- The “Oppenheimer” cast has been on a majorly gushy media tour.
- They’ve spent a lot of time telling the world that everybody on set brought their A-game.
- Given the competition from “Barbie,” the gushing is a stroke of genius in promoting the movie.
The cast of “Oppenheimer” has been on a seriously gushy media tour.
The movie, which came out on July 21, has made over $209 million to date, per Box Office Mojo. The cast members, for their part, have been on a media tour-de-force full of effusive praise and affection for each other.
Here’s a sampling of cast members gushing about Cillian Murphy:
“I have never witnessed a greater sacrifice by a lead actor in my career,” Robert Downey Jr. said of costar Cillian Murphy, in a People Magazine story published Sunday.
Emily Blunt, who plays Murphy’s character’s wife in the movie, said she was wowed by the extreme diet Murphy underwent to resemble J. Robert Oppenheimer.
“He had such a monumental undertaking. And he could only eat, like, an almond every day. He was so emaciated,” Blunt told Extra in an interview that aired July 7.
Both Blunt and costar Matt Damon have also talked about losing themselves in Murphy’s piercing blue eyes while shooting.
“It’s a real problem when you’re doing scene work with Cillian,” Damon told People Magazine, in a story published Friday. “Sometimes you find yourself just swimming in his eyes.”
“It’s like that ‘Ocean Eyes’ song by Billie Eilish. We just hum it all day,” Blunt said in the same interview with Damon.
Here’s Murphy on Downey Jr.:
“I mean, acting with him was was was was just extraordinary,” Murphy told GQ magazine in a story published Monday. “He’s just electrifying, the most available engaged, present, unpredictably brilliant actor I’ve ever worked with.”
Murphy on Florence Pugh:
Pugh and Murphy share a sex scene in the movie, something director Christopher Nolan had never done before in his filmography.
“And I think when you see it, it’s so f—ing powerful. And they’re not gratuitous. They’re perfect. And Florence is just amazing,” Murphy said of Pugh in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, published July 19.
“She has this presence as a person and on screen that is staggering. The impact she has for the size of the role, it’s quite devastating,” Murphy said.
High impact, A-list marketing
While gushy media tours aren’t new — “A Star is Born,” anyone? — this one does stand out first by sheer quantity of comments, and second because of the competition it’s up against.
I’m talking, of course, about the marketing behemoth that is Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” “Barbie” has been widely promoted, with everything from Barbie-themed Xbox controllers to burgers numbering among the movie’s many wall-to-wall marketing plays.
In fact, “Barbie” had a $150 million marketing budget, per Variety. That’s bigger than the estimated $100 million it cost to make “Oppenheimer.”
With competition like that, “Oppenheimer” really needed to muster every ounce of marketing magic it had. Having the very famous, very talented cast publicly declare their admiration for one another is a low-cost but effective way to promote “Oppenheimer.”
And it looks like it’s working. According to Deadline, the movie clocked the highest global day and date opening weekend ever for a biopic. “Oppenheimer” also defeated “John Wick: Chapter 4” by netting the biggest opening weekend for an R-rated film in 2023, per Screen Rant.
Nolan may just want to reunite this cast for his next cinematic masterpiece.
