Christopher Nolan reveals how a shocking ‘Oppenheimer’ moment was improvised
Director Christopher Nolan has revealed the improvisation behind one of the most shocking moments in his nuclear biopic, Oppenheimer.
The scene finds J. Robert Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, in a room of government officials, discussing where to drop the atomic bombs. James Remar, who plays the Secretary of War, Henry Stimson, delivers a shocking line in which he crosses Kyoto off the list, his reasoning being that he and his wife honeymooned there. The scene has left audiences everywhere aghast by how Stinson trivialises the lives of thousands.
Nolan recently spoke about the shocking scene in an interview with The New York Times, revealing that Remar improvised the line: “Remar kept talking to me about how he learned that Stimson and his wife had honeymooned in Kyoto. And that was one of the reasons that Stimson took Kyoto off the list to be bombed.”
The director originally had Stimson crossing out the city because of its cultural significance, but decided to add the honeymoon element, explaining, “It’s a fantastically exciting moment where no one in the room knows how to react.”
Nolan noted that the whole cast utilised the information in American Prometheus, the biography the film was based on. He explained, “Each actor was coming to the table with research about what their real-life counterpart had been. They had tons of homework to do.”
They also went beyond their source material, as Nolan stated, “They then did their own research and what it meant for me, which isn’t something I’d ever really been able to do in the past.”
Oppenheimer is out in cinemas now.
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