To be crystal clear, this is not meant to be a pejorative: Artistic people are weirdos.
There’s just something slightly unhinged about unbridled creativity, and that’s been demonstrated time and time again throughout history.
Famed Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh infamously lopped off a chunk of his left ear for reasons that remain unclear to this day. (He also committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest.)
Not every artist is as extreme as that, of course. But some artistic quirks absolutely take things too far and those should be loudly condemned … and they usually are.
But, not nearly enough attention is ever paid to those artistic idiosyncrasies that aren’t quite blasphemous enough to garner widespread coverage — but are aggressively odd nonetheless.
Case in point, in a tell-all interview with Vanity Fair, three of the lead actors in “Oppenheimer” revealed that famed auteur Christopher Nolan has some highly unusual quirks himself, though none quite as salacious as chopping off body parts or selling satanic sneakers with blood in them.
Actors Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy spoke to Vanity Fair to share the “oral history” of “Oppenheimer,” and you can see the video for yourself below:
WARNING: The following clip contains language that some viewers will find offensive
Do you generally like Nolan as a director?
During the free-flowing conversation, Downey Jr. briefly touched on one particular Nolan quirk that he’s apparently somewhat notorious for.
“And [Nolan] doesn’t really like it when you go to the bathroom,” Downey Jr. said, before quickly adding, “But he understands you have to.”
After Murphy agreed with a quick “Yeah,” Downey Jr. actually revealed that Nolan’s disdain for bathroom breaks appears to stem from his own rigid adherence to a bathroom schedule.
“And I asked him, ‘Dude, when do you go?’” Downey recounted. “And he goes, ’11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.’”
Downey added: “I was like, ‘Are you f***ing with me?’”
The other unbelievable part of this bathroom regiment?
According to Blunt, Nolan “drinks so much tea.”
While Nolan clearly has strict expectations, Downey added that Nolan leads by example.
“Because [Nolan] won’t do anything, he won’t ask anyone to do anything that he’s not a 1,000 percent willing to do himself, twice as hard,” Downey explained.
It’s not just the strict bathroom adherence that Nolan observes.
“There are all these legends about what it’s like on a Christopher Nolan set, and you’ve hinted at some of them like lack of chairs,” the interviewer asked the trio. “Is that a real thing?”
“I mean, there’s an apple box around now and then,” Blunt said, hinting at the famed film director’s alleged disdain for having too many chairs on set.
“Occasionally there’s an apple box,” Murphy added.
“Just park your booty on an apple box,” Blunt continued.
“Human resources are scarce,” Downey joked. “And the idea is that this is a Spartan endeavor.”
Downey also noted that Nolan was not a fan of seeing phones on set (something many employers can relate to).
“So the other thing is, if I see Chris Nolan, I throw my phone [away],” Downey said. “And this is even when we’re not shooting.”
“Oppenheimer” is currently available only via purchase, but will be available to stream on Peacock on Feb. 16.
