Emily Blunt Snuck Into A Strip Mall To See ‘Oppenheimer’, Ran Into Pack Of Teenagers Dressed As Oppie

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Oppenheimer, both critically and commercially, is one of the most successful films of the 2020s so far. Given that it was released during the actors’ strike, however, the cast of the film wasn’t able to be as engaged with the experience as they would usually be.

During her recent appearance on Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” series, Emily Blunt — who stars in the film as Oppenheimer’s tormented wife Kitty — told her former The Devil Wears Prada co-star Anne Hathaway about seeing the film in a Nyack, New York strip mall.

Blunt says that after she her and husband John Krasinski snuck into the theater “after the lights went off”, she saw a group of teenagers enter the theater dressed as J. Robert Oppenheimer.

“Because of the strike, we didn’t get to watch the movie with an audience. I realized that Oppenheimer was going to be a very significant moment in cinema history when John and I managed to find two seats at an Imax in Nyack, N.Y., in a shopping mall. We snuck in when the lights went dark, and I saw a group of teenage boys coming in dressed as [Cillian Murphy]. In Nyack, N.Y.! I got chills. I called Cillian [Murphy] afterwards and said, ‘You’re not going to believe what I just saw,’” Blunt explained.

Despite the stars’ inability to promote the film due to the strike, Oppenheimer was still a massive success, as it grossed over $952 million at the global box office. The film is also expected to be a major contender in many categories at next year’s Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Emily Blunt.

Oppenheimer is so popular, in fact, that when the 4K version of the film was released in late November, it sold out almost immediately. Given that Oppenheimer was produced by Universal Pictures, the film’s eventual streaming home will be on Peacock. At this time, however, it is not clear when that will be.