Mind The Age Gap: Fans Already Fuming Over Oppenheimer’s Major Love Story
Not even released, Nolan's new movie is already on the verge of being canceled by fans.
Christopher Nolan 's Oppenheimer is generating so much discussion, even though it only hits theaters on July 21.
The biopic is actually the most anticipated movie of the summer, so it's no wonder people are talking about it too much. Add to that the big names of the director, Nolan, and the star, Cillian Murphy, and there will be no questions left.
However, it turns out that along with the comments about how big the movie will be and how much it will make at the box office, there are also some controversial points that fans are eagerly discussing.
The main one is, surprisingly, Nolan's casting choice. As we know, he and Murphy go back a long way in their professional relationship, so no one was really surprised when he offered the lead role to the Irish star. But it was his movie love interest that caused a beef.
Florence Pugh will play Jean Tatlock, Oppenheimer’s lover. Murphy and Pugh are clearly two A-list actors who will give powerful performances in the upcoming historical drama, but the casting has sparked some controversy due to their age difference.
“I know there’s a lot of hype around Oppenheimer, and I’m a huge fan of Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh… but he’s 46 and she’s 26,” Redditor Dizzy-Pollution6466 said.
Actually, in real life, Tatlock was with Oppenheimer when she was in her 20s and he was in his 30s. But what didn’t impress the fans was the age gap between Murphy and Pugh being twice as big.
As all of Nolan's films play with the concept of time, Oppenheimer covers decades of the main character's life. In that context, it makes sense for Murphy to play the character, since he can look both younger and older than he is.
Yet the age difference addresses a long-standing problem in Hollywood: older male actors almost always have much younger co-stars as their love interests, and that's rarely the case when the roles are reversed.