‘I’d feel like he was looking through me’: Robert Downey Jr. describes Cillian Murphy’s haunting ‘Oppenheimer’ performance

For better or for worse, Oppenheimer ironically finds itself amid a sea of expectation — and only time will tell whether or not this World War II film has what it takes to achieve something truly special.

More than that, Christopher Nolan’s latest mind-bending blockbuster houses a cast unlike any the director has ever had. Including: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, Josh Peck, Rami Malek, and Robert Downey Jr. to name a few.

For the title role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Nolan called upon his longtime collaborator Cillian Murphy. And much like the historical figure he’s going to be playing on the silver screen, Murphy has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

When asked by Extra what it was like working with Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. dropped a couple of truth bombs on us about his co-star’s stellar performance. (Look, I normally don’t make jokes that bad — but it was right in front of me, okay?)

“Now Cillian is so warm and nice and inviting, but then we’d roll and I’d feel like he was looking through me like I didn’t exist. And I was like, ‘That sucks.’ And I can only imagine it was a lot of people who felt that way. Lewis Strauss was in a position to do something about it. I don’t know how culpable he was for that, but it is a story about how small imagined slights between important people can have big impacts.”

A chief Oppenheimer rival and former United States Secretary of Commerce, Lewis Strauss was no stranger to conflict, and now it looks like a lot more than an atomic bomb might be exploding on-screen before this is all said and done.

In his first big role since he snapped his fingers in Avengers: Endgame, Robert Downey Jr. is the one who has been tasked with bringing Strauss back to life — digging a bit deeper into the man’s contentious relationship with Oppenheimer himself.

“Chris talked about (Wolfgang) Mozart and (Antonio) Salieri, and I think that was a great shorthand, and even just by the time I was on set, seeing how Cillian had embodied this character to the point where you go, ‘I feel like I’m practically with the guy.’ You can’t help but feel a little bit iced out by it.”

Cillian Murphy is a fantastic actor. Plain and simple. From 28 Days Later to Dunkirk, Murphy never fails to deliver. Now, he looks to succeed in what could potentially be his biggest role yet, and there’s no doubt that the eyes of the world will be watching… That is, if they’re not too busy watching Barbie.