Cillian Murphy: Actor ate just ‘an almond a day’ to prepare for role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer

Cillian Murphy’s gruelling diet to get into ‘shape’ for the upcoming Oppenheimer movie has been revealed. The 47-year-old is set to play Julius Robert Oppenheimer in a movie directed by Christopher Nolan.

The movie is set to be released on Friday, July 21, and the actor, best known for his role as Tommy Shelby in the BBC series Peaky Blinders went to extraordinary lengths to get ready to play the American Theoretical Physicist.

The highly anticipated movie drops the same day as Barbie, which has created a long running joke on social media. The film follows Oppenheimer as he developed the first atomic bomb as part of the secret Manhattan Project.

Murphy lost a lot of weight in preparation for the role, and employed some slightly unusual techniques such as only eating an almond a day, and also sought professional help to perfect Oppenheimer’s "silhouette and expressions" right before filming.

It’s unknown exactly how much weight Murphy lost for the role. Talking to the New York Times, he revealed how he tested himself on how little he could eat and at times was running just ‘crazy energy’.

In a new interview, he said: "I love acting with my body, and Oppenheimer had a very distinct physicality and silhouette, which I wanted to get right. I had to lose quite a bit of weight, and we worked with the costume and tailoring; he was very slim, almost emaciated, existed on martinis and cigarettes."