Oppenheimer: David Dastmalchian Talks Reuniting With Christopher Nolan After The Dark Knight

Now that the SAG strike has ended, actors are able to discuss the projects that have been coming out since the summer. Right ahead of Oppenheimer‘s release, the cast walked out of the premiere when the strike officially began. During the BoxLunch Holiday Gala, ComicBook.com had the chance to catch up with David Dastmalchian, who played William L. Borden in the film. Of course, this isn’t the first time the actor has worked with director Christopher Nolan. Dastmalchian’s first role was playing one of Joker’s thugs, Thomas Schiff, in The Dark Knight. 

“A lot that I didn’t get to talk about,” Dastmalchian said when asked what he was hoping to share about his Oppenheimer experience. “Hopefully we’ll talk about for the rest of my life. That was a life-changing experience, getting to reunite with the director who gave my first break, Who has made films that I think about constantly that changed my life as a viewer, as a fan being in his presence again, it’s so inspiring. He’s a true auteur. He is a genius and he’s an incredible leader. And I feel like he got something out of me that I didn’t know, maybe it was possible and it’s a small role, but I’m really proud of the fact that I felt like I did something maybe different than I would normally do. So, yeah, it’s a lot.”

Earlier this year, Dastmalchian spoke with /Film about The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and his DC history came up. During the chat, Dastmalchian spoke about working with Nolan and filming in Chicago for The Dark Knight. 

“For me, the thing that stood out was getting the opportunity to observe one of the great masters of cinema, Christopher Nolan, be able to orchestrate a set with thousands of performers and hundreds if not thousands of crew members and extensive equipment setups under the incredible pressure of having to shoot in a downtown, thriving, operating metropolis like Chicago and make that Gotham City,” Dastmalchian shared.

“Seeing him do so with nothing but confidence and clarity and the skill of a great leader and communicator,” he continued. “That just affected me in this deep way, seeing an artist at that level operate in such a manner, and since then, has been the bellwether representation of the captains that I love to embark on journeys with, the people who I will follow into the craziest waters, the most unknown places, the most dark chasms to jump with leaps of faith because somebody just has that kind of discipline and heart for cinema. And I saw it again. I got to see it on the set of his newest film. I can’t wait for people to see.”

Who Stars in Oppenheimer?

Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, Emily Blunt as Kitty Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as Leslie Groves, Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie as Edward Teller, Michael Angarano as Robert Serber, Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence, Dylan Arnold as Frank Oppenheimer, David Krumholtz as Isidor Isaac Rabi, Matthew Modine as Vannevar Bush, Josh Peck as Kenneth Bainbridge, Devon Bostick as Seth Neddermeyer, Matthias Schweighöfer as Werner Heisenberg, Christopher Denham as Klaus Fuchs, Guy Burnet as George Eltenton, Danny Deferrari as Enrico Fermi, Emma Dumont as Jackie Oppenheimer, Gustaf Skarsgård as Hans Bethe, Trond Fausa Aurvåg as George Kistiakowsky, and Gary Oldman as Harry S. Truman.

Stay tuned for more from our BoxLunch Holiday Gala interviews.