The Top 10 Supporting Character Performances In ‘Oppenheimer’

As you enter your 30s, Christmas presents become more functional and less fun. That’s just a fact of life. And that’s also okay! Who doesn’t love getting a new tool for the kitchen or a comfy new pair of sweats?

This 30-year-old, being both a movie fan and professional film content creator/interviewer/meme-maker etc., modestly asked for Oppenheimer on 4K when my sister asked me what I wanted for the holidays, as I had begun building up my physical media collection at the start of 2023.

And now that Oppenheimer *is* in my possession, I’ve watched it three different times since December 25 and have been equally enthralled by it every single time.

With what might prove to be Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus having been in the world since July, there’s been plenty written and said about its excellence, likely by people far smarter than I. So I’m not here to dissect the psychology of Oppie trying to poison his professor like the Evil Queen in Snow White, but rather rank the performances of the supporting actors, of which you seem to notice a new one every time you watch.

On my latest viewing, for example, I discovered that the guy who played Oppenheimer’s lawyer is Macon Blair, the director of the recent Toxic Avengers remake, thus inspiring this article.

Now, to be clear before we get started, the following actors are disqualified from this list because while they may not be the lead actors, they’re still A-listers and are therefore still the “stars” of the movie: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, and Matt Damon.

Ranking the Top 10 supporting character performances in Oppenheimer

10. Rami Malek as David L. Hill

“But I believe that much I have to say will help to indicate why most of the scientists in this country would prefer to see Mr. Strauss completely out of government.”

Part of what makes Christopher Nolan so brilliant is he uses his actors to subvert audience expectations. Remember when Matt Damon popped up in Interstellar? You likely thought, “Well, thank god, Matt Damon is here!” *But actually*, he’s a scumbag. That’s the mastery of Nolan and he did the same thing again in Oppenheimer with Rami Malek.

Malek, with his famously mischievous appearance, spends most of the film in the background, lurking around like you’d expect someone who looks like Rami Malek to. Until he doesn’t.

When Malek’s David Hill steps up to the mic to testify in the third act, Nolan successfully uses Malek’s general creepiness to surprise you with the revelation that he’s been keeping a watchful eye on Lewis Strauss this entire time, ultimately delivering the death blow to his cabinet nomination.

9. James Remar as Henry L. Stimson

“I’ve taken Kyoto off the list due to its cultural significance to the Japanese people. Also, my wife and I honeymooned there. It’s a magnificent city.”

It’s not easy to deliver a line that’s meant to be both horrifying and slightly comedic at the same time, yet Remar does exactly that with the above Kyoto line. He also convincingly takes command of a room that’s made up of the United States’ most powerful people.

8. Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence

“Theory will take you only so far.”

7. Benny Safdie as Edward Teller

“Until someone builds a bigger bomb…”

6. Tom Conti as Albert Einstein

“When they’ve punished you enough, they’ll serve you salmon and potato salad, make speeches, give you a medal, and pat you on the back telling you all is forgiven. Just remember, it won’t be for you… it would be for them.”

As people who’ve seen The Iron Claw will tell you about the Ric Flair cameo, playing a figure so singularly iconic is a narrow needle to thread, but Conti pulls off playing Albert Einstein as a man who may not be as intellectually sharp as he once was but as morally wise as he’s ever been.

5. Casey Affleck as Boris Pash

“Instead of us going on certain steps, which may come to your attention and be disturbing to you, I’d like to discuss those with you first.”

While only in one scene, Casey Affleck reminds everyone why he’s an Oscar winner with the terrifying stillness he brings to Colonel Boris Pash, who he portrays as a serial killer with a fixation on Communists. 

4. Alden Ehrenreich as a Senate aide to Lewis Strauss

“Is it possible they talked about something more… important?”

3. Jason Clarke as Roger Robb

“Are there two kinds of Communists? An intellectual Communist and a plain ordinary Commie?”

Depending on who you ask (me), the third act of Oppenheimer is the strongest as the back-and-forth between Oppenheimer and Clarke’s Roger Robb reaches its crescendo. 

2. Gary Oldman as Harry S. Truman

“Hiroshima isn’t about you.”

Similar to James Remar, the Academy Award-winning Oldman shows up for a singular scene in which the text of his dialogue is comedic but the subtext of it is horrifying. 

1. David Krumholtz as Isidor Isaac Rabi

“You drop a bomb, and it falls on the just and the unjust. I don’t wish the culmination of three centuries of physics to be a weapon of mass destruction.”

Isidor Isaac Rabi is not only perhaps Oppenheimer’s greatest ally other than his wife, but he’s also the moral compass of the film, thus allowing David Krumholtz to play the character with a heavy dose of empathy and understanding, which is something that the cold, calculating world that Oppenheimer inhabits sorely needs.