney Disagreed With: ‘It Was All Strippers’