Emily Blunt has said that playing Katherine Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s 2022 film Oppenheimer is a role she will never fully leave behind, describing it as having “fingerprints” on her forever. The part mattered because it required her to portray the private strain and resilience of the wife of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who led the development of the atomic bomb.

Oppenheimer became a major critical and commercial success, winning seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, while Blunt received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her performance highlighted Katherine’s alcoholism, anger and determination, particularly in scenes dealing with the security hearings that damaged her husband’s reputation.