Golden Globe winners Cillian Murphy, Christopher Nolan open up on Oppenheimer's moral complexities

At the recently-held 81st edition of Golden Globe Awards, Oppenheimer emerged as the top winner among all the leading contenders. The Christopher Nolan directorial magnum opus bagged as many as 5 awards at the ceremony, including the awards for Best Actor (Drama), Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director. 

Oppenheimer's actions are of someone wracked by guilt: Nolan

This victory marked the first Golden Globe win for Christopher Nolan who had been nominated a total of 10 times before this year, without landing a single win. Talking about his win and what compelled him to embark on telling a morally complex story like Oppenheimer, Nolan stated, “What drew me to the story is that certainly in the later part of this story, post-World War Two, post tragedy, he always maintained his loyalty to his country, what he needed to do, never apologised for what he did. And yet all of his actions are the actions of somebody wracked by tremendous guilt." Nolan added that he was really drawn in by the resultant tension of such a blend of guilt and actions. 

An actor must never judge their character: Cillian Murphy

Oppenheimer was a subject of major discourse for alleged glorification of a historical figure who was morally complex to say the least. Sharing his thoughts on the complexities of Oppenheimer's character, Murphy stated, “I think he was, you know, complex and contradictory and brilliant and arrogant and vain and a genius. But, you know, all the way through, I just tried to play him as a, just as a human and try and find the humanity of him. That was the only way in that I had.” Murphy also stated that an actor must never ever judge a character when they are playing them, adding that it's better to ‘let the audience decide for themselves.’