She’s a Communist Party USA member and romantic interest to the film’s lead character J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist who’s considered the ‘father of the atomic bomb.’ One month after the movie made its premiere in the U.S. comes word that writer and director Christopher Nolan has offered an apology to the actress for the lack of screen time her character received.
In a newly released clip from a press interview with MTV UK, Pugh shared about his apology and why he felt the need to do it. ‘I didn’t really know what was going on or what it was that was being made,’ she said. ‘Except I knew that Chris really, really wanted me to know that it wasn’t a very big role, and he understands if I don’t want to come near it.’ Pugh, 27, went on to confess that the size of the role didn’t matter to her at all.
“‘Even if I’m a coffee maker at a cafe in the back of the room, let’s do it,”‘ she recalled telling Nolan at the time. The Oxford, England native said of the actual apology: ‘I remember [Nolan] apologized by the size of the role. I was like, “Please don’t apologize.” Nolan then said, ‘We’ll send you the script, and honestly, you just read it and decide if it’s like…I completely understand the sizing thing.’ Pugh thought back, ‘I remember that night when I got the script being like, “I don’t need to…I know I’m going to do it.”‘
‘You realize this is a huge responsibility. He was complicated and contradictory and so iconic,’ Murphy said of Oppenheimer the man to Associated Press. ‘But you know you’re with one of the great directors of all time. I felt confident going into it with Chris. He’s had a profound impact on my life, creatively and professionally. He’s offered me very interesting roles and I’ve found all of them really challenging. And I just love being on his sets.’ Along with Pugh and Murphy, the cast also includes such big stars as Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh, along with the likes of Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Michael Angarano, Dane DeHaan, Dylan Arnold, David Krumholtz, Alden Ehrenreich and Matthew Modine. Nolan wrote and directed Oppenheimer with a budget of at least $100 million, according to Screen Rant. And like his previous works, the London, England native extensively used practical effects and minimal computer-generated imagery. Since its release four weeks ago, Oppenheimer has become the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year, earning $727.5 million, behind only The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Barbie and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.
Pugh’s acting resume includes such productions as Lady Macbeth (2016), Fighting with My Family (2019), Little Women (2019), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, as well as Black Widow (2021), Don’t Worry Darling (2022), The Wonder (2022) and A Good Person (2023). In the Oppenheimer, actor Cillian Murphy plays the title character during the time when he played a role in in the Manhattan Project, the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. The story focuses on the physicist as he wrestles with the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II.
Source: Mail Online
