Working with a legendary director like Christopher Nolan is certainly a big opportunity, so naturally it also makes many seasoned actors nervous. Take David Krumholtz for example, the actor worked with Nolan for the first time in 2023’s Oppenheimer and took 14 takes to do a scene correctly on his first day on the sets. Obviously, Krumholtz was terrified of disappointing Nolan but on his second day, he took less takes to do it correctly. This led to the director sarcastically praising the actor for his work.
Krumholtz, who played Isidor Isaac Rabi in the movie, had troubles in closeup scenes. It’s not like the actor is not experienced. He has been a part of the industry for over 30 years now but the issue was that he couldn’t do exactly what Christopher Nolan wanted him to do. It took a while but eventually, Krumholtz performed better.
David Krumholtz was terrified of disappointing Christopher Nolan on the sets of Oppenheimer
Last month, actor David Krumholtz, who played physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi in Oppenheimer (2023), talked about the experience of working with Christopher Nolan on Inside Of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast. The actor explained that he took 14 takes to shoot his first scene correctly,
“He was watching my close-ups on like a hand Monitor and he wasn’t happy – The first scene we did is the scene on the train is pretty intimate scene with me and Cillian Murphy and he made me do 14 takes of my closeup and this is a guy that does like three takes typically.”
The actor further explained that the director wanted something different than what he had in mind, so it took him some time to adjust, adding that no one argues with the director on the set.
David Krumholtz worked hard to prove himself
Furhter in the interview with Krumholtz explained that he eventually understood what Nolan wanted him to do. Since he was working with legendary director like Christopher Nolan, the actor wanted to make him happy by improving his acting,
“All I want to do is make him happy so, we did 14 takes and the next scene we did nine takes of my closeup and at the end of it, he came up to me and he said, ‘Well, nine takes. It’s better than 14, which is what you did the first time.'”
Krumholtz further revealed that he was afraid that he would lose this opportunity because of the number of takes he did. On top of that, he was afraid of embarrassing himself in front of all the “heavy hitters” on the sets of the movie. In the end, the actor gave an outstanding performance that Nolan wanted from him.
