Ex-Prosecutor Spots A Major Problem For Donald Trump That People Are Missing

Posted on 14/08/2023 by Boris Clair

Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, summed up one of the biggest challenges for Donald Trump’s legal team as the former president reportedly faces yet another indictment, this time in Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis’ investigation into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Mariotti, appearing on CNN, pointed out “how hard it is to defend a multi-front war in criminal defence.”

It’s the “one thing that people really underestimate” or miss,” he said.

“I have done it, myself personally,” said Mariotti. “It is very, very challenging to represent a client that is facing criminal indictment on multiple fronts.”

Why? Willis and her team “can focus like a laser on what they need to do to get a conviction,” explained Mariotti.

But Trump’s team “has to balance a bunch of different competing concerns.”

Decisions made in this case may impact the slew of other cases involving Trump, he said.

Willis’ reportedly expected indictment is “historic” because it would charge Trump “with this conduct while president,” he added. “It’s going to be a big challenge and it’s yet another thing for Trump’s team to deal with.”

Jason Momoa Has Five Blunt Words For Tourists Considering A Vacation Amid Maui Fires

Posted on 14/08/2023 by Boris Clair

A post on Jason Momoa’s Instagram page urged would-be tourists to “NOT TRAVEL TO MAUI” as deadly wildfires devastated the Hawaiian community this week.

The actor, who is of Native Hawaiian descent, passed on the all-caps message to his social media followers on Friday, when the death toll from the island’s massive blazes would rise to 80.

Jason’s post warned that Maui “is not the place to have your vacation right now”.

“Do not convince yourself that your presence is needed on an island that is suffering this deeply,” the message read. “Mahalo to everyone who has donated and shown aloha to the community in this time of need.”

The language in the post, as well as video clips and images it included, appeared to originate from local non-profit organisations including ʻĀina Momona and Kāko’o Haleakalā.

Text on the clips read: “The devastation from the wildfires will have a lasting island-wide impact on Maui’s resources. Our community needs time to heal, grieve & restore. … Do not book a hotel stay. … Survivors are the priority.”

The post went on to suggest ways that people could help with relief efforts amid the wildfires.

Firefighters are continuing to battle the Maui County blazes that have flattened buildings and incinerated vehicles, with residents comparing the damage to “a war zone,” according to The Associated Press.

The wildfires, which burned through most of the historic town Lahaina, have marked Hawaii’s deadliest natural disaster in decades.

Conservative Pundit Makes Alarming Prediction About Trump’s Rhetoric

Posted on 14/08/2023 by Boris Clair

Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes predicted that Donald Trump will continue escalating his inflammatory rhetoric ahead of at least three criminal trials and the 2024 presidential election.

“The level of his rhetoric seems to be intensifying against prosecutors, judges, perhaps even jurors here,” Sykes said on MSNBC on Thursday. “And I think the people need to understand, you know, that this may sound like … the same old playbook. But he does seem to be ramping it up at exactly the moment when you would think that calmer heads would say, hey, we need to lower the temperature because this is dangerous.”

“In Donald Trump’s mind, an atmosphere of fear, chaos and violence actually works for him, he thinks,” Sykes added. “He looks at that and he goes yeah, I can I can work with this. This will benefit me.”

“He’s pouring the kerosene on the fire on a daily basis and again, it is ramping up and it’s going to get worse over the next year and a half,” he noted.

Sykes was reacting to the FBI killing of a Utah man authorities say made online death threats against US President Joe Biden and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Craig Robertson was shot on Wednesday by agents attempting to serve arrest and search warrants at his home, the FBI said.

According to charging documents, Robertson called Bragg ― who is prosecuting Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case ― a “radical fool prosecutor” and threatened to kill him.

Trump routinely threatens and attacks judges and prosecutors involved in cases targeting him. He has repeatedly lashed out at Bragg, and once suggested that an indictment by Bragg could result in “death & destruction.”

The former president has been indicted three times this year, on charges related to a hush money payment in 2016, his handling of classified documents after leaving office and, most recently, over his attempted coup following the 2020 election.

Watch the MSNBC segment below.

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21 Celebrities Who Turned Down Strictly Come Dancing (And Their Reasons Why)

Posted on 13/08/2023 by Boris Clair

For a host of celebrities, the idea of learning a new skill, boosting your public profile and stepping out of your comfort zone is a huge draw when Strictly Come Dancing come calling.

