Christopher Nolan, the man responsible for giving us cinematic masterpieces such as Tenet, the Batman Trilogy, Inception and many more recently spoke about two of his biggest films, Oppenheimer and Interstellar. Nolan speaks about why Oppenheimer’s script was in first-person and also talks about breaking his own rules while filming Interstellar.
Christopher Nolan on Writing Oppenheimer’s Script in First-Person
During an interview about Oppenheimer with Screen Rant, Nolan was asked the reason for approaching the script in the first-person perspective. Nolan starts off by explaining that this is the first story they have encountered “about somebody whose life and whose experiences were so fraught with paradoxes. The paradox that Robert J Oppenheimer went through was “the need to build a bomb, but the dangers of building the bomb”.
This paradox provided Nolan with a “unique opportunity” to try and “get into the head” of this character “who had to deal with the biggest question of our time as human beings on the planet.” Nolan explained further that normally scripts are written in the third person with statements such as “he goes into the room, he sits down at the desk.” However, in Oppenheimer’s case, the statements came in first person such as “I came into the room, I sit down at the desk.”
Using this perspective for writing the script helped Nolan get “into his head space more”, which is why he ended up writing the entire script from the same perspective. Furthermore, this perspective also served as a “useful reminder to everybody to always be thinking of this story in terms of Oppenheimer’s own experience.”
Nolan On Breaking His Own Rule for Interstellar
Talking about Nolan, in another with The Atlantic (via Screen Rant), he spoke about one of the most iconic scenes in the movie and how he had to resort to methods that he would normally avoid. This is in reference to the scene where Matthew McConaughey reacts to video messages from his family. Nolan starts off by explaining that they “filmed McConaughey’s reaction first, in close-up” for this scene, which is something “you never do”.
Also read: Guillermo Del Toro Backs Christopher Nolan, Calls Owning Physical Media a ‘Responsibility’
Nolan explains that the normal course would be starting with a wide shot and then “warm up”. However, he ended up using the close-up shot for the film. Another thing that he had never done, but wound up doing for Interstellar was treating “the music as a diegetic sound”, which basically meant that the music stopped when the messages did”. Nolan explains that this “almost breaks the fourth wall”, which is not something he likes to do. However, “it felt perfect and apt for that moment.”
Continue reading: Oppenheimer Is Headed Back to IMAX for One Week
