Oppenheimer will feature "prolonged full nudity" and sex scenes

Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer
(Image credit: Universal)

Christopher Nolan's movies are not usually known for their intimate scenes, but Oppenheimer, the director's latest, looks like it may be bucking the trend. 

Per an interview with the movie's leading actor Cillian Murphy in The Guardian, Oppenheimer will include "prolonged full nudity" and sex scenes between Murphy and Florence Pugh, along with "complicated" scenes with Emily Blunt that he found "pretty heavy." Pugh plays Murphy's ex-fiancée and lover, Jean Tatlock, who was a psychiatrist and member of the Communist Party, while Blunt plays his wife, the scientist Kitty Oppenheimer. 

Murphy, of course, is J. Robert Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist and head of the secret Los Alamos Laboratory during the war. He was heavily involved with the Manhattan Project, which is credited with developing the first nuclear weapons used to bomb the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. 

Blunt and Murphy have shared screen time before, in A Quiet Place 2, which the actor said helped with their scenes as husband and wife in Oppenheimer. "You can be immediately vulnerable and open, and try stuff," he told The Guardian. "There were moments where I remember saying, 'I couldn't have done that if it wasn't with you.'"

Alongside Murphy, Blunt, and Pugh, Oppenheimer features a stacked ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Benny Safdie, Casey Affleck, and Matthew Modine.

Oppenheimer reaches the big screen on July 21. While we wait, check out our guide to the rest of the year's biggest movie release dates

Entertainment Writer

I’m an Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism. 

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