Though he’s worked with writer-director Christopher Nolan for over two decades, Cillian Murphy steps into his largest studio lead role to date in Nolan’s upcoming biopic, Oppenheimer. Starring as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man appointed to head the top-secret labs for the Manhattan Project, Murphy discusses with Collider’s Steve Weintraub the preparation for this role and what it was like to “experiment and explore” on set with Nolan.

With a uniquely penned screenplay unlike any Murphy’s received prior, Oppenheimer presented him with the opportunity to once again explore the existential themes Nolan films favor, this time as the leading man. Dubbing himself a “Nolan veteran,” Murphy has appeared as a supporting actor in many of the director’s most notable features, from his take on the Dark Knight in 2005’s Batman Begins to the Oscar-winning Inception. Now, he leads an ensemble cast alongside Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Gary Oldman, Josh Hartnett, and David Dastmalchian.

During this one-on-one interview, Murphy describes what it was like receiving that phone call from Nolan, how long he had to prepare for filming, and why this screenplay blew his mind. We also find out what kind of feedback Nolan gives on set, which Oppenheimer scene was the most challenging to shoot, and what it will take for Murphy to do a 28 Months Later sequel. For this and more, check out the full interview in the video or transcript below.

COLLIDER: I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time, but there are going to be people out there who have never seen anything you’ve done. Besides Oppenheimer, which is obviously incredible, what would be the thing you want people to watch first if they’ve never seen your work?

CILLIAN MURPHY: That’s a good question. I hate looking at my own films [laughs]. There’s a film that I have a great affection for that I made in Ireland called The Wind that Shakes the Barley, which is a film I’m very proud of. It’s a little insight into Irish history, but it’s a beautifully made film by Ken Loach.

Yeah, he’s okay.

MURPHY: He’s pretty good. [Laughs]

You’ve worked with [Christopher] Nolan before, but what was it actually like when he reached out to you and said, “I’m thinking about doing Oppenheimer. I want you to do the role?” As an actor, what is it like getting that call?

MURPHY: I think any actor in the world would, first of all, want to work with Chris, but second of all, do a lead for him. I can’t think of any better word than it’s a dream. It sounds like such a cliché, but it’s the truth. But I had no idea he was going to call me. He just called me out of the blue. That’s his MO; you never hear from him and then he calls. [Laughs] So he called me, and I genuinely didn’t know what it would be, and then he said, “I’m making this movie about Oppenheimer and I would like you to play Oppenheimer.” It’s a big shock, and a very pleasant one, but then you kind of go, “Okay, now I have a lot of work to do.”

Image via Universal Pictures

Completely. You get off the phone with him, and are you immediately in your head, like, “I need to just start studying?”

MURPHY: Yes. Yes, exactly that. He told me the day we were starting to shoot, so I knew I had six months to really go in. I would have taken more, but six months was good. We just went straight at it from that day. We were just into it.

One of the things about this film is it was filmed with IMAX cameras, and it’s incredible, but as an actor, because it’s a huge camera, what is it like when it’s right there near you, and you know every shot is incredibly expensive, and it’s also incredibly loud?

MURPHY: You kind of get used to it. And I’m a bit of a Nolan veteran so I’m kind of used to the huge cameras and the racket they make. We have an amazing DP, Hoyte Van Hoytema, and an amazing camera team, so it doesn’t become a big deal after a while. If you started thinking, “Oh, this is gonna be my face 80 feet on the–” You just can’t think about it like that. Chris never talked about it like that. He just cares about the performances and what’s happening in the moment and the truth of the scene.

I’m sure when you looked at the schedule and saw everything you were going to be doing, you maybe had a day or two circled in terms of, “Oh, that might be a tough day.” What was that day or two that you had circled where you were in your head a little bit in terms of performance, or what was required of you that day?

MURPHY: To be honest with you, they were all like that. [Laughs] But the section of the movie that I loved working on the most was the section in the room, in 2022, when we were all in the hearing. We shot in this tiny, shitty little room. There weren’t any moveable walls or anything like that; it was just all of us in there with this huge camera. That felt almost like doing a play. We did that for two weeks, so all these incredible actors, Jason Clarke and everybody, would come in and do their piece. I found that very emotional and heavy, but in a brilliant way. It was a real challenge. So, that was my favorite chunk of the movie in terms of shooting.

Image via Universal

What do you think would surprise Christopher Nolan fans to learn about making a Christopher Nolan movie?

MURPHY: He’s not that sympathetic to toilet breaks.

