Cillian Murphy has won the Golden Globe for best performance by a male actor in a motion picture drama for his portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Christopher Nolan-directed Oppenheimer. This was Murphy’s second Golden Globe nomination and his first win.
“I knew the first time that I walked on Chris Nolan’s set that it was different. I could tell by the level of rigor, the level of focus, the level of dedication, the complete lack of any seating options for actors that I was in the hands of a visionary director. I want to thank Chris and Emma for having faith in me for 20 years.”
Oppenheimer has so far won four Golden Globes tonight out of eight nominations. Nolan earlier took the win for director, Downey Jr. for supporting actor and Ludwig Göransson for best original score.
Earlier this year, Murphy talked about the demands of the role in an interview with IndieWire.
Murphy was committed to the role and also talked about his weight loss in keeping true to the subject he was personifying.
“It’s like you’re on this f*cking train that’s just bombing. It’s bang, bang, bang, bang. You sleep for a few hours, get up, bang it again,” Murphy said. “I was running on crazy energy; I went over a threshold to where I was not worrying about food or anything. I was so in it, a state of hyper-something. But it was good because the character was like that. He never ate.”
The actor said that Oppenheimer alternated between cigarettes and pipes and modeled his behavior during filming adding, “You become competitive with yourself a little bit which is not healthy. I don’t advise it.”
The Nolan-directed Oppenheimer revolves around J. Robert Oppenheimer, played by Murphy, the scientist who ran the Manhattan Project that led to the invention of the atomic bomb.
Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon co-star in the film directed and written by Nolan.
Nolan produced along with Emma Thomas and Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven. The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin.
