Cillian Murphy explains how David Bowie inspired ‘Oppenheimer’
The star behind Christopher Nolan’s new movie Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy, has stated that his wardrobe in the biopic was partly inspired by the iconic musician David Bowie.
Inspired particularly by the musician’s ‘White Duke’ era, Murphy used the on-stage persona when creating his take on the real-life J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.
“We worked very closely with our costume designer to design the clothes,” the actor told MTV Movies, “And particularly, I wanted to get his silhouette. He was very fragile, he was very, very slim and I wanted to get that silhouette right”.
Looking a little outside of the box, the production team drew from a variety of different sources, with Murphy adding: “Chris sent me a couple of shots of David Bowie, certain periods in David Bowie’s career, like Thin White Duke and around ‘Young Americans’ time”.
Bowie’s Thin White Duke era ran from 1975-1976 and coincided with the release of his studio album Young Americans in 1975.
Speaking about Bowie’s persona, Murphy added: “He had these massive trousers and he was so emaciated but so fucking cool…So we used that, weirdly, for some of Oppenheimer’s trousers”.
Take a look at Murphy’s conversation with MTV below.
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