Christopher Nolan opens up about his dream to work with the MCU star everyone is excited to see again in ‘Oppenheimer’

The thrilling and awe-inspiring tale of the father of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer will soon detonate on the big screens. Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy is set to seize the spotlight in the complex character of J. Robert Oppenheimer, alongside other A-listers like Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Kenneth Branagh, and more. However, Christopher Nolan recently opened up about roping in his favorite MCU star to join Oppenheimer‘s star-studded cast.

One of the most iconic characters of the MCU, our beloved Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. will be seen in the role of Lewis Strauss, the American businessman and naval officer who later became chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in Oppenheimer. Since Strauss was in charge of organizing the hearings that resulted in Oppenheimer’s security clearance being withdrawn, he plays a significant part in the movie.

In an interview with ET, Christopher Nolan marveled at Robert Downey Jr.’s brilliant acting talent and his dream of wanting to work with him forever. He commented,

“Robert Downey Jr. is somebody who I’ve wanted to work with forever. He’s an extraordinary movie star with this amazing charisma, you know, Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes, these great films. But the thing that people sometimes lose in that is he’s also one of the greatest actors.”

Being the perfectionist that he is, Nolan flew to meet with each of his potential stars in person, allowing them to read his original copy of the Oppenheimer script. Speaking about his meeting with Robert Downey Jr., Nolan continued,

“To meet with him and show him the script and say, what about just inhabiting this real-life figure? Losing any associations we have with Robert Downey Jr., seeing [you] do something that you’ve never done before.”

Nolan firmly believes that even though most of us know Downey as a great actor, we are yet to experience his subtlety and brilliance. In order to fully utilize Downey’s acting abilities, Nolan wanted to challenge him with a historic role. He previously revealed that he “wanted to get him to do something completely different, to lose himself in another human being.”

Speaking about his casting as Strauss, Robert Downey Jr. also expressed his gratitude and excitement while stressing that the role mattered to him above and beyond the money that came with it:

“You have pretty much a who’s who of several generations of actors, and we all know we’re doing something with a master filmmaker. We’re all there for the love of it because this was a money gig for none of us. It was an exceptionally taxing venture. And we’d all do it again.”

Oppenheimer will be Downey’s first big project after he officially announced his retirement from his decade-long endeavor as Iron Man following his last MCU film Avengers: Endgame (2019). He then went on to star in the 2020 film Dolittle, which was a box-office failure. The actor recently spoke at Oppenheimer‘s London premiere and called it “the best film I have ever been in.”

Nolan has also put his complete faith in Downey and reiterated, “I think his work in the film is really going to surprise people. I think it’s quite remarkable.” It’s safe to say that the audience is just as eager to see Downey on the big screen on July 21 in a brand-new, challenging role.