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Christopher Nolan has brought together the most promising cast to recreate the pivotal events surrounding the creation of mankind’s most perilous invention. With Cillian Murphy leading the cast of Oppenheimer, the legendary director has also managed to rope in the most loved MCU star to portray his nemesis, the one and only Robert Downey Jr.
Oppenheimer came to Downey because of Nolan’s wish to “get him to do something completely different, to lose himself in another human being.” In an interview with ET, Nolan revealed “Robert Downey Jr. is somebody who I’ve wanted to work with forever.” And now his dream has come true, with Downey Jr. set to appear as the film’s antagonist, the American businessman and naval officer Lewis Strauss.
Who was Robert Downey Jr.’s character Lewis Strauss?
Lewis Lichtenstein Strauss served two terms on the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) from Nov. 1946 to April 1950, and July 1953 to June 1958, respectively, the second as its chairman. As the head of the AEC, Strauss was instrumental in the contentious one-month-long hearings that resulted in the cancellation of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s security clearance in April 1954. The hearings broke Oppenheimer’s spirit and he was never the same person afterward. As a result, Strauss is viewed as a villain in American history.
Strauss developed a dislike for Oppenheimer, who had led the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project while serving as an AEC commissioner. He despised Oppenheimer for a number of personal reasons, one of which was their opposing political ideologies — Strauss was a conservative Republican, whereas Oppenheimer was a liberal with Communist ties.
Strauss mistrusted Oppenheimer and began to suspect that he was a Soviet snoop because of his prior Communist associations. In an effort to find proof of Oppenheimer’s betrayal, Strauss asked FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to start tracking Oppenheimer’s whereabouts in September 1953. However, the tracking uncovered no evidence of disloyalty.
The Oppenheimer matter quickly became a cause célèbre with Strauss frequently being viewed as the villain of Oppenheimer’s life. However, he also had supporters who believed that the hero and villain roles had been flipped. Nevertheless, Lewis Strauss is still regarded as one of the key characters in the development of nuclear weapons, American nuclear energy policy, and American nuclear power. He died on January 21, 1974, at the age of 77.
Robert Downey Jr. on playing Lewis Strauss in ‘Oppenheimer’
Nolan offered Downey Jr. the role of Lewis Strauss saying “What about just inhabiting this real-life figure? Losing any associations we have with Robert Downey Jr., seeing [you] do something that you’ve never done before,” the director told ET. And needless to say, Downey was “thrilled to be offered the challenge like that.”
The 58-year-old actor also had some praises for Nolan and he reiterated that playing Strauss “was an exceptionally taxing venture,” and that it mattered more than the money that came with it:
“We all know we’re doing something with a master filmmaker. We’re all there for the love of it, because this was a money gig for none of us. It was an exceptionally taxing venture. And we’d all do it again.”
Nolan has placed his full faith in Downey Jr. and seems impressed by his work. “I think his work in the film is really going to surprise people. I think it’s quite remarkable,” the director said of him.
Downey’s last role in Dolittle as the 19th-century Welsh veterinarian was met with negative reviews. But he now has the perfect opportunity to remind everyone of his acting chops.
Oppenheimer opens in theaters on July 21.