Florence Pugh On Why Christopher Nolan Apologized To Her For Her Role As Oppenheimer’s Love Interest

Florence Pugh may have played the lover of the main character, Oppenheimer, but her screen time was nothing to write home about.

Florence Pugh Knew Her Role in “Oppenheimer” Was Minimal When She Agreed To Do It

If you watched “Oppenheimer” because you’re a die-hard Florence Pugh fan, you’d no doubt be very disappointed when the credits for the 3 hour+ movie started rolling up.

But don’t worry, she was not hard done by, she knew what she was signing up for because Nolan made things clear.

Florence, 27, plays psychiatrist and physician Jean Tatlock in the film based on the life of the “father of the atomic bomb”, J Robert Oppenheimer, which saw Cilian Murphy star in the lead role.

Tatlock and Oppenheimer were in a relationship, and even had an affair, while the physicist was still married to Katherine “Kitty” Puening (played by Emily Blunt in the movie).

In a chat with MTV UK – conducted before the actors’ strike – Florence talked about the role, saying that she didn’t know “what was going on or what it was that was being made” when Nolan approached her.

“Except I knew that Chris [Nolan] really, really wanted me to know that it wasn’t a very big role, and he understands if I don’t want to come near it.

And I was like, ‘Doesn’t matter. Even if I’m a coffee maker at a café in the back of the room, let’s do it.’”

Pugh then went on to detail how she met Nolan in New York while filming Zach Braff’s 2023 drama, “A Good Person.” “I remember he apologised about the size of the role. I was like, ‘Please don’t apologise,’” she continued.

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“And then he said, ‘We’ll send you the script, and honestly, you just read it and decide if it’s like… I completely understand the sizing thing.’ And I remember that evening when I got the script being like, ‘I don’t need to… I know I’m going to do it.’”

“Oppenheimer” saw Pugh take part in the first sex scenes of Nolan’s career, as she was shown naked during her intercourse with Murphy’s character.

Despite the amount of criticisms received because of the sex scene, Nolan continued to defend it, insisting it was very necessary for the plot.

“When you look at Oppenheimer’s life and you look at his story, that aspect of his life, the aspect of his sexuality, his way with women, the charm that he exuded, it’s an essential part of his story,” Nolan told Insider.

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