Los Angeles, Feb 24 (IANS): Hollywood actor Cillian Murphy, who will be seen playing the eponymous character of Manhattan Project leader J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's atomic bomb drama 'Oppenheimer', has skipped the overall exercise of what goes into making an atom bomb, reports 'The Guardian'.

Instead, the actor decided to focus on Oppenheimer's psyche, mannerisms and world view. Murphy is leading his first Nolan tentpole after playing supporting roles in five of the director's movies (three 'Dark Knight' films, 'Inception' and 'Dunkirk').

The actor told 'The Guardian' that "(I prepped by doing) an awful lot of reading. I'm interested in the man and what (inventing the atomic bomb) does to the individual. The mechanics of it, that's not really for me - I don't have the intellectual capability to understand them, but these contradictory characters are fascinating."

The actor, who has had a longstanding association with Nolan, mentioned that he would never say no to 'The Dark Knight' director, "I'll always turn up for Chris, whatever the size of the part. Chris will call me up and I'm there. Isn't it wonderful that filmmakers are still making challenging, demanding films within the studio system, shot on film?"

"I think he's flying the flag. Him, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino are fantastic filmmakers making interesting work on a massive scale", he further said.