Emily Blunt cast as Katherine Oppenheimer

The upcoming epic thriller based on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.
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Allstar wrote:
October 21st, 2021, 1:11 am


Watch the vid.
Getting Miss Havisham vibes from this

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Neat! Half expecting her to steal the show.

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Cillian Murphy last May on Emily Blunt-
“I think Emily is one of the finest actors working today. She’s extraordinary. There’s nothing she can’t do, and I’ve admired her work for a long, long time now. We kind of came up at the same time through the business, but we never met or worked together until now. It’s lovely when you get to work with actors whose work you’ve admired, especially when they turn out to be wonderful people as well. And that was the case with Emily. She’s just a really good person and really great company — and same with John. That’s such a bonus when you have to go through quite an intense, grueling shoot with your colleagues.”

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Allstar wrote:
October 22nd, 2021, 2:32 am
Cillian Murphy last May on Emily Blunt-
“I think Emily is one of the finest actors working today. She’s extraordinary. There’s nothing she can’t do, and I’ve admired her work for a long, long time now. We kind of came up at the same time through the business, but we never met or worked together until now. It’s lovely when you get to work with actors whose work you’ve admired, especially when they turn out to be wonderful people as well. And that was the case with Emily. She’s just a really good person and really great company — and same with John. That’s such a bonus when you have to go through quite an intense, grueling shoot with your colleagues.”
She is really a wonderful actress, from every point of view, she impregnates herself with her characters with such a strength and maturity, that she manages to give them thickness every time, what makes her charisma, her beauty and her charm, is precisely this naturalness, this natural strength that she implies and that she gives to her characters, and I find that incredible.

I haven't seen the sequel to A Quiet Place yet, but I'm so excited to see their chemistry and to see them collaborate together, especially with Nolan and a project like this, I feel like it's going to be something amazing!!

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You gotta watch it; their chemistry in that is impressive and had to have been the main reason that Mr. Nolan cast her in this.

I can't believe that it's been like two days and I'm still giddy about it all (her being cast at all, but then that she will play opposite Mr. Murphy, etc.).

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Oku wrote:
October 22nd, 2021, 9:59 am
You gotta watch it; their chemistry in that is impressive and had to have been the main reason that Mr. Nolan cast her in this.

I can't believe that it's been like two days and I'm still giddy about it all (her being cast at all, but then that she will play opposite Mr. Murphy, etc.).
It's straight fire...when I think about I pump my fists in the air.

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Emily Blunt: a seat at the table
Her most notable upcoming project – Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which tells the story behind the creation of the atomic bomb – will once again see her take on a complex yet fascinating character. She portrays Kitty Oppenheimer, the frustrated wife of Cillian Murphy’s physicist. "She wasn’t an easy woman – she definitely didn’t conform to the 1950s housewife ideal, and yet she found herself confined to an ironing board in Mexico’s Los Alamos, which must have driven her mad," says Blunt, who describes her as having a ‘monumental presence’. "I found her so interesting to play, because she was a great scientist herself, but limited by the era she lived in. A lot of women a few generations ahead of me weren’t allowed the juggle of a career and children – there was an expectation they should choose, and if they did choose their career, they were frowned upon. Even now, I see women in their seventies whose whole identity has been caught up in motherhood, and then once that’s done, there’s this sense of, well, who am I and how do I reclaim myself?"

Blunt threw herself into preparing for the part with her signature fervour. "Getting into character is a very “inner” process for me," she says. "It’s about the little details that funnel down into something." For all her experience, starting a major project such as this remains daunting for her. "I still feel frozen with fear when I step on set that first day... And then I’m off, and I go through that sense of feeling possessed by someone." It helped that she and Murphy had co-starred in A Quiet Place Part II, so their chemistry came naturally ("We have so much trust when we work together that we throw caution to the wind"). Murphy, who calls me from Dublin to talk about his experience of collaborating with Blunt, is profuse in his praise of her ‘fierce intelligence’. "Emily has that, both intellectually and emotionally," he says. "She’s a phenomenal actress, not to mention the kindest, most thoughtful person."

Starring in this film clearly means a lot to Blunt. At one point, she moves her camera to show me a collection of mementos from the set, displayed with pride on her living-room shelves: a history book and a vintage gin bottle with her character’s name on it, both gifts from Christopher Nolan. "I’ve always felt he’s groundbreaking in the way he’s able to create these big themes that are meaningful on the most visually stunning scale," she enthuses. "He has single-handily changed cinema for everybody." Like many in her industry, she felt the absence of the big screen keenly during the pandemic, and Nolan, more than anyone, makes films that are designed to be experienced en masse, in full surround sound.

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The way she describes Kitty in that first paragraph is almost straight out of the book:

Image
Last edited by EOLB on June 8th, 2023, 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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I'm honestly curious about the Kitty Oppenheimer portrayal... that was one of my concerns, whether Nolan can create this troubled, strong female character without her becoming too cliché, or too one-dimensional or, worse, judgmental.. Because, to be honest, the book sounded pretty judgmental of Kitty many times - and, obviously, she will probably be a "sidekick" to Cillian's Oppenheimer in the film, but I hope they can focus on the mental toll this whole ordeal took on their family. I mean, the book presents some nasty scenes from their family life (especially involving their children and the Oppenheimers' supposed lack of parental care and love for them), and I'd love to see them portrayed, but I hope Robert and Kitty will be equally held responsible for those bad, bad moments.

I'm sure Nolan doesn't want to make this psychological study (which he already said in Empire he won't), so it will be pretty tricky to portray these hugely ambigious, troubled characters in a cinematic way. And, obviously, we are going to spend most of the time with Robert, so it will be easier with him, but I hope Kitty doesn't end up too one dimensional. I'd like to think of Emma as a script doctor in this regard :D

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DHOPW42 wrote:
June 8th, 2023, 1:09 pm
I'm honestly curious about the Kitty Oppenheimer portrayal... that was one of my concerns, whether Nolan can create this troubled, strong female character without her becoming too cliché, or too one-dimensional or, worse, judgmental.. Because, to be honest, the book sounded pretty judgmental of Kitty many times - and, obviously, she will probably be a "sidekick" to Cillian's Oppenheimer in the film, but I hope they can focus on the mental toll this whole ordeal took on their family. I mean, the book presents some nasty scenes from their family life (especially involving their children and the Oppenheimers' supposed lack of parental care and love for them), and I'd love to see them portrayed, but I hope Robert and Kitty will be equally held responsible for those bad, bad moments.

I'm sure Nolan doesn't want to make this psychological study (which he already said in Empire he won't), so it will be pretty tricky to portray these hugely ambigious, troubled characters in a cinematic way. And, obviously, we are going to spend most of the time with Robert, so it will be easier with him, but I hope Kitty doesn't end up too one dimensional. I'd like to think of Emma as a script doctor in this regard :D
I think if said material is maintained then it could work out. I do think that over the years Nolan's female characters have gotten stronger and better. And there's indeed this true person to represent and material to make her role work but even with that material it'll depend on execution. It's common for these kinds of historical biopic films to have the wife be sorta there because they have to be but the story either clearly isn't that interested in them or they just end up being the typical "why are you working so much dear!" or "Do what you gotta do sweetheart". I would want an actress of Blunt's calibre to be given a role that stands out and I think it easily could.

Edit: I'm more thinking about Florence as Jean since her role is even more weighty and I'm just wondering if that'll end up fully hitting but even if the role isn't that big she could probably still make it standout on her own.

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