Cillian Murphy’s co-star Emily Blunt has revealed that he only ate an “almond a day” to transform into J Robert Oppenheimer for Christopher Nolan’s newest blockbuster.
The 40-year-old actress, who plays the Irish actor’s on-screen wife in Oppenheimer, said Murphy, 47, became “so emaciated” as he physically transformed into the father of the atomic bomb.
She told Extra: “He had such a monumental undertaking. And he could only eat, like, an almond every day. He was so emaciated.”
The Peaky Blinders star told The New York Times back in May: “I love acting with my body, and Oppenheimer had a very distinct physicality and silhouette, which I wanted to get right.
“I had to lose quite a bit of weight, and we worked with the costume and tailoring; he was very slim, almost emaciated, existed on martinis and cigarettes.”
However, Murphy admitted that he did not want his weight loss for the role to become the focus of headlines.
Speaking to The Guardian earlier this month, he said: “I don’t want it to be, ‘Cillian lost X weight for the part’.”
He added that his extreme diet should not be attempted by others, saying: “You become competitive with yourself a little bit, which is not healthy. I don’t advise it.”
Despite his aims to curb discussion around his physical preparations for the role, Murphy explained how the pace of filming helped him achieve the pioneering scientist’s look.
He said: “It’s like you’re on this f***ing train that’s just bombing. It’s bang, bang, bang, bang. You sleep for a few hours, get up, bang it again.
“I was running on crazy energy; I went over a threshold to where I was not worrying about food or anything. I was so in it, a state of hyper...something.
“But it was good because the character was like that. He never ate.”
Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey, Jr and Rami Malek star in the Nolan epic alongside Murphy and Blunt, which is out on July 21.
Last week, the cast of Oppenheimer hit the headlines after they walked out of the UK premiere in London ”to go and write their picket signs” in solidarity with USactors union Sag-Aftra.
