Florence Pugh reveals the camera broke during ‘Oppenheimer’ sex scene

29 January, 2024

Florence Pugh

Florence Pugh has revealed that the camera broke while she and Cillian Murphy filmed a sex scene in Oppenheimer.

The actress played the role of Jean Tatlock in last year’s hit Christopher Nolan film, which was recently nominated for 13 Oscars.

One notable moment involved her and Murphy’s character J. Robert Oppenheimer having sex while the latter recited the Hindu scripture The Bhagavad Gita.

Speaking at a recent panel for the film, Pugh explained that filming hit a snag after a camera broke.

“In the middle of our sex scene, the camera broke. No one knows this, but it did,” she recalled. “Our camera broke when we were both naked, and it was not ideal timing. And there weren’t many cameras!

“And one camera was in the shot being fixed, and Chris [Nolan] asked someone, ‘Where’s the other camera?’ The camera was in the shot – bad news for that person who gave him the news. We then had to figure out how to fix this camera.

“Cillian and I are in this room together. It’s a closed set, so we’re both holding our bodies like this,” Pugh added as she imitated her and her co-star hugging closely.

“And this camera surgeon comes into the room and starts doing this [fixing noises] on this camera because this camera’s broken. I’m like, well, this is my moment to learn. ‘So tell me, what’s wrong with this camera?’ You just make your moments. And I’m like, ‘What’s going on with the shutter here, buddy?’”

After the surgeon explained what was wrong, Pugh added that Nolan told her that the “light is coming in wrong”.

“It was just crazy that every person on this set was so knowledgeable and was so ready to make this kind of a movie that there was no dull moment,” she continued. “It was all amazing. It felt like we were lucky to be there every second of the day.”

The sex scene sparked controversy upon Oppenheimer‘s release last year, with reports of censorship in India over the reading of the Hindu scripture during intercourse. A nude scene involving Pugh was also censored in some countries.

Oppenheimer recently scored a host of nominations at the Academy Awards, leading the pack with nods including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy.

In other news, the film was recently confirmed to be getting a release in Japan, which comes after some accused the film of being insensitive towards the country’s past, notably after omitting to show the impact of the atomic bombs on Japan.

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