Oppenheimer Interview: Composer Ludwig Göransson On Collaboration With Christopher Nolan

Oppenheimer is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The story follows the titular scientist’s journey through academia and his involvement in the Manhattan Project, which created the atomic bomb. It also touches on the aftermath of the bomb being used at the end of World War II, including investigations launched into his past.

Oppenheimer has a star-studded cast led by Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh. Acclaimed director Christopher Nolan helmed the movie and penned the screenplay. Nolan also served as a producer, along with Emma Thomas and Charles Roven.

Screen Rant interviewed composer Ludwig Göransson about his work on Oppenheimer. He discussed collaborating with his wife, Serena, a violinist, to create Oppenheimer’s main theme, including the moment that inspiration struck. Göransson also shared how his collaboration process with Nolan works, including how it has evolved since Tenet.

Ludwig Göransson Talks Oppenheimer

Screen Rant: Ludwig, this film is incredible. Your work on this film is incredible. Christopher Nolan often has these unique and memorable scores. In what ways did you collaborate with him to create this musical landscape to complement the storytelling in Oppenheimer?

Ludwig Göransson: Thank you so much, first, for your kind words. It was truly a true collaboration. And I say that because I mean it was the same with Tenet, but obviously, now there is a second part, so we kind of know each other a little bit. I actually know that I can present him anything, which maybe on the first one I was maybe a little bit more nervous about how… Is he going to listen to this, is he going to listen to that?

But now I really know that when we start experimenting, and that’s really how we create our sound worlds, we just experiment and then just put everything on the table. And this is right after I read the scripts. So, obviously, I get ideas from reading the script and how detailed everything in the script is. Even the sound, there’s even sound design in the script, like the footsteps.

Oh, really?

Ludwig Göransson:The sound of silence after the Tinity test, it’s all in the script. And right afterwards having a conversation with Chris, and one of the only guidance he gave me in terms of where the score should go, was to use the violin as the main instrument to kind of embody Oppenheimer’s personality. And then it’s just off to the races and we started to experiment. And my wife, Serena, is an incredible violinist, accomplished violinist.

And I was lucky enough to spend hundreds of hours with her in the studio just pushing, recording the violin, and trying to push it in different ways that I haven’t been able to before and heard it before. And so, before Chris Nolan takes off to shoot the film, he has about two or three hours of music that we’ve been working on together. And this is music that we’ve been listening to, analyzing.

We sit in the same room, I play it for him, and we point out certain details like certain sounds, certain themes, things that we like, things that we don’t like. And so we are pretty far ahead in terms of production schedule when we start shooting. So I think that’s the founding, that’s the main, that’s the seed of the score and how that sound world starts coming together.

That’s incredible. Now, I love behind-the-scenes features in films simply because they give you a bird’s-eye view of how a film is made, and this is no different because you talk in the behind-the-scenes feature about working, collaborating with your wife, and her violinist work. And you kind of pieced that together, and you guys came up with Oppenheimer’s theme, and you just sent it off to Chris, and he was like, “This is the theme.” Can you talk about that process a little bit?

Ludwig Göransson: Yeah, absolutely. We were spending long days in the studio, just mostly it was just kind microtonal, glissandos, up and down, and putting them together and trying to create this uncomfortable, almost like an uncomfortable siren. And it was fun, but after eight hours of doing that, you kind of got little bit of a little crazy. And I remember we were just finishing a session and Serena left to go out the studio for 10 minutes.

And I was sitting there and just… And somehow this melody just came to me that (singing) and I played it on the piano, and I played a baseline under it. Super simple. And then she came back, and she took up her violin, she started replaying it. And the way she played it with this super fragile, intimate tone, this beautiful performance really affected how I started feeling that melody and how it really resonated with me. And I knew that this was special, so right away I sent it to Chris, and he called me 10 minutes later.

About Oppenheimer

The movie tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), the visionary physicist who led the Manhattan Project to create the atomic bomb that would be used against Japan in the final days of World War II.

Check out our other Oppenheimer interviews:

• Christopher Nolan
• Jennifer Lame & Richard King
• Emma Thomas
• Andrew Jackson & Scott Fisher
• Ruth De Jong & Ellen Mirojnick