Technical difficulties on the set of Oppenheimer made shooting a crucial sex scene between Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh even more awkward.
In a clip from a recent panel discussion with Pugh, Murphy, and Emily Blunt, Pugh revealed that the camera malfunctioned while they were filming the sex scene.
“In the middle of our sex scene, the camera broke,” Pugh said. “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. 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 that gave him the news.”
Pugh then described how uncomfortable it was to be fully undressed while the camera was being repaired on set. So, to take her mind off of it, she instead decided to ask the repairman questions about what was happening with the camera to take her mind off the situation.
“And we then had to figure out how to fix this camera,” she said. “So Cillian and I are in this room together, and it’s a closed set so we’re both holding our bodies like this, and this camera surgeon comes into the room and starts [working] on this camera.”
She continued, “You just make your moments. And I’m like, ‘What’s going on with the shutter here, buddy?’ Anyway he explains, and actually Chris comes in and tells me that it’s become the light is coming in wrong. It’s just crazy that every person on this set was so knowledgeable and so ready to make this kind of movie, that there was no dull moment."
