Florence Pugh explains why Christopher Nolan apologised over her Oppenheimer role

He really didn't need to, though.

Florence Pugh has revealed that Christopher Nolan actually apologised to her over her Oppenheimer role.

The actress plays Jean Tatlock in the biopic, with the film showing her affair with the theoretical physicist — which involves a few topless scenes that were censored in some countries — as well as her involvement with the Communist Party, which comes back to haunt Oppenheimer later on his life.

In an interview conducted with MTV UK before the film's release but currently doing the rounds on TikTok, she explained why the director said sorry to her about the role when initially considering her for casting.

Related: Oppenheimer's Christopher Nolan explains why you might struggle to hear his dialogue

"I didn't really know what was going on or what was being made but Chris really, really wanted me to know that it wasn't a very big role and he understands if I don't want to come near it," she said.

"And I was like: 'Doesn't matter, even if I'm a coffee maker at a café in the back of the room let's do it.'

"We met for a drink in New York at the time... and it was just one of those bizarre moments in your career where you're like: 'I'm meeting Christopher Nolan, oh my goddddd.' And I remember he apologised about the size of the role and I was like: 'Please don't apologise!'"

Related: Oppenheimer viewer spots historical error in Christopher Nolan movie

Pugh went on to detail how Nolan was determined she should see the script first before committing, due to "the sizing thing" of the role, but that she had already made up her mind before receiving it.

"He said: 'We'll send you the script and honestly you just read it and you decide if it's right, I completely understand the sizing thing.' And I remember that evening when I got the script being like: 'I know I'm going to do it.' And yeah, it was huge."

Oppenheimer is still playing in cinemas now.

Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer and resident Welsh person at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016.

In his time he's covered a host of live events, interviewed celebrities big and small and crowbarred a countless amount of great/awful (delete as appropriate) puns into articles.

A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe's main interest is in video gaming. Although particularly a PlayStation gamer, he plays across Xbox, Nintendo and PC/Steam Deck, and likes to keep tabs on many games he's not got the time to play.

Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish (which you really should do).

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