An "outrageously silly" test was given to Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh to pass before they filmed their nude scene together in Oppenheimer.
The film, directed by Christopher Nolan, chronicles the life of American scientist J.Robert Oppenheimer and how he helped to develop the atomic bomb, used in World War Two, which gained him the nickname 'Father of the Atomic Bomb'.
Peaky Blinders star Murphy has been tasked with bringing Oppenheimer to life on the silver screen, while opposite him will be Midsommar actress Pugh, playing the role of Oppenheimer's ex-fianceé Jean Tatlock.
Not much is known about the film's content as of yet, but according to an interview Murphy had with The Guardian, he and Pugh had to take part in "chemistry tests" ahead of their love scenes together.
“They put two actors in a room to see if there’s any spark, and have all the producers and director at a table watching. I don’t know what metric they use, and it seems so outrageously silly, but sometimes you get a chemistry and nobody knows why.”
However, when it comes to the actual detail of these prolonged nude scenes, the Irishman said “I’m under strict instructions not to give away anything” but that the love story aspect of Oppenheimer “is as strong as I’ve ever done”.
A mountain of NDAs is reportedly in effect to stop details of the three-hour film's plot from leaking before its release on July 21. In an interview with Wired, director Nolan revealed that some of the people who have seen it were left “absolutely devastated … they can’t speak”.
"Some people leave the movie absolutely devastated. They can't speak. I mean, there's an element of fear that's there in the history and there in the underpinnings. But the love of the characters, the love of the relationships, is as strong as I've ever done.
"Oppenheimer's story is all impossible questions. Impossible ethical dilemmas, paradox," Nolan continues, " There are no easy answers in his story. There are just difficult questions, and that's what makes the story so compelling.
"I think we were able to find a lot of things to be optimistic about in the film, genuinely, but there's this sort of overriding bigger question that hangs over it. It felt essential that there be questions at the end that you leave rattling in people's brains, and prompting discussion."
Given that the atomic bomb Oppenheimer helped create led to the deaths of over 200,000 Japanese people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most of them civilians, it is not surprising that the few people who have seen Nolan's latest film have been leaving not feeling overwhelmed with positive energy.
Murphy, for his part, is being heavily tipped for an Oscar nomination for his performanc in the film, which could receive a slew of nominations itself at next year's Academy Awards.