However, not everyone finds the idea of the Strictly ballroom so irresistible.

Indeed, every year big names from the worlds of music, TV, sport and politics turn the BBC down flat. Here are 21 of those stars who gave Strictly the thumbs down, and their reasons for saying no…

Gyles Brandreth

The Celebrity Gogglebox star and Countdown regular has spoken candidly about turning down Strictly down on multiple occasions, revealing there’s one major thing holding him back from saying yes.

“I ain’t got rhythm… I REALLY ain’t got rhythm,” he tweeted in August 2022.

Steph McGovern

The daytime favourite told HuffPost UK in 2022 that she’d been approached about signing up for Strictly Come Dancing several times, but had never been able to make it work with her schedule.

“I love the show and so many of my mates have been on it and they’ve all loved it,” the Steph’s Packed Lunch host said. “If I do it, I want to totally commit to it and as things stand, it would be near on impossible. I would worry about my little girl and not seeing her for so long.

“It’s interesting because the very first time I was asked to do it was probably when I should have done it, but then I had a baby. I’ll always say never say never but I’d just want to give it my all if I ever do it.”

Piers Morgan

The former Good Morning Britain host told The Sun in 2018 that he has no desire to “humiliate” himself on Strictly, despite the apparent vast amounts of money he claimed producers were willing to offer him.

“Dancing is not for me,” Piers explained. “They’ve offered me vast sums of money to go and humiliate myself on national TV.

“But I prefer to do it with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in the privacy of my own home.”

Melanie C

However, Sporty Spice has a rather different experience of being offered a spot on the Strictly dance floor to Piers.

She claimed in 2016 that a major factor for her turning down Strictly “every year” was the fact that the money they offer is, in her words, “shit”.

“I have had a meeting with them – they ask me every year to do it,” she told the Daily Star. “The problem is if you do Strictly it’s so high profile and you’ll find yourself in the [Daily Mail’s] sidebar of shame every day. And the money’s shit!”

Melanie later followed in the footsteps of bandmate Mel B by appearing on the US version of the show, Dancing With The Stars, in 2021, where she and partner Gleb Savchenko (ahhh, remember him?) finished in 11th place.

Patrick Stewart

In 2017, the Star Trek legend was guest hosting Have I Got News For You when he let slip that he was a Strictly fan, and had even considered signing up for it when the BBC made him an offer.

“It’s a wonderful show, it’s delightful. I wanted to [do it] at the beginning,” he explained, before cryptically adding: “And then the tone, it changed somewhat, and I thought…. yeah, I’ll pass.”

Dawn French

On their podcast Titting Around, the Vicar Of Dibley star told comedy partner Jennifer Saunders she’d only be up for taking part on Strictly on one condition.

“If I did it, I’d want to properly dance. I’d want to be taken seriously and you can’t. At this age, you’re not taken seriously,” she claimed.

“I want the nicest dresses, the most elegant other dancer and to take it seriously, and nobody would want that.”

Jennifer agreed: “We’re up for making people laugh. We’re not up to be laughed at, that’s the big difference.”

Dawn reiterated this point in 2022, telling Graham Norton on his talk show: “I might have been asked to do Strictly, but I fear I would be regarded as the funny one and made to do silly things.

“I take dancing seriously and I would like to do proper dancing.”

Alan Carr

Meanwhile, fellow comic Alan Carr had a rather x-rated concern that led to him saying no to Strictly.

He revealed on his podcast Life’s A Beach: “I get asked about what I think about same-sex dancing and I say no… I say no because I’d get a lob on if I dance with Aljaž [Škorjanec] or Gorka [Marquez].

“If I get on a bus, the vibrations make me hard. So doing the Argentine tango, forget it – that’s a sexy dance.”

He did agree with Dawn in a previous interview with Radio Times, though, insisting: “They always ask me to do Strictly and I say no because I want to be sexy doing the Argentine tango; I don’t want to be a joke.”

Nadiya Hussain

Unlike fellow Bake Off winner John Whaite, Nadiya declined Strictly’s offer to learn to dance, as she simply loves the show too much.

“I got asked to do Strictly, but I said no,” she told The Guardian. “I love the idea, but have no rhythm and I enjoy watching it too much; once you see how a programme works from the inside, it changes how you see it. That’s why I can’t watch Bake Off like I used to.”

