Cillian Murphy has revealed that director Christopher Nolan typically sends one of his family members to deliver top-secret film scripts to him.
- READ MORE: ‘Oppenheimer’ review: Christopher Nolan’s mind-blowing biopic hits like a bomb to the brain
Nolan and Murphy have worked together on six films – their most recent project being the Oscar-nominated Oppenheimer, in which the actor stars as the titular theoretical physicist who helped developed the first nuclear bomb.
In a new interview with British GQ, Murphy said that Nolan usually makes sure the scripts for his unreleased films are delivered to him by hand.
“It’s been his mum who’s delivered the script to me before. Or his brother; he’ll go away and come back in three hours.” Murphy said.
“Part of it has to do with keeping the story secret before it goes out. But part of it has to do with tradition. They’ve always done it this way, so why stop now? It does add a ritual to it, which I really appreciate. It suits me.”
However, Murphy explained that Nolan actually broke tradition for Oppenheimer, and instead flew to meet the actor in Dublin, Ireland, to deliver the script himself.
“He’d already called me and said he wanted me to play the part. And I had said yes, because I always say yes to him,” the actor said.
Murphy then explained how Nolan left him him alone in a Dublin hotel room to read the script, and knew exactly how long it would take him to finish it.
“[Nolan] doesn’t have a phone or anything. But he knew instinctively when to come back,” the actor recalled.
Oppenheimer, which is nominated for a leading 13 Oscars, marks Murphy’s sixth collaboration with the director after the Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar and Dunkirk.
Elsewhere in the GQ interview, Murphy said that being on a Nolan set feels like being in a “private, intimate laboratory”.
“Even though [Nolan] works at a tremendous pace, there’s always room for curiosity and finding things out, and that’s what making art should be about, you know? There’s no phones – but also no announcement: everybody just knows.
“And there’s no chairs,” he added. “Because he doesn’t sit down. Sometimes a film set can be like a picnic. Everyone’s got their chairs and their snacks and everyone’s texting and showing each other fucking, you know, emojis or whatever”.
In other news, Murphy recently revealed that he doesn’t watch any of his own films.