Florence Pugh’s ‘bizarre’ CGI dress to cover nudity left Oppenheimer team baffled

Back in the summer, Florence Pugh wowed cinemagoers as one among the starry cast of Christopher Nolan’s latest epic film release, Oppenheimer – which you now watch at home on digital or DVD, Blu Ray and 4K.

However, she made headlines for a very unexpected reason after it was revealed she had been censored in some edits of the movie thanks to a digitally added piece of clothing.

Starring Cillian Murphy in the lead role of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, responsible for the research and design of the atomic bomb at the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War Two, Pugh played his lover, psychiatrist Jean Tatlock.

The Oscar nominee had two extended nude scenes in the film – but these ended up raising eyebrows in a ‘bizarre’ way when it was discovered her nudity had been covered up for release in some countries.

Pugh’s naked appearance was edited by way of layering on top a computer-generated black dress for cinema showings in nations including India – and Oppenheimer’s VFX supervisor has now confirmed that it is the only piece of CGI added into the entire film.

And no, he knew nothing about it.

Oppenheimer sees Florence Pugh (L) cast as Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) lover Jean Tatlock, appearing in two sex scenes (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

However, the star’s body was covered up with a CGI black dress in order for the film to pass censorship laws in some countries, which the VFX supervisor knew nothing about until afterwards (Picture: Universal Pictures)

The scene in the original version of the movie showed 27-year-old Pugh sitting across from Murphy, 47, in a hotel room, where both of them are implied to be fully nude.

Pugh was topless in the UK cut of the film as she talks with Oppenheimer, but in India, Indonesia and some Middle Eastern countries, her naked body was obscured by a simple black dress cut straight across her chest and mid-way down her thighs.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk in Los Angeles ahead of the home release of Oppenheimer, Andrew Jackson revealed that he had no idea that edit was going to be made, explaining: ‘It was all very much after the event.’

‘I did think it was quite bizarre that in the film where there were no CG components, that that was the one,’ he added, referring to filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s preference for his movies to contain ‘in-camera’ practical effects, rather than anything created with CGI afterward.

Andrew Jackson, visual effects supervisor on Oppenheimer, worked hard to create practical effects for the movie over using CGI, as is director Christopher Nolan’s preference (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

To be clear though, that does not mean the film contains no VFX as there are roughly 200 visual effects shots overall – but that includes all of the practical effects shots and those that erase modern elements in shot on location, for example.

At the time, sources close to the film confirmed to Variety that Pugh’s scenes were censored, as with any work including nudity or explicit sex, in order to secure a release in Middle Eastern countries and India, which otherwise do not allow that type of content to be shown in cinemas.

With Pugh’s CGI LBD in place, India’s Central Board of Film Certification handed Oppenheimer a U/A certification, which means it ‘can contain moderate adult themes, that is not strong in nature and can be watched by a child below 12 years of age under parental guidance’.

Discussing what it’s like collaborating with a filmmaker like Nolan on FX, special effects supervisor Scott R. Fisher called him ‘the best there is’ because of his preference for practical effects.

‘All the ideas and things that I sometimes try and want to do on other films, where they’re very quick to try to figure out a CGI or a visual effects solution, he’s the opposite. He wants to push and figure out how to do things practically,’ he enthused.

In fact, Fisher called it ‘kind of ideal’ as a set-up for both himself and Jackson as they merge into one department on Nolan’s movies and ‘work together and figure out how to divide and conquer’.

‘We’re both very much on the same page anyway, and that is the same page as Chris Nolan,’ added Jackson.

‘And he’s a really collaborative director, he wants us to experiment and bring ideas to him, and then we’ll discuss them and develop the ones further that work.

‘So, it’s a really worthwhile and rewarding process of feeling very engaged in the filmmaking rather than just being given a particular task and you go away and do it.’

The movie allowed for a lot of collaboration as the FX team created movie magic in unexpected ways (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

Just one of the stunning shots they produced for Oppenheimer ‘in-camera’ (Picture: Universal Pictures)

This is shown to great effect in one of the bonus features available on the home entertainment release for Oppenheimer, which includes a documentary about the making of the movie.

In it, Jackson and Fisher are seen working together on set and with their team to figure out the best ways to stun audiences with some old-fashioned practical movie magic – not that you would know it’s done there and then, unless they told you.

For the pair, who have both worked with Nolan before on Tenet – for which they won an Oscar – while Fisher also has a nomination for 2015’s Interstellar, the greatest challenge for them was recreating the Trinity Test without involving CG.

Andrew Jackson with special effects supervisor Scott R. Fisher (Picture: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages)

Their biggest test was how to recreate the Trinity Test without using CGI (Picture: Universal Pictures)

As a recognisable and well-documented nuclear blast of terrifying power, which there was no way they could do for real, the pressure was very much on – but Jackson quipped that they coped with it by ‘leaning in’ to the huge explosion.

‘We kind of knew, right from the start, that was going to be the answer – to make the actual explosion as big as we feasibly could. And then enhance that with slowing it down, which makes it feel much bigger, and then layering up additional components,’ he explained.

‘Because [of] doing so many of the other films with Chris, we knew that we’re going to have to figure out a way to do it on the largest scale we could, and also knowing that we’re going to be out in the middle of the desert and we’re not going to have a lot of leeway to do huge explosions and things like that,’ added Fisher.

‘So, we definitely thought we just had to push it as far as we could with what we could do.’

Both Jackson and Fisher have worked with Nolan (R) before, winning an Oscar for 2015’s Tenet (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)

Fisher is satisfied, however, that there weren’t really any instances where they felt they had to sacrifice accuracy or other considerations in their pursuit of making Oppenheimer’s effects look the best that they could onscreen.

While admitting that there are ‘always tweaks’ they think about, and that time is usually an issue, Nolan’s attitude helps them let it go.

‘Chris is so, so decisive. He knows what he needs when he sees it, and you kind of move on. So sometimes you’re caught with that, “Oh, if we could it once more, a little better!”

‘But if he’s happy, then we’re happy.’

Oppenheimer is available now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray™ and DVD to download and keep.

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He also confirmed it was the only CG element added to the film.