Cillian Murphy recalls moment he got the call from Christopher Nolan to star in Oppenheimer

Cillian Murphy has lifted the lid on the moment he got the call from Christopher Nolan to play the lead role in blockbuster movie Oppenheimer.

The movie is putting in a stellar performance at the box office and has been dazzling critics too, while it has worked in tandem with the other cinematic juggernaut that is Barbie to give cinemas their fourth biggest weekend in history.

Our cinema screens are packed with people eager to feast their eyes on pink paradises (with a generous helping of biting social commentary) and phenomenal physicists.

While they're two very different movies they've both been raking in the plaudits, and there are few, if any, being spoken of more favourably than Cillian Murphy for his leading performance in Oppenheimer.

His Oppenheimer co-star, Robert Downey Jr., said he'd 'never witnessed a greater sacrifice by a lead actor in my career' than Murphy's dedication to the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Universal Pictures

In an interview with BBC Radio 2, Murphy was asked about the moment he got the call from director Christopher Nolan asking him to not only be in the movie, but to lead it.

He said: "If you're lucky you get one or two of those in your career, you know?"

"It was the best, best feeling. It was kind of euphoric, and then you go 'oh that's a lot of work'. So I immediately just started working."

"I had like six months before, between when he called me and we started the shoot. The script was solid and was there. It was one of the greatest scripts I've ever read. It was magnificent."

As Oppenheimer was filmed over 57 days and Murphy was in almost every single scene of the film, he was incredibly busy, but it produced an amazing performance that's generating plenty of Oscar buzz already.

Universal Pictures

Murphy put so much dedication into the role, bringing his diet down to something like 'an almond a day' to get the incredibly slim physique of the 'father of the atomic bomb'.

The actor doesn't recommend that you try the Oppenheimer diet, and if he can help it he'd quite like his next role on the big screen not to be a smoker.

Frankly, pretty much the entire cast of Oppenheimer puts in incredible performances, and some of them have managed to look darn near the spitting image of their real life counterparts at the same time.

When Christopher Nolan calls to say he wants you in his next movie it seems as though the correct answer is 'yes', and Murphy is an actor he admires immensely.

They've worked together on a number of films before Oppenheimer, including The Dark Knight Trilogy and Dunkirk, while fans have pointed out that the plot of Interstellar is all about getting back to someone important called Murphy, and think there's a connection there.

Meanwhile, Barbenheimer fans rejoice because Cillian Murphy has said if there's ever a Barbie sequel then he'd rather like the chance to play a Ken.

Oppenheimer is in cinemas now, and if you show up to the cinema and it's fully booked up then why not give Barbie a go?