Florence Pugh has said director Christopher Nolan apologised to her over the size of her role in Oppenheimer.
The actor stars in the historical drama as Jean Tatlock, a communist party member who had a romantic relationship with physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy).
- READ MORE: ‘Oppenheimer’ review: Christopher Nolan’s mind-blowing biopic hits like a bomb to the brain
Speaking to MTV UK, Pugh explained how Nolan apologised when she was being offered the part.
“I didn’t really know what was going on or what it was that was being made,” Pugh said. “Except I knew that Chris really, really wanted me to know that it wasn’t a very big role and he understands if I don’t want to come near it. And I was like, ‘Doesn’t matter. Even if I’m a coffee maker at a cafe in the back of the room, let’s do it.’”
Pugh met Nolan in New York while she was shooting Zach Braff’s A Good Person to discuss her role in Oppenheimer, which she recalls as being a “bizarre” moment.
“I remember he apologised by the size of the role. I was like, ‘Please don’t apologise,’” Pugh added. “And then he said, ‘We’ll send you the script, and honestly, you just read it and decide if it’s like… I completely understand the sizing thing.’
“And I remember that evening when I got the script being like, ‘I don’t need to… I know I’m going to do it.’”
Since it was released last month, Oppenheimer has become the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year, behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Barbie and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.
In a five-star review, NME wrote: “Not just the definitive account of the man behind the atom bomb, Oppenheimer is a monumental achievement in grown-up filmmaking.
“For years, Nolan has been perfecting the art of the serious blockbuster – crafting smart, finely-tuned multiplex epics that demand attention; that can’t be watched anywhere other than in a cinema, uninterrupted, without distractions. But this, somehow, feels bigger.”