To pluck, or not to pluck. That was the question on Benny Safdie’s mind in preparing to play theoretical physicist Edward Teller in “Oppenheimer.”
Teller, the Budapest-born “father of the hydrogen bomb,” joined J. Robert Oppenheimer in Los Alamos to develop the earlier atomic bomb. He was notorious for his thick Austro-Hungarian accent and is rumored to have even inspired Peter Sellers’ title character in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove.” And then, there were, of course, Teller’s unkempt, thick eyebrows, which Safdie said are all his.
Speaking with Vulture, Safdie said, “I am proud to say that it’s all my eyebrows. Teller had the best eyebrows.”
The “Uncut Gems” co-director and “Licorice Pizza” star added that Nolan really wanted Safdie to commit to the bit. “Every once in a while I have a straggler that I’ll just pluck out, cause it looks a little too crazy. But Chris said, ‘Don’t do that. Let’s just let it go crazy.’ I had the most insane eyebrows for months and months, and you just had to brush them out and then they shined in all their glory,” he said.
Personal grooming aside, the “Uncut Gems” director and “Licorice Pizza” star said he was most intimidated about putting on the accent. “I remember Chris asking me, ‘How’s the accent coming?’ And I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to accomplish this?’ I didn’t know if he was going to want me to do it. But he sent me all of these interviews and we talked about how Teller speaks and who he is. It was a long process of working together to really nail it down.”
Safdie said he eventually “sent a voice-memo where I just narrated what my breakfast was and how Teller really liked pineapple” once he figured out what Teller’s voice sounded like.
But as Christopher Nolan‘s epic spans four decades, Safdie also had to affect how Teller’s voice changed over time with age.
“Before each take, I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to yell. I’m going to really break up my vocal cords,’” Safdie said. “It makes such a big difference. We also came up with this weird laugh-snort that Teller has when Kenneth Branagh is talking and we realize the Germans are behind and we’re ahead of them. Snorting and hitting the leg. We spent so long on that! Just that little snort. You’re not afraid to look stupid in a lot of ways, because when you’re free like that, it’s a fun place to be.”
Safdie’s commitment to onscreen verisimilitude also shined in “Licorice Pizza.” Safdie recently said he ate probably 30 tiramisus during a “Licorice Pizza” dinner scene because he said he hates when people don’t actually eat in movies. “It destroys me,” he said.
