Emily Blunt doesn’t care if people like her character in ‘Oppenheimer’

In Oppenheimerwriter-director Christopher Nolan’s hit biopic, Kitty Oppenheimer’s character is overshadowed twice.

Kitty, played by Emily Bluntshe is the woman behind the man: although she is also a scientist, she is the outcast wife of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the American physicist who led the development of the atomic weapon during World War II in Los Alamos, New York . Mexico. Oppenheimer It’s his film, so much so that much of the screenplay is written in the first person (“I open my eyes – I JUMP out of bed – I RUN to get dressed”).

And furthermore, although Kitty was Robert’s wife (they had two children), she was not his first love nor, as the film suggests, his most intense. The psychiatrist Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) first dated Robert for three years, and the two continued to see each other even after the Oppenheimers married. Halfway through the film, Kitty discovers that her husband is freaking out over her death.

“How heartbreaking it must have been for her,” Blunt said, “to see him in that state for another woman.”

All this to say that Blunt, the London actress known for films such as The devil wears Prada, Mary Poppins Returns AND A silent placecould have disappeared in this three-hour epic, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, American Prometheus.

But Blunt’s is one of the most memorable performances in a film full of movie stars and acclaimed actors. Blunt, winner of the Screen Actors Guild Award for A silent place in 2019, she is now a likely contender for her first Oscar nomination. In a video interview last month, she talked about what it was like for her to empathetically play a hapless character, but she’s not exactly likable. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

-Christopher Nolan asked the actors to learn about their characters’ real lives. What traits of Kitty Oppenheimer influenced your performance?

-We all read American Prometheus. On the flight to Albuquerque I could see other people trying to swallow the book. The wives of Los Alamos described her as one of the most evil people they had ever met. The men were interested in her, but a little intimidated. Kitty didn’t make small talk. She only spoke about important things.

A difficult scene to play

-Robert and Kitty Oppenheimer temporarily entrusted their young son to friends, the Chevaliers, because they were very overwhelmed. Was it difficult to play that scene?

-I have 9 and 7 year old daughters and I love being a mother. I’ve always loved boys. So it was quite difficult to be so cold to those little ones on set. Kitty clearly has trauma about this, a trauma that she didn’t have a name for at the time. She fell into drinking. I tried to empathize with this woman who had a phenomenal brain, that she had to go through contortions to be a good housewife. She must have been torture for someone like her, so wild, so brilliant, who should never have been a mother and who clearly suffered from severe depression after the birth of her baby.

-How do you balance empathy with character loyalty, potentially at the expense of people liking you?

-For me it never matters if someone likes me. I just have to understand the person. She could portray the character’s quiet desperation, restlessness and that uninhibited style that she had, which was so fiery and interesting. Yet, she was a very stabilizing force for him. She was his strongest protector. I think she had some pretty unusual qualities, as well as others that undermine her as a person. She’s rough and imperfect, but I identified with the idea of ​​someone wasting away at the ironing board when he should be pursuing intellectual pursuits that would excite her.

-Was there any other scene that made you understand Kitty?

-Do you remember the scene under the rock, with Cillian? He babbles incoherently about her lover. When I read the scene, I thought, “Wow, that’s interesting, it’s almost like she can’t see that he’s talking to his wife.” And I slapped him. Chris said, “Slap him.” It’s not in the movie, but I’ve hit that famous cheekbone too many times. Maybe what I interpreted the most was him trying to save face. As if to say: “Control yourself, the people here depend on you.” But it’s more: “I depend on you.”

-How did the unconventional and first-person character of the script influence your approach to the role?

-It was clear to all of us that it is a single point of view. Oppenheimer’s character crosses the screen and pulls you into his head, and around him are some much wilder and more colorful characters. We were there to bring out different aspects of that character emotionally.

-I interviewed Nolan shortly before the premiere of “Oppenheimer” about the IMAX 70mm format.

-It must have been nonsense for him. The passion for cinema is contagious.

-What was it like shooting with IMAX cameras?

-They brought them into a kind of giant refrigerator. And they’re loud: it sounds like Chewbacca is coming. There’s something freeing about that, because you know they’ll catch every little glimmer and nuance on anyone’s face. But they’re loud, and at first you wonder, “How will I work?” The point is the restraint of Chris’ sets, the focus and absence of chaos, the fact that there was never a moment of bombast when he entered the IMAX.

-How would you compare Nolan’s “quiet” sets to others you’ve been on?

-In some sets you move by instinct and experience. It can work both ways: in a comedy or something freer, sometimes it’s nice for things to be a little more chaotic. But with Chris, his preparation is important, so when you appear you don’t feel pressured as an actor. I’m sure the technicians were in the horizontal position every day at 7pm.