Cillian Murphy has defended the inclusion of sex scenes in Christopher Nolan’s new blockbuster, Oppenheimer, after one scene seemingly offended "one billion" people.
The Academy Award-winning director's biopic, which is based on the American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer who famously led the Manhattan Project and created an atomic bomb during World War II, has already seen some major success since being released on July 21.
Alongside Murphy who starred in the titular role, the movie had a star-studded cast including Florence Pugh, who plays psychiatrist and physician Jean Tatlock, who was also Oppenheimer's ex-fiancée, Emily Blunt who stars as Oppenheimer's wife Katherine ‘Kitty’ Puening, Matt Damon who portrays Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, and Robert Downey Jr who plays Lewis Strauss.
However, just days after viewers around the world immersed themselves in the three-hour drama, it seems many were left uncomfortable due to one particular scene between the 47-year-old Irishman, and the 27-year-old Little Women actress.
A significant subplot in the movie follows the relationship between the nuclear scientist and Jean Tatlock as the pair have an affair while the former is still married to Katherine.
As real-life Oppenheimer had a fascination with Hinduism, Nolan included a controversial scene between Murphy and Pugh, in which the latter held up the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism’s holiest scriptures, during sexual intercourse.
This did not resonate well with some Hindus in parts of India as a journalist named Uday Mahurkar - who is also the founder of Save Culture Save India (SCSI) - even penned an open letter to Nolan to express his disappointment.
"It has come to our notice that the movie Oppenheimer contains a scene which makes a scathing attack on Hinduism," he wrote. "As per social media reports, a scene in the movie shows a woman making a man read Bhagwad Geeta aloud while getting over him and doing sexual intercourse. She is holding Bhagwad Geeta in one hand, and the other hand seems to be adjusting the position of their reproductive organs."
Mahurkar continued: "The Bhagwad Geeta is one of the most revered scriptures of Hinduism. Geeta has been the inspiration for countless sanyasis, brahmcharis, and legends who live a life of self-control and perform selfless noble deeds."
He then stated that he didn't "know the motivation and logic behind this unnecessary scene" but it's an act that "amounts to waging a war on the Hindu community."
"We urge, on behalf of billion Hindus and timeless tradition of lives being transformed by revered Geeta, to do all that is needed to uphold dignity of their revered book and remove this scene from your film across world," he added.
Others seemingly agreed with the journalist, with one Twitter user stating that the film was "disgusting" and had "no respect" while another suggested "boycotting" the entire thing altogether.
Despite the outrage towards the scene - and the other sex scenes in the biopic - the Peaky Blinders actor explained to British GQ in a recent interview why the extremely NSFW scenes were "vital" for the main character's storytelling.
"I think the relationship that he has with Jean Tatlock is one of the most crucial emotional parts of the film," Murphy said. "I think if they’re key to the story then they’re worthwhile. Listen, no one likes doing them, they’re the most awkward possible part of our job. But sometimes you have to get on with it."
In a previous interview with Insider, filmmaker Nolan agreed with the actor's views as he explained: "When you look at Oppenheimer’s life and you look at his story, that aspect of his life, the aspect of his sexuality, his way with women, the charm that he exuded, it’s an essential part of his story.
"It felt very important to understand their relationship and to really see inside it and understand what made it tick without being coy or allusive about it - but to try to be intimate, to try and be in there with him and fully understand the relationship that was so important to him," he added.
Nevertheless, the R-rated film has accumulated some remarkable numbers after hitting major theatres around the world. According to The Guardian, it took in $80.5 million from 3,610 theatres around the US making it "Nolan’s biggest non-Batman debut and one of the best ever starts for an R-rated biographical drama".