Mary Berry

Nadiya’s pal, former Bake Off judge Mary, has also turned down multiple offers from Strictly.

“My husband and children would kill me!” she told Radio Times in 2016. “I have two left feet and would make a terrible fool of myself.”

Alan Titchmarsh

Gardening expert Alan said he prefers a cosy night in front of the box to being on it these days.

“I’ve been asked to go on both Strictly and I’m A Celebrity and you won’t see me on either,” he insisted in 2021.

“I’m very flattered to have been asked, but all things considered, I’d rather sit down and watch Doc Martin, which my children call ‘old fogey television’. I’m happy to be an old fogey.”

Maya Jama

Back in 2018, the Love Island host revealed she declined the opportunity to appear on Strictly as she felt she’d be one of the lesser-known contestants.

“I don’t think now is the right time, maybe later in life,” she told Good Morning Britain.

Two years later, she told Hello! magazine: “I love a dance, so I wouldn’t say no forever.”

Greg James

During 2020’s “pandemic” series, several celebs who’d previously turned Strictly down because they were too busy found themselves with a freer schedule, and therefore signed up.

However, Greg was not one of them.

Although Strictly did make him an offer, the Radio 1 host said the previous 12 months had left him “too tired” to say yes.

Kate Humble

Unlike many of the stars on this list, the Springwatch host got pretty far through the process of trying out for Strictly, only to change her mind when things started getting a little bit too real.

“My agent phoned me up to tell me Strictly wanted me to do the show,” she told The Mirror in 2017. “I hooted with laughter at the thought and then went back in to tell the Springwatch team what I had been asked to do. They looked at me and said ‘you have to do Strictly’. It started to make me wonder if I was being really stupid as it is such a great show.”

Kate continued: “When we got to the meeting, the more talk there was of sequins, make-up and It Takes Two, the more I could feel myself pouring with sweat… I was literally about to have a panic attack at the thought of wearing make-up and dresses! My agent realised and gently put her hand on my knee as if to say ‘it’s OK, don’t worry’.”

Matt Willis

The Busted star told OK! magazine in 2021 that he’d rebuffed Strictly every time they came knocking due to the “pressure” of being on live TV.

“The idea of Strictly terrifies me,” he admitted. “I’ve been asked a few times and always said no. Can you imagine standing there and suddenly you hear: ‘Tonight, dancing the cha-cha-cha, it’s Matt Willis!’

“You know something like 12 million people are watching – no thanks.”

However, it doesn’t sound like Matt had much choice in the matter.

His wife Emma Willis claimed in 2016: “He’s an amazing dancer… but I don’t want him grinding against hot women. I do get jealous, but I think that’s normal.”

Noel Edmonds

Meanwhile, it seems Noel also couldn’t shake the infamous Strictly “curse” from his mind when the BBC came knocking.

He previously claimed: “I have been asked to do Strictly. [Noel’s wife] is a fully-trained singer and dancer and a couple of years ago she said, ‘Why don’t we cheat? Why don’t we say you’re a novice and I’ll teach you before’.

“Then I think there was one of those curse moments and I said to her, ‘Are you comfortable with me spending five or six days a week with a half-naked woman draped all over me?’ And it’s funny how the conversation just changed.”

He added: “I would be a cross between Ann Widdecombe and John Sergeant. But in my head I’m Fred Astaire. I don’t know why, nothing works — it’s hopeless, so I’d never do it.”

Diane Abbott

When fellow MP Jacqui Smith signed up for the show in 2020, Diane Abbott admitted she’d also been approached in the past, but wasn’t interested.

“You’ll be surprised to know I’m not someone with natural rhythm and I didn’t want it exposed to millions of television viewers,” the Labour MP commented at the time.

Louis Walsh

Back in the days when X Factor and Strictly were still considered TV rivals, long-serving judge Louis admitted that there was a time he came close to jumping ship, during one of his and Simon Cowell’s numerous spats.

He told Heat magazine in 2007: “The funny thing was, the day before the call from The X Factor [asking him to return], I got a call to be a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing! I thought: ‘I’d love to do it, just to annoy Simon!’.”

Michelle Keegan

Undoubtedly one of the most-rumoured celebs in Strictly history, Michelle is named in the press as a potential contestant pretty much every single year, but has never actually made it into the ballroom yet.

