Cillian Murphy's role in Oppenheimer pushed him to extreme lengths.
In fact, his co-star Emily Blunt—who portrayed Murphy's onscreen wife Kitty Oppenheimer—revealed that the Inception actor underwent a drastic transformation to play the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.
"He had such a monumental undertaking," she told Extra in an interview published July 7. "And he could only eat, like, an almond every day. He was so emaciated."
Murphy previously admitted that he was committed to a strict diet for the role in order to accurately capture the scientist's appearance.
"I love acting with my body, and Oppenheimer had a very distinct physicality and silhouette, which I wanted to get right," Murphy told the New York Times in May. "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, he warned that the undertaking was not something he would recommend to others.
"You become competitive with yourself a little bit, which is not healthy," the Peaky Blinders actor told The Guardian in July. "I don't advise it."
As for how much weight he lost? Murphy opted not to share a number, explaining, "Ach, no. I don't want it to be, 'Cillian lost x weight for the part.'"
In addition to his physical transformation, the 47-year-old said the fast-paced filming process allowed him to embrace the character a lot more.
"It's like you're on this f--king train that's just bombing," he told the outlet. "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…But it was good because the character was like that. He never ate."
Oppenheimer hits theaters July 21. For more drastic movie transformations, keep reading...
Wahlberg shared a side-by-side photo of his previous toned physique alongside his look, which he achieved by gaining 20 pounds for his film, Stu. "From this 3 weeks ago, to this, now," he wrote, shouting out his chef, Lawrence Duran. "Thanks to @chef_lawrence_d cooking."
To play scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, the Irish actor "had to lose quite a bit of weight," he shared. "He was very slim, almost emaciated, existed on martinis and cigarettes." His diet? According to costar Emily Blunt, "He had such a monumental undertaking.And he could only eat, like, an almond every day."
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