Robert Downey Jr. praises Cillian Murphy's "sacrifice" while filming Oppenheimer
"I have never witnessed a greater sacrifice by a lead actor in my career," said Robert Downey Jr.
Between Jared Leto sending used condoms and dead rats to his co-stars, Austin Butler’s perpetual Elvis accent, and Jeremy Strong’s entire existence, the concept of Method Acting has experienced something of a 500-foot reputational drop the past few years. Couple that with a script about the father of the atomic bomb, and the whole prospect moves from cringy to genuinely terrifying.
Luckily for his co-stars—and the world—Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer method didn’t involve actually becoming death, the destroyer of worlds; it mostly just centered around eating a tiny amount of food and learning a huge amount of Dutch.
In two separate People interviews, Murphy’s co-stars praised him for his dedication to the titular role. “I have never witnessed a greater sacrifice by a lead actor in my career,” said Robert Downey Jr., who starred alongside Murphy as Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss. The nature of this sacrifice? Ornamental plates and cute little chairs—at least, partly.
“We’d be like, ‘Hey, we got a three-day weekend. Maybe we’ll go antiquing in Santa Fe. What are you going to do?’” Downey continued, before answering for Murphy: “‘Oh, I have to learn 30,000 words of Dutch. Have a nice time.’ But that’s the nature of the ask.”