Robert Downey Jr. Calls Cillian Murphy's Oppenheimer Transformation BANANAS (Exclusive)

Killian, you worked with Chris Nolan on six films, right? What was it like getting that call or having that conversation with him when he said, we're doing Oppenheimer and I want you to play him? It was the best, you know, you get a few of those in your career that when you get the call and like typical Chris, it was no preamble, nothing just just the call out of the blue, you know, and it was a gift, a total gift. And then in classic Chris style, he flew from LA to give me the actual script. You know, he never, you never get anything on email. It has to give you the physical copy. Just tell you I'm doing Oppenheimer and you are Oppenheimer. There's not a choice. You don't have a choice in this matter. Exactly that. Yeah. It's just, it's just unbelievable. Yeah. How about your conversations with Chris? He called me and said, you are not Oppenheimer. Killian is. And I said, that makes sense. Yeah. And then, yeah, I went over to his house and read the script. Like you're saying, it's amazing. And then I got to witness Killian's journey in segments as I was coming into to kind of play your antagonist. And it was bananas. Were you able to pick through all the nuance on that first read? The extraordinary thing about the script was it's written in the first person, right? Which is the first time I'd ever encountered that. So you realize then this is something different. And, you know, then he does this very clever thing in the movie. You know, the Oppenheimer sequences are in color, and then the Strauss sequences are in black and white. So it's kind of subjective, objective. And that's just amazing. Yeah. It's very cool. Robert, when you started to build this character out and you shaved back the hairline, is it true that you thought that you look like your dad? Yeah, I look like my dad. Make sure I look like a weird old angry owl. An angry owl. And come in and try not to chew up the scenery. What did Susan think of the shaved head? She said, that's hot. No, she said, please put on a cap. There were moments where it felt sort of like a western watching you walk through Los Alamos, and like the gearing up of like the hat and the pipe. That was very considered on Oppenheimer's part. You know, it's interesting because when we were doing the costume, remember Chris sent me a few pictures of David Bowie, you know, like David Bowie. Oh, wow. And I, you know, kind of pin-wiped you. I like that. I like that reference. Emily Blunt told us that shooting this was kind of like being at a summer camp. It's unusual for all the actors to be on location together. And 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. And that doesn't 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. And there was one restaurant. That was it. It was like the dining hall. You'd go in and you'd see everybody. And so everyone would just end up sitting together. Did you guys have like a similar experience? Summer camp, she said. Yeah. Okay, let me give a counterpoint. You know, to agree with her, I would say that you have pretty much a who's who of several generations of actors. And we all know we're doing something with a master filmmaker. And yet we're all there for the love of it because this was a money gig for none of us. It was an exceptionally taxing venture. And we'd all do it again. Yeah. If we could survive it. Could you? I don't know. It was an heroic effort watching you play this guy, man. Well, I think you're very funny. No, I think that I guess I get embarrassed. You know, when we were shooting in New Mexico, there was a lot of the guys were like Emily and Matt and we're all kind of living together. They were hanging out. I was in the bath learning lines. Yeah, yeah. Studying very, very hard. Well, it's like, you know, I'd love to like party, but I have to learn a lecture in Dutch. Was there somebody that either of you had not crossed paths with personally or professionally that you got to in this film? Well, for me, like working with Florence Pugh was amazing because she's something else. And I've admired her work for a long time. So that was a real treat to get to work with her. Yeah. Everyone smashed it. Everyone turned up and delivered. Every single actor. It is a big budget movie. In that sense, did it feel kind of like the camaraderie of an indie film where you're all coming together for that common goal, like to try to tell a great story on film? Felt that for me. Absolutely. And even back to one of your earlier questions, even just like getting to see and hang out with Matthew Modine, we had a lot of fun just hanging around for sure. But I think in terms of the work, it's such a safe environment, you know, to experiment and to try stuff out to kind of like fool yourself. And he creates this really kind of like a laboratory. And the other thing is, I was thinking about it, no scene ever gets left behind. Do you know what I mean? No scene is less important than another. And in addition to playing this behemoth of a role, you hosted the experience for everyone. Anytime someone was coming in just to do a day, you'd be there as stressed out as you might've been. Next thing you had to do was, you know, a bugger. And yet you always took the time. I felt like you and Chris made me feel welcome and safe, right? And that's not easy to do when you're under duress. You've seen the film, right? Yes. You've seen an IMAX? What is it like? You don't get to. Yeah, you're not allowed. You don't get everything you want. Three stories high or however tall. What is it like seeing that? His pores? Yeah. I see they're on the medium to small size. There's no big blackheads. Beautiful skin. I mean, this, you gotta see this. I mean, we will, because we're about to fly around the world and have a lot of opportunities to watch audiences see it.