“I have [been asked] a few times,” she told Jonathan Ross in 2021. “But for me, it’s the live audience… it’s a skill. It takes a lot of dedication and skill.

“[Mark Wright, Michelle’s husband] did it, like, five years ago. It’s the music before it happens and the audience is really quiet and the lights come on. My heart was in my mouth for him. I couldn’t be on the dance floor, I’d be too scared, too nervous.”

Gordon Ramsay

Although the TV chef’s daughter Tilly Ramsay made a big impression on Strictly in 2021, the man himself is less keen to take part, even refusing a one-off appearance in the Christmas special.

“I would love to do it, though,” he admitted. “Secretly, I’d love to do it. I’ve always wanted to dance.”

Noel Gallagher

This is a tough one to imagine, but the former Oasis star was contacted about taking part during what he described as his period of “not doing anything”.

“It was just when Oasis split up and I didn’t do anything for like a couple of years,” he recalled to BBC Radio 6. “There’s obviously someone there going ‘You know what. He’ll be up for it now. He’ll be desperate now’.

“My manager called me up, saying I don’t really want to, legally, I have to inform you of this. Are you aware of Strictly Come Dancing?’. ‘Eeeeeeee, the phone goes’.”

Meghan Markle

OK, we’d probably take this one with a pinch of salt, but it was too good not to include anyway.

In Tom Bower’s book Revenge: Meghan, Harry And The War Between The Windsors, the author claimed that the future Duchess of Sussex first travelled to the UK in 2013, where she apparently set up an audition for Strictly.

Unfortunately, she was still acting in Suits at the time, and her schedule – which required her to be in the US for nine months out of the year – meant she had to “reluctantly” decline.

Strictly Come Dancing returns for its landmark 20th series in September.

Why Matthew López Wouldn’t Make Red, White & Royal Blue Without Steamy Sex Scenes

Posted on 13/08/2023 by Boris Clair

Audiences eager to escape summer’s real-life heat for some on-screen sizzle should look no further than Red, White & Royal Blue, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.

The film adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s 2019 novel follows a transcontinental romance between Alex Claremont-Diaz (played by Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of the first female U.S. president, and Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), a British prince. It’s also surprisingly titillating, with its handsome protagonists expressing their pent-up passion for one another in hotel suites and the tack room at a polo match, among other glitzy locales.

Writer-director Matthew López has questioned whether those steamy scenes were enough to warrant the queer-themed romantic comedy’s R-rating in the US. In an interview with HuffPost, however, he said he never considered making a more chaste film.

“What’s most important to me is that we understand Alex and Henry as a couple, in part through their sexual relationship,” said López, who co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Ted Malawer. “Anybody who ignored their great sexual desire would be missing a huge part of what makes the book special, and what makes it so unapologetically queer.”

Taylor Zakhar Perez (left) and Nicholas Galitzine in “Red, White & Royal Blue,” due out Aug. 11.

He went on to note: “Having spent my life watching what approximated for queer sex in films, I wanted to make sure that viewers understood unambiguously what was going on.”

At the start of Red, White & Royal Blue, Alex and Henry are bitter rivals. After an altercation at a royal wedding makes international headlines, the two men are coerced by their handlers to attempt a truce.

Over time, Alex and Henry forge an unlikely friendship that blossoms into a full-blown love affair. Still, the pair fear the political repercussions their respective families will face if their romance is made public.

Red, White & Royal Blue marks López’s feature directorial debut. The Florida native is beloved by Broadway audiences for his Tony-winning 2019 play The Inheritance, which depicted a group of gay men grappling with life, love and legacy in New York 20 years after the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

“I’m drawn to characters who haven’t had a chance to have their stories told,” said writer-director Matthew López (right, on the “Red, White & Royal Blue” set).

Given the near-universal acclaim McQuiston’s novel has received, expectations for Red, White & Royal Blue are high. Last month, the book shot to the top of the bestseller lists once again amid early buzz for the movie.

As a big fan of the novel, López enthusiastically pursued the opportunity to adapt it for the screen. Still, he didn’t feel any undue pressure to fulfill anyone’s vision for the film but his own.

“The best thing I could do for fans of the book is to temporarily forget that they were there,” he said. As for the film’s cast, he added: “Seeing these two young, exciting, vibrant actors come together at this specific time in their careers, in service of two very beloved characters, is pretty special. I think it’s a one-in-a-million shot that we got these two and that they worked so well together. We never took that for granted.”

