Ahead of his Palm Springs film award, Cillian Murphy talks ‘Oppenheimer’ and what’s next

Irish actor Cillian Murphy has played varied roles over the past two decades in war dramas, psychological thrillers, superhero films, science fiction and more. He described the characters he likes to portray during a recent interview: “complex, multifaceted and multilayered.”

That is a precise description of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a key leader of the Manhattan Project during World War II and “father of the atomic bomb.” Throughout the three-hour film, Murphy appears slender and gaunt portraying the scientist in the race to develop the first nuclear warhead while undergoing quandaries and disagreements. At heightened moments, he depicts stoicism or trepidation.

Murphy's "Oppenheimer" performance earned him the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, at the Palm Springs International Film Awards Thursday at the Palm Springs Convention Center.

The film was released in July during the same weekend as "Barbie," leading people to see the two very different films back to back in a phenomenon dubbed "Barbenheimer." In their first weekend in North American theaters, "Barbie" raked in $155 million while "Oppenheimer" amassed $80.5 million, according to AP.  But some critics, such as Erik Kain at Forbes, said "Oppenheimer" was too long.

"I think it works perfectly as it is. It's an epic film, and epic films need that scale, scope and canvas to be told on," Murphy said.

‘A glorious combination’

Even though most actors would give careful consideration to a biographical role, especially when it comes to the man who invented the doomsday machine, Murphy immediately said yes when he received the call from director Christopher Nolan offering him the part.

“(Oppenheimer) was wonderfully unnoble in many ways. There was so much to him. He was flawed, brilliant, contradictory, complex, arrogant and naïve. It was a glorious combination to play,” Murphy said.

There was a side Murphy was surprised to uncover through his research that revealed Oppenheimer's intellect, artistry and leisure activities.

"He wrote poetry, but was sort of insecure and polymathic in his tastes. He was a voracious reader and an excellent horseman. It was just the breadth and scope of his interests and knowledge," Murphy said.

6 months to prepare

With six months to prepare for the role, Murphy said he “did as much as I possibly could” to learn about Oppenheimer. Nolan based much of the film on the 2005 biography “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

“There’s an awful lot of archive footage (of Oppenheimer) out there, I read the book, but the script is your main resource. But I took it all and then from any source I could get, spending a lot of time with Chris, talking to people who had been lectured by Oppenheimer and talking to physicists,” Murphy said.

When asked what the most difficult part of portraying Oppenheimer was, Murphy said trying to portray all those character attributes and capture Oppenheimer's physicality. Despite this, there was one facet of the scientist he did want to reveal through his depiction, which does come through in certain moments.

“It was mostly (difficult) trying to portray the humanity of the man, but that’s the beauty of it and the beauty of the script, and why I relished the opportunity,” Murphy said.

Working with Nolan a ‘privilege’

“Oppenheimer” is the sixth collaboration for Nolan and Murphy beginning with “Batman Begins” in 2005. Murphy appeared in the sequels “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises.” He was also in “Inception” and “Dunkirk.” Considering how momentous of an opportunity “Oppenheimer” was for Murphy, could Nolan ever present him with a bigger project?

"I hope so. He writes scripts himself and generates his own work, and it's a privilege to have worked with him.

"I do believe ("Oppenheimer") is his magnum opus for now. In our industry, there's nobody who writes, directs, produces and presents the films like Chris does. I think he just becomes better and better. That's my experience."

"Oppenheimer" was shot using some of the highest-resolution film cameras that exist. The film was shot entirely on large format film stock, meaning a combination of IMAX 65mm and Panavision 65mm. Nolan is a longtime advocate of IMAX and has used it to film specific scenes or the entire length of previous films.

"The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled," Nolan said in an interview with The Associated Press. "The headline, for me, is by shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you’re really letting the screen disappear. You're getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You’ve got a huge screen and you’re filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You're immersing them in the world of the film."

Murphy said “I’m pretty used to it now” about Nolan's embrace of IMAX cameras and technology.

“It’s unique, he’s the one who has pioneered that way of shooting movies and pushed what you can achieve with an IMAX camera,” Murphy said. “Chris makes cinema and presents it in a unique, immersive way, and I think he’s strengthening our connection with cinema. You don’t have to go see it in IMAX, but it’s certainly how it’s designed because of how it was shot.”

Acting is a ‘cumulative thing’

In 1996, Murphy made his debut in Corcadorca Theatre Company's stage production of "Disco Pigs," which toured in Europe, Canada and Australia for two years. After a handful of film roles, his breakthrough came in the 2002 post-apocalyptic film "28 Days Later." Aside from his notable film work, he also played Tommy Shelby on the BBC crime series "Peaky Blinders."

"(Acting) is a cumulative thing," Murphy said. "I've been acting for 27 years, and I guess at this point in my career, I felt I was ready for a part like this. Fifteen years ago, I probably wouldn't have had the confidence or the experience, but you're learning all the time. It's always a work in progress being an actor while trying to hone your craft and improve."

One of Murphy's upcoming films is "Small Things Like These" based on the 2021 Irish novel by Claire Keegan, which he also produced. The story is set in 1985 during Christmas in a small Irish town.

"I'm very excited about that film," Murphy said. "It's a very intense and moving story, and it was nice to do something entirely different after the experience of 'Oppenheimer.'"

Previous reporting by USA TODAY was used for this article.

Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Springs film awards: Cillian Murphy on ‘Oppenheimer’ and more