Chapter Text
It was only yesterday that you arrived at your parent’s holiday home in Santa Fe which is where you would stay with them and your siblings for about four months.
Sharing an accommodation with your parents and your three sisters for more than one week was something that was unusual for you.
Unlike your three younger sisters, you moved out from home when you were just eighteen to attend university but now, following the pandemic, you were struggling for work.
Bars and restaurants had been closed and getting this little bit of extra income had become more and more difficult for you.
Of course, your parents would have always supported you financially but you had always been too proud to take up such offer and it wasn’t until you had no other choice that you agreed to work for your father’s and mother’s production company, Syncopy Inc.
Both of your parents worked in the movie industry but the art of making movies had never been your cup of tea. Ever since attending Oxford University, you wanted to work in the field of scientific research and you had a job lined up for the beginning of July 2022, which is when you planned to move back to London.
Until then, your father had convinced you to work with him on his new movie and, since it was you who got him onto the project in the first place, you agreed.
The movie he was directing and your mother was working on as a producer was called “Oppenheimer” and covered the life of Robert J Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.
Robert J Oppenheimer used to carry out the so called “Manhattan Project” during World War II and, since this project played a big part in the thesis for your PhD, you thought that it would be rather fitting if you helped your father out with this movie.
You had studied Robert J Oppenheimer’s life for years and you told your father all about it while you were writing your thesis. Whilst you had never agreed with Oppenheimer’s actions, his inventions changed the scientific field quite a fair bit and these changes were what intrigued you. It was almost like a scientific revolution.
But, it wasn’t just you who took an interest in Robert J Oppenheimer’s life. Your father did also and, when he stumbled over a script by a somewhat unknown writer covering the same topic you had covered in your thesis, he decided to turn it into a blockbuster movie.
Being no other than Christopher Nolan, it didn’t take your father long to find a studio and a suitable cast and, throughout the process, he consulted with you and asked you about the accuracy of the script when it came to the historic and scientific events.
Your father had always paid a high emphasis on filming movies in a way that they display history adequately where relevant and, with that in mind, he employed you and another more senior scientist to work with the cast and production crew.
Whilst you would have enjoyed to work on some bombs yourself for this project and assist with the filming of the stunts, your task was much more boring than that of the more mature and experienced scientist in the team.
Your task was to liaise with the cast and crew on a day-to-day basis and help your father to capture the events which unfolded during the Manhattan Project adequately. Your job included script rehearsals with the actors and assisting them with understand what they were trying to convey to their audience.
Your effort to explain to your father that you had to study over five years to understand how nuclear energy and atomic bombs work was, however, futile and he somehow believed that the actors he had casted could pick up the principles within mere days.
‘You are joking right?’ you argued with him over dinner but he most certainly was not.
‘I am afraid not Y/N. I need you to get cracking on this tomorrow. We have only one week of prep before shooting starts and I need you to get Cillian up to speed with this stuff. At the very least, he needs to be able to draw down the diagrams for the project and explain them to the audience. There will be two shots of him doing exactly that with a group of scientists. It needs to be accurate’ your father said with great determination.
‘Who is Cillian?’ you asked somewhat confused as you had never paid much attention when it came to actors and other than Florence Pugh and Jack Quaid, who you both had met before on a few occasions, you had no idea who all of these people were your father had employed.
‘Cillian Murphy? The guy who plays Oppenheimer?’ your sister laughed and you weren’t sure whether you were meant to know this or not.
‘I don’t know who this is but, no doubt, Google will tell me’ you told your sister.
‘Didn’t you read my last email Y/N? I have sent you all the details for the cast about a week ago’ your father then asked somewhat annoyed and you quickly picked up your phone and began scrolling through your emails.
‘I didn’t get any email. Are you sure that you have sent it to me and not accidentally to one of my sisters like you so often do?’ you asked, causing all three of your sisters to laugh.
‘Shit, actually…’ your father began to say as he was scrolling through his emails as well but your mother immediately interrupted him.
‘Chris! Language!’ she cautioned him before having a giggle as well.
‘Listen, I will try my best to give him a good run down of the stuff in the script and show him how to draw the different diagrams you need but don’t expect him to understand the ins and outs of atomic bombs and nuclear power, alright?’ you told your father with a somewhat reassuring voice.
‘I would say that, knowing Cillian, he would have done some research on this topic by now so hopefully he won’t give you a hard time’ your father told you and you simply nodded.
