Actor Cillian Murphy has spoken about the sex scenes in his latest movie, Oppenheimer, deeming them "powerful" and "perfect", and lauding co-star Florence Pugh's performance as "devastating".
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Murphy, who plays the titular role in the film, said, "Those scenes were written deliberately."
Referring to the film's 15A classification, Murphy continued, "He [writer and director Christopher Nolan] knew that those scenes would get the movie the rating that it got.
"And I think when you see it, it's so f****** powerful."
"And they’re not gratuitous. They’re perfect. And Florence is just amazing."
The actor elaborated on 27-year-old Pugh's turn as psychiatrist and Communist Party member, Jean Tatlock, saying, "I have loved Florence's work since Lady Macbeth [William Oldroyd's 2016 period drama] and I think she’s f****** phenomenal.
"She has this presence as a person and on screen that is staggering.
"The impact she has [in Oppenheimer] for the size of the role, it’s quite devastating."
Oppenheimer tells the story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, the biographical thriller is Christopher Nolan's sixth project with Murphy after The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception and Dunkirk.
Despite working on many projects together, Murphy said that he and Nolan are not particularly close: "Myself and Chris don't keep in touch, you know. We don't hang out and go to have pizza.
"We work together. And then we don’t see each other, and then we work.
"So, when I got a call from Emma [Nolan's wife, producer Emma Thomas], I knew it must’ve been about something. And then Chris got on the phone, and he said, 'This is my next project, I’d like you to be my Oppenheimer.'"
In the interview, Murphy also reflected on his development as an actor over his nearly three decades of work: "I always say this: when I was starting out, a director said it takes 30 years to make an actor.
"I've been doing it since I was 20, so that’s 27 years doing it, and I think it’s about right, that estimation.
"I’m not quite there yet. But I think it does take that long to figure it out. And I’m still figuring it out."
You can read RTE.ie's review of Oppenheimer here.
