Christopher Nolan is known for his visionary stories, but he isn’t exactly known for complex female characters. Oppenheimer aims to change that with Florence Pugh’s Jean Tatlock, Olivia Thirlby’s Lilli Hornig, and Emily Blunt as biologist Kitty Oppenheimer, wife to J. Robert Oppenheimer. While the movie is about men and their destruction, women do play an important part in Oppenheimer’s journey. Kitty breaks that Nolan mold, something that Blunt acknowledges.
Talking to GamesRadar+, Blunt broke down what makes Kitty Oppenheimer such a spectacular role. But she also recognizes that there has been criticism of Nolan’s female characters, namely their lack of development and depth. Despite this, Blunt had nothing but praise for how Kitty was handled in the Oppenheimer script.
“I mean – it’s one of the best parts that anyone has ever written for me. Not that he wrote it for me, but he wrote an exquisite part that is so layered,” Blunt said. “Even though she’s not a huge part, it packs a punch. I was so excited by her. And the thing that I love is that he wasn’t concerned with her being likable, it was just a very real interpretation of the character. When you read about her in the book, they say that ‘Kitty didn’t do small talk she only did big talk’ which is so symbolic of the character. I really remember reading that and thinking, ‘That’s it, she’s so clear’. Usually, I think women in movies have to be sort of quite likable and warm, but she wasn’t either of those things, and he was unafraid of that and writing her as such. I just loved her.”
The growth of Nolan’s women
I’ve seen every film that Christopher Nolan has directed, and some are better than others in their treatment of women. More often than not, his female characters don’t interact with men in the same way his male characters do. Rarely do they break from that mold and sometimes, the men are often vicious towards the women for no real reason. As his films have progressed, Nolan has gotten better about this. His characters have grown as his craft has, and Oppenheimer does feel like his career best in a way that was built on the foundation of his previous work.
Blunt’s Kitty is a nuanced and well-developed character. She’s not afraid to tell someone how she feels, and displays her own agency in the story. So for once, we get to see a woman who isn’t a man’s ideal. She’s a real woman who doesn’t care what people think about her, and she shows how Nolan’s female characters are changing for the better. It makes me excited for the future of his films, and the female characters to come.
(via GamesRadar+, featured image: Universal Pictures)