‘Yeah. We will see’ was all you could say in response and your father knew that you had some bad experiences dealing with actors before which was one of the reasons you didn’t really want to do it again.
Being Christopher Nolan’s daughter wasn’t always particularly helpful or easy as you felt that, young actors in particular, wanted to get to know you and you had rather many suitors because of your surname alone whereas, in reality, you weren’t really the kind of woman an actor would want to date.
You were no supermodel, wore no make-up and didn’t care for expensive clothes. You preferred comfort and quality over looks when it came to your attire and you most certainly didn’t bother with contact lenses. You wore your glasses day in and day out, put your hair into a bun and often behaved somewhat awkwardly.
There was no denying it. You were a nerd and, other than some of your fellow students at university, you didn’t have many friends as you always saw right through people.
Most women and men alike were not very nice to you until they heard who your parents were and these weren’t the kind of people you wanted to hang out with.
In addition, you didn’t like most of the actors that you had met as you felt as though they believed in the need for special treatment because they were famous. Fame wasn’t something you believed in. It meant nothing to you and your parents most certainly raised you this way, telling you to steer clear from men in the industry.
They both taught you and your sisters how to be humble and respectful and, most of all, gratuitous for what you had.
Furthermore, your father had always been quite strict when it came to dating and, when you were younger, he forbit you to go out with any actors which, to you, seems reasonable now.
***
The following morning, at around five o’clock, you arrived on set with your father and these early starts were certainly not what you had been used to.
You were introduced to some of the cast members, including some of whom you already knew, like Jack Quaid and Florence Pugh, but also those you didn’t, like Emily Blunt and Robert Downey. Emily must have been the only actress you recognised on set out of those you did not know personally as, when you were babysitting your cousins’ children in LA, her movie Mary Poppins played on repeat.
She was a beautiful woman and quite down to earth, causing you to warm up to her easily.
Jack, on the other hand, was a little more reserved and shy to start with and only warmed up to you again after he had finished his first cup of coffee for the day.
When you met him in the past, you got on well, but he was also somewhat nervous which was something he didn’t manage to overcome as yet it seemed. Being Christopher Nolan’s daughter had this kind of effect on some people and, obviously, that included him.
After his first coffee however, he became more talkative and it was almost like he needed the caffeine hit to get himself going.
By this point, he was joking a lot but also became somewhat clumsier when he was around you. It was strange, but amusing and just as he pulled another joke, your father pulled you aside in order to introduce to the lead actor of the movie.
‘Cillian, this is Y/N. She will run you through the technical side of things. If you have any scientific questions about the script, you go and ask her’ your father said before leaving you standing there with this stranger. All day long, he had been running around like a headless chicken, trying to get the set into order for filming and you felt somewhat sorry for him.
‘He is stressed’ you told Cillian as you both watched your father storm off into a cloud of dust.
‘Yeah, it will only get worse from here’ Cillian chuckled with a thick Irish accent and you wondered how he was going to play an American when he spoke.
‘So, you have worked with him before?’ you then asked and Cillian nodded.
‘Many times, actually. Have you not?’ Cillian wondered and, whilst you tried hard to look away from his deep blue eyes, you couldn’t. They were so mesmerising, it almost hurt.
‘No, this is the first time and probably the last time’ you told Cillian, causing him to laugh just before Jack joined in on the conversation once again.
***
Throughout the day, you spent time explaining the scientific background of the Manhattan Project to Cillian just as your father had requested and you were quite impressed to learn that he had, indeed, done some research.
‘You have done your homework, haven’t you?’ you teased and Cillian nodded, moving his lip almost into a pout position.
‘Well, I figured I should know at least a little about the man I am portraying’ Cillian told you and you soon became to realise that he was also quite humble and down to earth.
In fact, he was unlike many of the actors you had met before and he clearly wasn’t in this line of work for the money. He truly enjoyed it.
He asked you many questions and wanted to familiarise himself with the character he was playing. His personal life intrigued him and he was clearly invested in the role.
Just as you were briefing Cillian on one of the scenes however and explained some of the drawings to him again, Jack came and joined you along with Florence and they both sat down across from you.
‘So, got your science degree yet Cillian?’ Jack asked, causing Cillian to lose his train of thought and chuckle.