Red, White & Royal Blue is the first in a series of film and television projects López is developing through Amazon Studios. He’s also attached to a remake of the 1992 romantic drama The Bodyguard, which originally starred Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.

Watch a scene from Red, White & Royal Blue below:

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His theatrical career has reached new heights, too. Most recently, he teamed up with Amber Ruffin to adapt the classic 1959 film Some Like It Hot for Broadway. The pair added numerous characters of colour to the cast and amped up a queer subplot that had only been alluded to in the original. The musical went on to win four Tony Awards in June.

Though López didn’t expect to be such a leader in making diverse, queer-inclusive storytelling for the stage and screen, it’s a role he’s happy to fill.

“I wish I could say I had a grand plan for my career and my life ― I don’t,” he said. “I’m drawn to characters who haven’t had a chance to have their stories told. A lot of the things I do, I do because I haven’t seen them. But I want to see them.”

Overpraising Your Kid Could Be Doing More Harm Than Good

Posted on 12/08/2023 by Boris Clair

As parents, all we want is for our kids to be happy and confident – and part of how we show them how great they are is to dish out praise.

“Well done!” ~ “Good boy/girl!” ~ “Great job!”

You probably utter these a fair few times throughout the day if your little one does something well.

And while praise is mostly considered to be beneficial for motivation, studies have found it’s the type of praise that makes the difference here.

Which praise is best?

A review of studies found praising a child’s intelligence had more negative consequences for their achievement motivation than praise for effort.

Fifth graders (10-11 year-olds) praised for intelligence were found to care more about performance goals relative to learning goals than children praised for effort.

When these children failed, they displayed less task persistence, less task enjoyment, more low-ability attributions, and worse task performance than children praised for effort.

What’s more, children praised for intelligence described it as a fixed trait more than children praised for hard work, who considered it subject to improvement.

Recently, clinical psychologist Dr Martha Deiros Collado shared an Instagram post about how parents can offer praise without even thinking sometimes, and that can be a problem.

“Praise is most effective when it is specific and focused on what a child has done,” she wrote in the caption for the post. “‘Well done’ sometimes rolls off the tongue so fast you may miss the effort your child has put into something.”

Dr Deiros Collado notes that “praise is a form of pressure” so the more a parent says “well done” or “good girl/boy” the more their child is likely to rely on their parents’ evaluations and judgement of what’s good or not.

“This can increase anxiety and shrink self-confidence,” she adds.

This pressure can also make some children “pull away” from doing something they’re good at, she suggests.

So, what should parents be doing?

In short: praising effort, not talent, seems to be the best course of action.

A Stanford study of toddlers found doing this led to greater motivation and more positive attitudes towards challenges later in life.

As study author Professor Carol Zweck, told Psychology Today, statements like ‘you’re great’ or ‘you’re amazing’ aren’t helpful because later in life, when they don’t get it right or don’t do it perfectly, “they’ll think they aren’t so great or amazing”.

Dr Deiros Collado recommends talking less and asking more. So if your child draws something, you could ask: “How did you choose those colours?” or “Tell me more about the picture!”

Sometimes, instead of offering praise, silence can be just the ticket. “Let your child share their experience and pride (if it exists) or just let it be. Children do not need praise to be good,” she adds.

And lastly, she suggests you could try an approach where you offer praise and ask questions – she offers the example of saying: “Well done! You put your top on all by yourself. How did you do that?”

Of course, saying “well done” and “good girl/boy” every now and then isn’t going to hurt – but if you can think of creative ways to acknowledge your child’s effort in the things they do, you’ll be helping them in the long-run.

The Making Of Oppenheimer: 15 Fascinating Behind-The-Scenes Facts

Posted on 12/08/2023 by Boris Clair

Clocking in at just over three hours, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is his longest and arguably most ambitious film yet.

The biopic sees Cillian Murphy giving a sure to be Oscar-nominated performance as the titular physicist, who is known as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’.

Its not just the lead star who is being tipped for award season glory either, with his cast mates, director Nolan and the film’s sound, special effects and wardrobe teams also likely to make it onto shortlists.

