According to a fresh allegation, Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy would perform “prolonged full nudity” in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
In the film, Murphy plays nuclear scientist J Robert Oppenheimer, with a prominent subplot concerning his connection with psychotherapist and physician Jean Tatlock, played by Pugh.
Murphy told The Guardian that he was under “strict instruction” not to discuss the narrative of the film, but he did provide details of the chemistry tests between him, Pugh, and Emily Blunt, who plays Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty.
“They put two actors in a room to see if there’s any spark, and they have all the producers and director at a table watching,” he recalled. “I’m not sure what metric they use, and it seems so ridiculous, but sometimes you get chemistry and no one knows why.”
According to the source, Murphy and Pugh share sequences of “prolonged full nudity” together, making Oppenheimer one of Nolan’s rare films with a substantial interest in sex and relationships.
Fans speculated that Nolan would travel into this zone in June, when it was reported that Oppenheimer had received his first “R” classification in the United States since his 2002 feature Insomnia.
An R rating is generally similar to a “15” classification in the United Kingdom, though age ratings for any given film vary based on the discretion of each country’s rating body. Meanwhile, a PG-13 is roughly similar to a “12A” in the United Kingdom.
Oppenheimer was given a R rating for “some sexuality, nudity, and language,” but it was given a 15 in the UK for “strong language and sex.”
The picture remains one of the most anticipated blockbusters of the summer, with Nolan teasing last month that it had “devastated” early moviegoers. “They are mute. “I mean, there’s an element of fear in the history and in the underpinnings,” the filmmaker explained.
Oppenheimer also stars Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Rami Malek, Gary Oldman, Dane DeHaan, Josh Hartnett, Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Modine, Casey Affleck, Alden Ehrenreich, and Jason Clarke, in addition to Murphy, Pugh, and Blunt.