Oppenheimer's Christopher Nolan apologises to Florence Pugh over controversial Jean Tatlock role
Florence Pugh (right) alongside Oppenheimer co-stars Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy
PA
It's been a month since Oppenheimer has cinemagoers across the globe flocking to see Cillian Murphy's turn as "father of the atomic bomb" J Robert Oppenheimer.
Therefore, after raking in hundreds of millions at the box office, interest in the blockbuster and its star-studded cast remains sky-high.
Oppenheimer's cast boasted a number of A-list names alongside Murphy, including Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh and Robert Downey Jr to name a few.
But it's Pugh's role that has arguably garnered the most attention besides Murphy, although not for all the right reasons.
Pugh's take on Communist and Oppenheimer love interest Jean Tatlock was condemned by Indian government officials and those of the Hindu faith for a sex scene between the two characters.
While other criticism has been aimed at the lack of screen time Pugh was granted compared to her co-stars.
Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh starred together in Oppenheimer
UNIVERSAL PICTURESAnd it sounds like the latter criticism was foreseen by director Christopher Nolan when he first reached out to Pugh about the role.
Pugh recalled: "I didn’t really know what was going on or what it was that was being made.
"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," she explained to MTV UK.
She continued: "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.’”
Recalling the apology Nolan issued to her during their conversations, Pugh explained: "I remember he apologised by the size of the role.
"I was like, 'Please don’t apologise,' 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.'"
Pugh's participation in Oppenheimer is the latest in a long string of impressive credits she's attained over the past few years.
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Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy at a photo call for Oppenheimer in London
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She starred opposite Harry Styles in Don't Worry Darling, landed a role in Marvel's Black Widow, and is scheduled to appear in the hotly-anticipated Dune: Part Two.
Oppenheimer has becomes the fourth-highest grossing movie of the year so far behind Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3.
The three-hour-long thriller even went head to head with Greta Gerwig's Barbie as one half of the phenomenon now dubbed "Barbenheimer".