We’re still many months away from the Golden Globes and Oscars nominee announcements but to tide you over, here are 15 behind-the-scenes facts that remind you just how impressive Oppenheimer is…

The Trinity Test recreation was filmed without special effects

Nolan is no stranger to recreating dramatic events on the big screen but in perhaps his most ambitious move yet, the director decided to film the atomic bomb test without using any CGI or visual effects. That means what you see on screen really did take place – although on a smaller scale.

Visual effects supervisor Scott R. Fisher has explained how his team created real ‘miniature’ explosions and filmed those.

He told Total Film: “We don’t call them miniatures; we call them ‘big-atures’. We do them as big as we possibly can, but we do reduce the scale so it’s manageable.

“It’s getting it closer to the camera, and doing it as big as you can in the environment.”

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In order to create the intense burning created by the successful test run, Scott’s team used gasoline and propane, while aluminium powder and magnesium were added to replicate the blinding white light of a nuclear explosion.

Scott added: “We really wanted everyone to talk about that flash, that brightness. So we tried to replicate that as much as we could.”

The opening Prometheus quote is a nod to Nolan’s source material

Oppenheimer opens with an ominous opening caption, which reads: “Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity.”

The film is based on Kai Bird’s 2005 Oppenheimer biography American Prometheus and explaining the comparison, Kai writes in his book: “Like that rebellious Greek god Prometheus—who stole fire from Zeus and bestowed it upon humankind, Oppenheimer gave us atomic fire.

“But then, when he tried to control it, when he sought to make us aware of its terrible dangers, the powers-that-be, like Zeus, rose up in anger to punish him.”

Cillian Murphy got his role without auditioning

Oppenheimer marks Christopher and Cillian’s sixth film together – following the Batman trilogy, Inception and Dunkirk – and given their close relationship, the Irish actor no longer needs to audition for roles.

During an interview with Radio 2, Cillian recalled the moment when he received a casual call from Nolan, who explained he had the perfect lead role for him.

“If you’re lucky you get one or two of those [calls] in your career, you know?” he said. “It was the best, best feeling. It was kind of euphoric, and then you go ‘oh that’s a lot of work’. So I immediately just started working.

“I had like six months before, between when he called me and we started the shoot. The script was solid and was there. It was one of the greatest scripts I’ve ever read. It was magnificent.”

The cast lived together during filming

Oppenheimer sees America’s greatest scientific minds living together at the Los Alamos facility in New Mexico and for the movie, Nolan also moved his cast and crew into digs together.

Emily Blunt likened the situation to ‘summer camp’ and told People: “We were all in the same hotel in the middle of the New Mexican desert. We only had each other.”

But Cillian skipped their group hangouts

Emily Blunt and Matt Damon at the Oppenheimer premiere

Longterm pals Emily and Matt Damon organised group dinners for the cast during filming – but the former’s on-screen husband RSVP’d with a firm no.

Mary Poppins actor Emily added to People: “The sheer volume of what he had to take on and shoulder is so monumental.

“Of course he didn’t want to come and have dinner with us.”

Cillian added: “You know that when you have those big roles, that responsibility, you feel it’s kind of overwhelming.”

Another contributing factor was the Irish star’s strict diet, as he lost weight to play the scientist, who in real-life subsisted on cigarettes, martinis and not so much food.

“He was losing so much weight for the part that he just didn’t eat dinner, ever,” Matt told Entertainment Tonight.

The hard to hear dialogue is (sort of) intentional

While Oppenheimer is very much deserving of its five-star reviews, cinema-goers have complained about one thing: the sound levels.

Posting on social media after seeing the movie, numerous fans noted that some of the speech sounds muffled and exchanges on-screen can sometimes be difficult to fully hear.

This is down to the fact the IMAX cameras used by Nolan aren’t soundproofed.

Most directors would work around this by getting actors to re-record dialogue in post-production to make it clearer, but this is something he isn’t a fan of.

“I like to use the performance that was given in the moment rather than the actor re-voice it later,” Nolan told Insider. “Which is an artistic choice that some people disagree with, and that’s their right.”

The script was written in first person

In another unusual move, Nolan wrote the script in first person in order to reflect how most of the film is being told from Oppenheimer’s perspective and using his memories.

Matt Damon told Vulture: “I’ve never seen that done before. Instead of ‘Oppenheimer walks across the room,’ it’s ‘I walk across the room.’ This was a way for him to signal that, Okay, this is what the movie’s going to feel like. It’s going to feel immediate.”

