Hundreds turn out for 'Oppenheimer' casting call

Jan. 30—Hundreds of people attended a two-day casting call over the weekend for the movie Oppenheimer, which will be filmed partly in Northern New Mexico.

The Universal Pictures movie will tell the story of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb, according to the entertainment database IMDb.

The production will feature Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr. and Rami Malek. It's set to be directed by Christopher Nolan and begin production in March, with a planned release in July 2023.

Alessi Hartigan Casting hosted the casting calls — on Saturday in Santa Fe and Sunday in Los Alamos — to find 450 extras to portray scientists, professors, college students, military service members and housewives.

Benjamin Derby, 28, a materials scientist working on nano-composites at Los Alamos National Laboratories, said he heard about the casting call at work.

"They told us that you should tell them if you are a scientist," Derby said Sunday.

Erin Krueger, 37, a substitute teacher at Los Alamos Middle School who writes time-travel romance novels, wore a white pearl necklace and a vintage navy blue dress to the casting call in Los Alamos.

"We were told to dress in the 1930s and do 1930s makeup," she said. "I thought it would be fun; I love vintage things."

Matthew Herman, a high-explosives scientist at LANL who lives in nearby White Rock, was hoping to land a role as a scientist. Herman, 30, grew up in a military family, "so that wouldn't be too far of a stretch either," he said Sunday.

Although he never had been around a film set before, Herman said he did a lot of stage acting as a child.

"I just thought it would be interesting to learn the process," he said.

The film has an estimated $100 million budget and was written by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, with the screenplay written by Nolan.

The casting call was intended to identify locals to play extras in the film who would look authentic in vintage clothing styles that were popular in the 1920s to the 1940s.

Tomas Farish wore a black fedora and said: "I love dressing up in the '40s style. That's why I love swing dancing, and that's why I'm here today."

Farish, 64, said he'd worked as a professor and scientist, mentoring students earning their doctorate degrees in Los Alamos and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"I've been a stage actor since 1975. I've been in a play or two or three every year here since 2015," he said.

Nicole Artnak, 40, said she didn't have acting experience, but "I used to do a lot of modeling when I was in college. That's the only experience I have in front of the camera."

Artnak is a stay-at-home mom in Los Alamos, and her husband works at LANL.

"Three full days without the kids? That sounds like a vacation," she joked.