Cillian Murphy disclosed the reason behind his feelings of not being worthy of the enormous $10 million he was purportedly paid to portray Oppenheimer. As the first actor of Irish descent to win Best Actor at the Oscars, he created history with his outstanding depiction of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” in Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece.
Murphy, who is currently working on the film adaptation of Peaky Blinders after winning a BAFTA for his role, received a whopping pay for his portrayal of the unstable theoretical physicist, but it wasn’t received nicely with him.
The actor previously admitted to The Guardian, saying, “I’m just a f*cking actor. There are doctors and nurses and f*cking people that work. I struggle with that. I mean, actors are overpaid, you know? It’s nice when you get paid, when you’re young, and you’ve gone from having no money, but the Catholic guilt kicks in immediately, and I’m like ‘It’s all going to go wrong. You don’t deserve this’. And I don’t.”
Christopher Nolan was thrilled to have Murphy on board, even if he was shocked by the amount of money he was making. He expressed this happiness by writing a personal note on his script. To ensure that it couldn’t be photocopied, the script was written in black ink on red paper. Murphy had the screenplay with him when he displayed the title page during his interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
Murphy is said to have a $20 million estimated net worth. Throughout his career, the actor has acted in several high-profile mega-hit films, such as Inception, Batman Begins, Dunkirk, and The Dark Knight.