Cillian Murphy Skipped Cast Dinners Because of His 'Oppenheimer' Diet
"Oppenheimer" stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt said that Cillian Murphy skipped cast dinners.
"We invited Cillian to dinner every night and he never went," Damon said.
Damon said Murphy "was losing so much weight for the part that he just didn't eat dinner, ever."
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Matt Damon and Emily Blunt said that their "Oppenheimer" costar Cillian Murphy didn't participate in cast dinners during filming because he was dieting as part of playing the titular role.
"Oppenheimer," written and directed by Christopher Nolan, centers on real-life American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Murphy), who's known as the father of the atomic bomb. The high-stakes thriller is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "American Prometheus" by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
The cast of "Oppenheimer" boasts plenty of notable stars, including Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer, a biologist and wife of the main character, and Damon as Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project.
Just as the scientists gathered in the middle of nowhere for their nuclear experimentation, the cast and crew of "Oppenheimer" filmed in a desert that was designed to emulate the look of Los Alamos, New Mexico, in the 1940s.
Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in "Oppenheimer." Universal Pictures
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, Damon and Blunt likened the experience of filming "Oppenheimer" to summer camp — except with plenty of margaritas involved.
"We were in New Mexico together, so we had dinner every night," Damon explained.
"It's unusual for all the actors to be on location together," Blunt said. "We were shooting in this really remote location in the middle of the New Mexican desert and there was one hotel and we were all together. That doesn't always happen. Normally, everyone's in their own place or you're shooting at home or everyone's got their own house and you don't hang out."
Because of the isolated location, the actors said that there was only one restaurant around, so the cast gathered there daily to have meals together.
"That was the only way to get food," Blunt said.
"It wasn't like the kind of restaurant that was open 24 hours," Damon said. "It was open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was like the dining hall, you would go in and you'd see everybody, so everyone would just end up sitting together."
Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in "Oppenheimer." Universal Pictures
The stars said that Murphy missed out on these cast dinners due to his diet for the film.
"We invited Cillian to dinner every night and he never went," Damon said, with Blunt adding that Murphy instead ate "one almond most nights, or a little slice of apple."
"He was losing so much weight for the part that he just didn't eat dinner, ever," Damon said.
In past interviews, Nolan said that he wanted Murphy, a frequent supporting actor in his films, to play the lead role immediately after writing the "Oppenheimer" draft.
Damon and Blunt previously told People magazine that the weight and "responsibility" of the role prevented Murphy from joining in on the cast's fun activities.
"The sheer volume of what he had to take on and shoulder is so monumental," Blunt said. "Of course he didn't want to come and have dinner with us."
"He couldn't," Damon said. "His brain was just too full."
Source: Insider