Matt Damon weighs in on ‘Oppenheimer’ vs ‘Barbie’ social media rivalry
Since it was announced that two of the most highly anticipated films of the year, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, will open on July 21st, a new fandom war has started on social media platforms. The latest to weigh in on the ongoing debate is none other than Oppenheimer star Matt Damon, who is set to portray Lieutenant General Leslie Groves.
During an interview with Vanity Fair, Damon revealed that he was unaware of the ongoing rivalry. He said: “This is the first I’m hearing about it, actually. I haven’t paid any attention to that… People are allowed to go see two movies in a weekend. Oppenheimer is one of them!”
When asked which film his daughters are going to watch first, he answered: “I’ll have to ask them that. If that’s the case, they’ll see two movies that weekend!”
In the same interview, Damon opened up about his character, explaining: “Groves was a military man, and so much of that ethos is about compartmentalisation and the need to know all of the stuff. And the scientists were all about sharing information so that they can get the truth right… there was this constant tension. The scientists felt it was actually necessary to be sharing all the information that they could, and the military felt we had to try to make whatever gains we could without giving away any of our secrets.”
The actor also elaborated on the epic scale of the project. He said: “You could see over the horizon the actual testing site and where the original town was. Ruth [De Jong], our production designer, basically rebuilt the town, so we had an active kind of town to work in. It reminded me of shooting [Saving] Private Ryan in the sense that [Steven] Spielberg would rebuild these areas, and we had carte blanche — we could go anywhere we wanted to go. So, Chris had the flexibility to shoot as he wanted and needed to all around the town. It was fully immersive.”
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