[Laughs] That’s not what I expected you to say, and it’s also very honest.

MURPHY: I’ll leave that there.

I’m fascinated by the way directors craft a performance. Clearly, Chris is looking for things in each take, and he knows exactly what he wants. What is he like to work with when he’s not getting exactly what he wants out of you? Can you talk a little bit about how he directed you?

MURPHY: He is brilliant with actors, understands actors, loves actors, really believes in actors and what they can bring to the story and to the character. So an awful lot of the time we’ll just find it. We’ll be shooting, but we’ll be finding the scene, and he’ll let us experiment and explore stuff. Then he may come in, and he’ll just whisper very quietly in your ear. Generally, the notes are very precise and succinct and brief, but they can totally spin the performance. That’s his genius. It also comes from the fact that he’s written it, so he has direct access to it, but he’s phenomenal, like really phenomenal.

I saw this last night in IMAX 70mm and it is amazing. First of all, the movie’s incredible, but seeing it in that presentation– Have you seen it in IMAX, 70mm?

MURPHY: I have not seen it in IMAX 70mm. I’m going to, I’m looking forward. I’ve seen Chris’ other movies in that format and I cannot wait to see it.

Is it going to tweak you a little bit in terms of when you see your face on that huge screen? Some actors I speak to, they really can’t watch themselves.

MURPHY: I don’t enjoy it. I don’t know many actors that do love looking at themselves. But I love watching it with an audience because that’s what cinema is, isn’t it? It’s a load of strangers in a dark room collectively invested in this thing, so watching it on your own in the screening room is not the same. I want to watch it with an audience.

100%. I’ve seen movies just like you in a small room with nobody, and it doesn’t have the same impact, the energy of everyone.

MURPHY: Exactly, yeah.

I’m curious, what was it like for you to read the script for the first time because he wrote the Oppenheimer stuff in a different way? Can you talk a little bit about that?

MURPHY: So he wrote the script in first-person, which I’d never encountered and never experienced. It blew my mind. Also, I realized that was a huge responsibility because everything is kind of subjectively through Oppenheimer’s eyes, except for the black and white bits which are objectively from [Lewis] Strauss’ (Robert Downey Jr.) point of view. It was one of the best screenplays I’ve ever read, without a shadow of a doubt. For example, he wouldn’t say, “Oppenheimer walks into the room and speaks to Strauss.” He would say, “I walk into the room,” and “I walk over and speak to Strauss.” That’s how it was written.

Image via Universal

I can’t imagine as an actor because you’ve read so many screenplays. It’s never like that.

MURPHY: Never. Well, not in my experience. I’m sure every script will be like this now. [Laughs] They’ll all be copying Chris.

That wouldn’t come as a surprise. If you were to do a Nolan double feature with Oppenheimer, what is the other movie you would watch with it?

MURPHY: That’s a good question. Do you think it should complement it, or can it be kind of random?

It could be anything.

MURPHY: If you wanted a science double bill, you’d probably go for Interstellar, right? Which, I absolutely adore that movie. If you wanted a complete palette cleanser you could watch The Prestige, which is also, I think, one of Chris’ undervalued but brilliant films. I don’t know. What do you think?

Inception would be an interesting one. As long as I could see it in an IMAX theater, it would be great.

MURPHY: Yeah, same.

So, there’s been talk of a 28 Months Later sequel, but you’re starting to reach the point where is it better to do 28 Years Later?

MURPHY: Totally. I was talking to Danny Boyle recently, and I said, “Danny, we shot the movie at the end of 2000.” So I think we’re definitely approaching the 28 Years Later. But like I’ve always said, I’m up for it. I’d love to do it. If Alex [Garland] thinks there’s a script in it and Danny wants to do it, I’d love to do it.

Image via 20th Century Studios

I think the 28 Years is way better because it would be a reflection of how you’ve aged.

MURPHY: How ancient I am. [Laughs]

I don’t think that’s the thing. [Laughs] My last thing for you, Oppenheimer is about three hours, but I’m assuming there were deleted scenes. Do you remember any deleted scenes or were there a lot of deleted scenes?

MURPHY: There’s no deleted scenes in Chris Nolan movies.

Really?

MURPHY: That’s why there are no DVD extras on his movies because the script is the movie. He knows exactly what’s going to end up– he’s not fiddling around with it trying to change the story. That is the movie.

Grab your tickets for the limited IMAX release of Oppenheimer, hitting theaters July 21. For more on the editing process and how they managed to pull off a nuclear explosion without CGI, check out Collider’s interview with Christopher Nolan below.