Just tell us about that initial phone call.
Where were you and what did you talk about?
And ultimately, how did you feel?
I was at home.
I can't remember.
I was plotting around and then it was Emma,
his wife and producer, that called me because he doesn't have a cell phone.
So she just passed the phone over to Chris.
And I've kind of used this because it's happened to me before.
And, you know, you always say yes, because it's Chris.
But this time he's you know,
he's very understated kind of British.
And I was wondering if you want to really, you know, got this movie going.
And that's pretty much it.
And yeah, so it was it was kind of overwhelming.
You always hope you get a couple of those calls in your career.
And so I did.
And then but immediately you start thinking about how much work is involved.
And I got stuck in like a six.
That was six months before we started shooting and ask,
How long was your brother? Yeah, I was six months.
I would have taken more, but it was six months to Florence.
Chris Nolan said that everyone sort of became an expert in their own character
and their motivations.
I wondered what for you was the most helpful in your research and who she was?
I think the I mean, despite obviously the time that you see
you meet her and obviously she she leaves the storyline
is a very much intense period of time between them meeting each other.
The initial getting together, their fall out.
And so I really
the stuff that I had to do was very much in that specific tone.
And I really wanted to see who she was kind of before that and
and before her depression really got to her.
And she was I mean, they have these pictures of her and him
that he's taken of her, and she's always like giggling
and is very silly and always has hair all over the place.
And I just thought, well, yeah, how what what is it that has
what is it that turned this man's head towards her?
She must be pretty spectacular and and intelligent and opinionated and
must in some way test them, too.
So I think for me, I really loved kind of knowing that about her, despite
all of the scenes that we then had to do where she obviously wasn't
feeling in that certain way.
But I
very much held onto that and I was like, and killing.
Can we talk a little bit
about working with Florence on that character, but also with Emily and
and developing those two very different emotional relationships?
Yeah, well, you know,
the thing about this film is that they're the best actors in the world,
in my opinion.
You know, I've watched Florence's work for a long time.
I think she's absolutely stunning actor And Emily,
I'd worked with before and I'm quite blase to.
So we were pals and we knew each other.
And, uh, and when, you know, when you work
great actors, you kind of have to, you know, it raises your game.
That's an old cliche, but it's it's true.
And this was the ultimate one of those four for the whole cast.
But yeah, in terms of the relationship between the two women, it was very,
very tricky but very important to who he was as an individual because he was so
complex and so contradictory and it didn't make sense.
A lot of his choices, moral kind of choices.
So it kind of plotting that was was challenging.
But when you got to extraordinary actors, it makes it easier.
It's very easy working with really talented like,
you know, lots of people have been asking me,
what was it like being on set with all of these giants?
And so it's it's the biggest gift because you barely have to do anything.
You're just reacting and just giving back whatever they've given you.
It's a wonderful gift to be put in rooms like that.
Absolutely.
And you got to film in some incredible locations.
I mean.
Yeah, the real the real house,
the office of Einstein and Einstein.
It's not like, Oh, amazing.
Because the walls tell stories. You know what?
You can feel the vibrations from the you can feel the energy.
And we were in it and think about that.
Yeah, you're in the exact space.
Yeah, we were in the Oppenheimer house in Los Alamos and,
and then Einstein's office.
And then and then I went to his office in Princeton and you know that.
But that's Chris, because he's always pushing the performance
to get the closest experience that the characters would.
And again, it just you get something for free in those environments, I think.
Yeah.
Thank you so much. Real pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for.