Christopher Nolan Likens Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer Performance to Heath Ledger’s Joker

These comments came shortly after the announcement of Oscar nominations, which Nolan’s latest film “Oppenheimer” led the competition with 13 different nominations. The Oscars are scheduled to take place on March 10th.

“You start to see the actor bringing an icon to life, putting the hat on, the cigarette in the corner of his mouth. You’re starting to see how he moves. It’s a thrilling moment. It is on every film. Seeing Cillian put this iconography together, it reminded me of my hair and makeup tests with Heath Ledger for the Joker,” he said.

Critics at the time that “The Dark Knight” came out heaped praise on Heath Ledger’s performance, with many fans considering Ledger’s performance the best in the character’s history. Ledger won over Batman fans, who were initially not so pleased by the casting choice. (via Showbiz CheatSheet)

Critic Jason Best from Movie Talk commented “With his smeared whiteface make-up and leering razor-slashed smile, Ledger’s Joker is creepy enough to look at, but what he represents is even more chilling.”

“What he [Nolan] has put before our eyes definitively deserves to be seen, as does Cillian Murphy’s performance in the role of Oppenheimer and the irreconcilable but fantastic Robert Downey Jr. in the role of Lewis Strauss,” he said.

“Thankfully, I live in a time zone that I don’t have to get up at 5 a.m.,” he said. “It was already organized for me. We’ve had a few days off and I’ve been at home, which has been very, very pleasant. I’m actually in my parents’ house in Cork city. I was with my parents and my wife today. So that was really nice.”

“Words don’t really do it justice. I think the superlatives fail you at this point. I’m so truly honored and kind of overwhelmed. But most of all, proud of the movie, and proud that it has achieved so much. It exceeded all of our expectations, any of any of us who are involved in making this movie,” Murphy said.

“I get people coming up to me on the street all the time and they say, “I’ve watched the movie five times.” And then these are older people, and they’re younger people and they’re boys and girls. It’s crazy. And then to be recognized by the Academy like we have been, it’s just kind of mind-blowing,” Murphy said.

“I have friends that have gone to it in the past. They all say it’s a wonderful experience that you never forget. I gotta go in with an open heart and enjoy it because it may never happen again. So that’s my attitude,” he said. (via Variety)

“I believe the universe will decide who you meet or not. I’m less about making a beeline for someone’s table. If you bump into someone, you bump into someone and it’s meant to be,” Murphy said.

“I think he’d [Oppenheimer] be quite confused, in a pleased way. I think he’d be happy that if nothing else, maybe people will think about nuclear weapons in a more focused way than we tend to because, you know, half the population on the planet lives in a country that has nuclear weapons and we just don’t think about it because there are more pertinent and pressing things going on in our lives…Perhaps he might be pleased because that was kind of his life’s mission, was to be candid about the state that the world is in,” he said.

“It’s a film that’s very important to me. I’ve produced it, and I’m acting in it. And it’s an adaptation of a book, which is one of my favorite books. We’re the first Irish film to open Berlin,” Murphy said.