At the end of July 2023, posts went viral on social networks that there was not a single “black” person in the cast of the film about one of the creators of the atomic bomb. We decided to check if this is true.
Publications that there are no black people in the film about the father of the atomic bomb are usually accompanied by captions in the style of “Surprisingly true,” “Fact of the day,” or “Interesting fact.” At the same time, the posts provide examples of images of some actors and actresses with light skin tones (most often 6 to 28 person) or just one frame film. Posted by and numerous commentators praised director Christopher Nolan and others creators blockbuster for such a move. Besides, some believe that because absence dark-skinned people at Oppenheimer's best cast, the film becomes more interesting and now the picture will become film of the year. Meet And comments that while the tape is still active there wasn't black scientists, so they didn't accept participation in the Manhattan Project.
Similar posts were posted on VKontakte. MDK (at the time of writing this analysis, the publication has 5,800 likes with 640,000 views), “Cinema world"(2700 / 170 000), MyComics | Marvel (5600 / 110 000), It Follows (1400 / 65 000), "Superhero Blog | SB" (3200 / 57 000), "The Avengers Project | Marvel"(2100 / 34 000) and Popcorn (1200 / 24,000). There are similar posts on Telegram - they also praise Nolan and call the absence of black people a miracle (examples here, here, here, here And here).
The action of the new biographical project of Christopher Nolan unfolds at different time periods, but the main focus of the plot is on the period when physicist Robert Oppenheimer led Manhattan Project - US nuclear weapons program during World War II. At the same time, it is known for sure that representatives of the African-American population of the country worked there. For example, according to material on the University of Chicago website with a link to data US National Park Service, the core team of researchers included at least 12 black physicists and chemists. However, the exact numbers vary: for example, in an article in the Knoxville News Sentinel it says about 15 scientists, and on the Business Insider website counted at least 19.
As for the cast of the 2023 film, much more than 28 people played in it, who were shown in some posts. Yes, according to the site IMDb, in the credits of the film “Oppenheimer” almost 80 artists are listed, and almost 50 more played in the film without mention in the credits. It seems extremely unlikely that out of nearly 130 people on a modern Hollywood project, there wouldn't be a single African American.
And indeed, if you look list artists, then you can find Ronald Auguste - he performed the role of a real-life “black” nuclear scientist named Jay Ernest Wilkins. According to the sites National Museum of Atomic Science and History And US National Park Service at age 13, Wilkins became the youngest student accepted into the University of Chicago. He received his PhD at age 19 and began working on the Manhattan Project at 21.
At the same time, the character of Auguste was even shown in the official trailer of the film - Wilkins appeared in scenes on 30th And 63rd seconds of the video.
The mere presence of the hero Auguste refutes all the posts mentioned at the beginning of this analysis, which talked about the complete absence of dark-skinned people in Oppenheimer. At the same time, the film also contains a number of black actors and actresses, whose names are not always reflected even on IMDb. They starred students at lectures, workersservicing personnel and spectators of public performances.
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Cover photo: Oppenheimer movie poster / Universal Pictures
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