Christopher Nolan Explains Why He Cast His Daughter as a Burn Victim in ‘Oppenheimer’
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Sure, the “Oppenheimer” cast features just about everyone in Hollywood, but writer-director Christopher Nolan also opted to keep it all in the family for the ensemble film.
Nolan revealed to The Telegraph UK that he cast his own college-aged daughter Flora Nolan as a nameless woman who, according to the piece, appears in “a hellish, conscience-pricking vision, in which the flesh is flayed from her face by a piercing white light” as a result of the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy portrays scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who developed the nuclear weapon.
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“We needed someone to do that small part of a somewhat experimental and spontaneous sequence,” Nolan said of casting New York University Tisch School of the Arts student Flora, “so it was wonderful to just have her sort of roll with it.” (Flora Nolan is credited on IMDb as a “burn victim” and also appeared briefly in Nolan’s 2014 “Interstellar.”
The “Tenet” director continued, “I hope you’re not going to make me sound like Michael Powell on ‘Peeping Tom,'” referring to filmmaker Powell casting his own nine-year-old son as the childhood version of a serial killer in the 1960 classic. “But yes, I mean, gosh, you’re not wrong. Truthfully, I try not to analyze my own intentions.”
Nolan added, “But the point is that if you create the ultimate destructive power it will also destroy those who are near and dear to you. So I suppose this was my way of expressing that in what, to me, were the strongest possible terms.”
Nolan recently referenced his children in a recent Hollywood Reporter article during which he admitted to not owning a smartphone. “My kids would probably say I’m a complete Luddite,” Nolan said. “I would actually resist that description. I think technology and what it can provide is amazing. My personal choice is about how involved I get.”
The “Memento” auteur said, “It’s about the level of distraction. If I’m generating my material and writing my own scripts, being on a smartphone all day wouldn’t be very useful for me.”
Nolan additionally teased that the ending of “Oppenheimer” mirrors his elusive conclusion to “Inception.”
“I mean, the end of ‘Inception,’ it’s exactly that. There is a nihilistic view of that ending, right? But also, he’s moved on and is with his kids. The ambiguity is not an emotional ambiguity,” Nolan told Wired earlier this year. “It’s an intellectual one for the audience. It’s funny, I think there is an interesting relationship between the endings of Inception and Oppenheimer to be explored. Oppenheimer’s got a complicated ending. Complicated feelings.”
For more details on “Oppenheimer,” click here.
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