Kodak had to manufacture a new type of film especially for Oppenheimer

Film purist Nolan filmed the biopic on large format cameras with IMAX 70mm film, but there was one small problem.

Oppenheimer features two timelines with one in colour and another in black-and-white. Unfortunately, black and white IMAX 70mm film didn’t exist so cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema put in a call to Kodak.

He told Variety: “They came out with test rolls for us to run through our camera. We had to re-engineer our cameras a little bit, and we had to remake our pressure plates and our backend lab work needed to be readjusted.”

“I do remember when Chris and I were sitting in the cinema and watching the results of our first black and white test and it was just freaking amazing. We had never seen anything like it.”

Cillian had no physics knowledge – but one co-star was well-prepared

The Inception star has admitted that he doesn’t “have the intellectual capacity to understand quantum mechanics” but the same can’t be said for Benny Safdie, who plays Edward Teller.

Prior to becoming an actor, Benny was a budding scientist and studied nuclear physics in high school.

“I was working with a physicist at Columbia University,” he told Vulture. “I was doing cosmic rays. It is a deep passion of mine.”

And another actor previously starred in another Oppenheimer-inspired project

Christopher Denham, who plays Klaus Fuchs, appeared in the 2014 series Manhattan, which took its name from the project developing the atomic weapons.

We won’t spoil the TV drama but Christopher’s Manhattan character, the entirely fictional Jim Meeks, has parallels to his Oppenheimer alter-ego.

There are no deleted scenes and there’ll never be a director’s cut

Nolan’s love of IMAX cameras and 70mm film makes movie-making incredibly expensive, so he makes sure every single second of his movies is mapped out before yelling ‘action’.

Cillian told Collider: “There’s no deleted scenes in Chris Nolan movies. That’s why there are no DVD extras on his movies because the script is the movie. He knows exactly what’s going to end up – he’s not fiddling around with it trying to change the story. That is the movie.”

Oppenheimer features Nolan’s first ever sex scenes

Despite having directed 11 feature films before starting work on his latest, Nolan had never directed intimate scenes before.

Oppenheimer features sex scenes with the titular scientist and Jean Tatlock, a member of the communist party who was his lover before and during his marriage (played by Florence Pugh).

Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer

Justifying the intimate moments, Nolan told Insider they are “essential” to understanding Oppenheimer’s life as a whole.

“His very intense relationship with Jean Tatlock […] is one of the most important things in his life,” he said. “But not least for the fact that Jean Tatlock was very explicitly a Communist and his obsession with her therefore had enormous ramifications for his later life and his ultimate fate.

“It felt very important to understand their relationship and to really see inside it and understand what made it tick without being coy or allusive about it, but to try to be intimate, to try and be in there with him and fully understand the relationship that was so important to him.”

Florence Pugh’s topless scene is very different in some cinemas around the globe

The intimate scenes between Oppenheimer and his lover earned the film its R rating, but some cinema-goers noticed an odd addition to one scene.

In countries including India, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, digital censoring has been used to cover Florence’s body with a CGI black dress.

Nolan had been thinking about Oppenheimer since he was a teenager

The director grew up in England in the 1980s when the scientist was “a part of pop culture then, without us knowing a lot about him.”

He told Bulletin: “I think I first encountered Oppenheimer in that relation; I think he was referred to in Sting’s song about the Russians that came out then and talks about Oppenheimer’s ‘deadly toys.’

“It was the peak of CND, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Greenham Common [protest]; the threat of nuclear war was when I was 12, 13, 14 – it was the biggest fear we all had,” he added.

And there’s even an Oppenheimer reference in Tenet

In the same interview, Nolan recalls learning of how the Los Alamos scientists were told there was a chance the atomic bomb could destroy the world.

He explained: “That struck me as the most dramatic situation in the history of the world, with any sort of possibility being an end to life on Earth. That’s a responsibility that nobody else in the history of the world had ever faced.

“I put a reference to that in my last film, Tenet; there’s dialogue, a reference to that exact situation by Oppenheimer. That film deals with a science-fiction extrapolation of that notion: Can you put the toothpaste back in the tube? The danger of knowledge, once knowledge is unveiled—once it’s known, once it’s fact—you can’t wind the clock back and put that away.”