Here’s why Michael Caine isn’t in longtime collaborator Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’
nme.comChristopher Nolan has revealed the reason why his longtime collaborator Michael Caine didn’t appear in Oppenheimer.The Oscar-nominated film took the box office by storm last year, and saw Cillian Murphy take on the role of the titular theoretical physicist who helped develop the first nuclear bomb.The project marked Murphy’s sixth time working with the renowned director, and first time taking on the lead role following supporting slots in Batman Begins and Dunkirk.However, Oppenheimer did not feature an appearance from another one of the director’s longtime collaborators: Michael Caine.The London actor has featured in eight of his films including The Dark Knight, Inception, Dunkirk, The Prestige and Interstellar, and speaking at the British Film Institute chairman’s dinner, Nolan shed light on why he didn’t take on a role in the 2023 blockbuster.Accepting the BFI Fellowship, Nolan explained that he was willing to have Caine in the movie, but the actor jokingly turned it down, saying: “OK, enough is enough” (via Variety).Discussing his reaction to Caine sitting Oppenheimer out, Nolan said: “I had to go off on my own.
OK, I haven’t got Michael Caine, I’d better get Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Kenneth Branagh, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Cillian Murphy, Tom Conti, and hoped that all those greats would add up to one Michael Caine.”He later added: “So many people have helped me, so many people have been there for me, in so many different ways.
I’m very moved to receive this, very moved by the presentation. This means the world to me.”Caine’s first collaboration with Nolan took place in 2005, when he took on the role of Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Pennyworth in Batman Begins.
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