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Somewhat amazingly, Safdie himself had considered becoming a physicist in high school before deciding to go into film.
That fascination with the wonders and paradoxes of science appear to have informedhis interpretation of Teller.
It was such an unbelievable coincidence.
When I was young, I wanted to become a nuclear physicist.
I had studied the standard model in high school.
I was working with a physicist at Columbia University.
I was doing cosmic rays.
It actually is a deep passion of mine!
How did you work on Tellers accent?The accent was something I was so nervous about.
I remember Chris asking me, Hows the accent coming?
But he sent me all of these interviews and we talked about how Teller speaks and who he is.
It was a long process of working together to really nail it down.
I would ride my bike listening to these interviews.
Hes quiet and gentle, but you still get his cadence of speech.
I remember finally I was like,You know what?
I could sound crazy, but I dont care.
So before each take, I said, Okay, Im going to yell.
Im going to really break up my vocal cords.
It makes such a big difference.
Snorting and hitting the leg.
We spent so long on that!
Just that little snort.
And I am proud to say that its all my eyebrows.
Teller had the best eyebrows.
But Chris said, Dont do that.
Lets just let it go crazy.
I thought to myself,Thats such a crazy way to walk around.
That was so profound.
But thats kind of what the movie is doing.
Its showing you somebody whos really struggling with that.
I know this information, and I know whats possible.
Do I show the world?
It was all about how a scientists job is to discover.
One of the examples he gives is fertilizer.
Because without it, we would have no food, people would die.
But that fertilizer also gave rise to explosives.
So he feels its not up to the scientist to make that moral decision.
But thats such a shaky ground to go on.
The movie plays with this idea of what it means to be a scientist.
Its a fine line.
I was sitting there thinking,I cannot wait to see this thing go off.
I cannot wait!Its like youre in the mind of a scientist.
I figured this stuff out, I want to see the end result.
Then as soon as it happens, you immediately think,Oh my God, whats wrong with me?
What did I just root for?
What did I just want to watch?Thats what Oppenheimer went through.
So for a movie to put me in exactly that position on such a large scale, its crazy.
Theres a speech that Cillian gives after the bombs are dropped.
Its so powerful and scary and so intense; thats where the movie took off to another level.
Its an interpretation thats fully internalized.
Youre watching someone exploring and living in that mind.
Shes frustrated that he cant do what he feels, and she really understands him.
She wants him to be somebody who he refuses to be.
Why are you doing this?
Why are you tarring and feathering yourself in front of them?
You see this look on Cillians face where its almost like he has to do that.
Its his penance for seeing something through.
Then were in that room at the end and I had to shake their hands.
Going into the scene, I felt so good.
Like, Okay, we understand each other.
Then the way she turned her head to me it was such a gut punch.
Chris had sent me all these things about Teller.
I remember finding out that after that moment, Teller actually went and cried.
It was a horrific experience for him.
There was one moment when I had to enter my first entrance in the movie.
Once I came in, Cillian was like, Oh, hello, Teller.
I just said, Yes.
That was how I said hello.
But on set, it was so open.
Its a hundred people.
They banged out everything so fast!
We moved to a new location before lunch.
I said, I have no idea how you did that.
It was just perfect execution, while still feeling free and light on your feet.
From a technical point of view, Id never even seen an Imax camera.
And I had neverheardan Imax camera.
Then all of a sudden I hear [makes a loud engine sound].
Im just like, Oh my God.
Something is going wrong here.
I turn around, and I see everybody totally calm.
I make eye contact with Chris, like, Are you going to cut?
He was so gentle.
His hands were like, Just go forward.
I turned around and then proceeded with the scene.
Youre seeing real conversations and moments, not just these big vistas in that large scale.
Its the same thing.
And the organisms in the bottom of the ocean look very similar to the stars and space.
I was looking at this big giant crystal.
There is all this interconnectivity to everything.
If youre religious, you might go toward there.
But what I got that to mean in the film was that was Oppenheimers brain working through the science.
Youre seeing these synapses kind of fire and trigger.
Its not that dissimilar to a chain reaction in an atomic bomb in that way.
The movie is following that process of discovery.
It really is that process of each person doing what they do well.
It mirrors itself in a lot of ways.
Again, thats the scientists getting ahead of themselves and wanting to do the best of the biggest.
He really truly believed that nuclear weapons were going to change the world.
How is a man this smart able to convince himself of that?
Maybe thats what he had to do to be able to live.
