Be honest: did you realize that was Gary Oldman as President Harry S. Truman in Oppenheimer? I didn’t until the end credits, and immediately felt like a dummy. “Of course it’s Gary Oldman in unrecognizable makeup to look like a notable politician. Who else could it be?”
Oldman is only in Oppenheimer for a few minutes, but he had a big impact on the production of the Christopher Nolan-directed film.
The Oval Office scene was originally going to be filmed at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, but because Oldman was only available for one day due to his busy schedule, that idea fell through. The next best option was to use an existing Oval Office set — like the one on HBO’s Veep.
Production designer Ruth De Jong reached out to supervising art director Samantha Englander, who still had the Veep set “on hold,” according to Variety. “The set would take four to five days to reassemble, so De Jong sent a team of construction coordinators to pull it out.”
The Oppenheimer team still needed to build a lobby and cabinet room, so De Jong had crews working around the clock for five days. “Gary Oldman had no idea,” she said. “And the paint was still wet.”
Once Oppenheimer comes to VOD (soon!), someone needs to find if there’s a scene where Oldman’s Truman has paint on his suit. Christopher Nolan would be so mad.
(Via Variety)