29 January 2024 , 16:00
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Florence Pugh has reflected on an awkward filming moment in the now Oscar nominated film Oppenheimer - when she and co-star Cillian Murphy were stuck on set naked.
The 28-year-old actress played Jean Tatlock in the biopic, while 47-year-old Cillian played titular character J. Robert Oppenheimer. The duo play on-screen lovers and were left in an awkward situation when a camera broke while they were filming an intimate scene.
Rather than clearing the set, the pair stayed where they were and covered themselves with their hands while the crew set about making repairs. Now Florence has reflected on the uncomfortable moment - and how it presented her with a golden opportunity to learn more about filming equipment.
The star told Variety: “In the middle of our sex scene, the camera broke. No one knows this, but it did. Our camera broke when we were both naked. And it was not ideal timing, and there weren't many cameras.
Cillian Murphy plays titular character J. Robert Oppenheimer (Melinda Sue Gordon)“And one camera was in the shop being fixed, and Chris [Nolan] turned and asked someone, 'Where's the other camera?' The camera was in the shop - bad news for that person who gave him the news.”
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Explaining that she then decided to make the best of a bad situation, Florence continued: “This camera surgeon comes into the room and starts [working] on the camera and I'm like, well, this is my moment to learn. 'So tell me, what's wrong with this camera?' You just make your moments. I'm like, 'What's going on with the shutter here, buddy?’”
Florence's comments come soon after she explained why she loves to film sex scenes - as they offer her a chance to catch some previous sleep between takes. She explained to the Dish podcast: “I love a crew because I love lots of people around. I actually will sleep best in a room full of people that are setting up for the next shot. I could go back to my trailer and have a 10-minute kip.
"I love bed scenes... because you need to lie in the bed as they set up and see what you’re going to do in the bed. Then they say, ‘Florence, do you want to go back to your trailer?’. I always say ‘no’, and I stay there like a good little bean, because then they don’t need anyone to come in and help light. I just lie there and I have a full-on kip. And that’s when I sleep my best, because everybody’s just pottering about.”
She went on to explain that during the filming of one project, she ended up falling into such a deep sleep, that her performance came across more authentically as she was filming a scene where she had just awoken from sleeping. She said: “They’d done all the lighting and they were ready to shoot and I was still in sleeping mode, obviously. Close my eyes, fall asleep, they’re filming, and then eventually part of my brain is like, ‘Oh sh**, oh sh**’, and I wake up in like a startle.
"He calls cut and he comes over and he’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, good. So I think next time we’ll just shorten the sleeping bit’.”