‘Funny’ Cillian said and it was obvious to you that his head was burning by now. It was a lot of information for him to process and, with the constant interruption from people, it was almost impossible to work on some of the complicated stuff he had to learn for his role.
‘Perhaps you should both take a break? It’s time for lunch anyway’ Florence pointed out before asking you whether you and Cillian wanted to come into town with her and Jack.
Whilst you agreed to join Jack and Florence for lunch, Cillian decided to stay back and listen to some music. According to him, he was still jetlagged and needed some downtime which was something you could understand.
You felt like this a lot when you were working on your thesis and decided to give him some privacy just as he had requested.
***
Lunch with Florence and Jack was rather amusing and they both had a good sense of humour. You learned that Florence was still with her partner who, interestingly enough, was twenty years older than her.
She was only two years older than you and knowing what you knew now, you told her that your father would most certainly not have approved if you were seeing someone so close to his age.
‘My parents came around. It took a little while though’ Florence told you and you were truly happy for her.
‘My father would literally kill me, I think’ you pointed out with a chuckle.
‘I can see that. Your father scares the hell out of me when he gets angry’ Florence admitted, knowing that your father can be rather strict when he needs to be.
‘You see what I mean? He can be pretty full on, right?’ you laughed before telling them the story about your sister and when she started dating a guy who was four years older than her.
‘He was part of this weird TV show my parents hated and that, coupled with the fact that he was four years older than her, drove them insane’ you went on to say and, it was at this point that Jack asked you whether you were in a relationship right now.
‘I am happily single and have been for two years’ you pointed out before requesting to change the topic and both, Florence and Jack, happily obliged with your request.
***
Throughout lunch, you realised that you were working with a good crew and when you got back to the set you sought out Cillian to see whether he wanted to continue his scientific crash course with you.
‘How was lunch?’ he asked politely after pulling his headphones from his ears.
‘Spicy. How about yours?’ you asked as he gave you this somewhat mesmerising look again which you wished you could ignore.
‘Not so bad’ Cillian said as you both watched Jack walk past his trailer and wave at you.
You waved back politely and, just as you did, you and Cillian got interrupted again as Jack came over to you once more and offered to get you something from the buffet as you hadn’t eaten much of your lunch.
‘I am good Jack, but thank you for the offer’ you said before sending him on his way.
‘I don’t think we will get anything done like this’ you then chuckled after Jack had left again and as your frustration with the constant interruptions grew.
Every time there was an interruption, you had to start again from the beginning and Cillian struggled with the scientific content of what you were trying to convey as you both kept losing your train of thought.
‘No, I don’t think so either’ Cillian said before giving it some more thought and proposing an idea.
‘Do you want to come to my unit after we are done here? This way, you can explain the diagrams and dialogue to me without any further interruptions. Or, I can come to yours if you prefer. I don’t really mind’ he suggested politely before telling you that, throughout lunch, he actually wrote down a list of questions he had for you.
‘If you order us some pizza, then yes’ you said as your stomach was still growling after you had not eaten much of your lunch and you knew that you wouldn’t have any time to go home first.
‘I can do that. My apartment then?’ Cillian asked and you nodded.
‘Your apartment and no chilli on the pizzas please’ you told him, causing Cillian to laugh.
‘I figured as much after hearing your conversation with Jack’ he said before carrying on. ‘You know, I actually think that he likes you. That’s why he keeps on coming to you’ Cillian then pointed out somewhat amused and he sure wasn’t the only one who had noticed.
It was only day one on set but you had been told this in the past when you were at the same function together a couple of months ago, which was fundraiser hosted by your father.
‘You think he likes me? You mean, in a romantic kind of way?’ you asked with some curiosity.
‘Absolutely. It’s so fucking obvious’ Cillian told you with a wide grin on his face, causing you to chuckle.
‘Common’ you responded with a shake of your head.
‘I am serious. Also, he’s single I think, so…’ Cillian then pointed out but you simply rolled your eyes and interrupted him by this point.
‘I don’t get involved with actors. Despite, he’s six years older than me and my father would not be impressed if I was going to date someone on set’ you explained, causing Cillian to cock an eyebrow.
‘Your father?’ he asked somewhat confused, not having realised that you were, in fact, Christopher Nolan’s daughter.
‘Yes, my father’ you said.
‘Why would your father care if you dated someone on set?’ Cillian asked with some ignorance.
‘Because he is the director of the movie’ you pointed out, causing Cillian’s chin to drop.