Florence Pugh’s Oppenheimer nude scene receives major edit for conservative countries including the Middle East and India

Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock and Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer. Photo / Supplied

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer has been a popular topic of conversation recently, but one scene, in particular, is raising eyebrows.

Screenshots of the Christopher Nolan-directed film have been circulating on social media showing a big change to Florence Pugh’s nude scene.

Pugh, who plays Jean Tatlock, the lover of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s - played by Cillian Murphy – originally sits topless in a hotel room chair while she and the physicist have a conversation about their affair, however an edit of the film airing in conservative countries in the Middle East and India, doesn’t show this.

Instead, countries with strict rules around nudity and sex on screen, see a highly censored version in which Pugh appears to be wearing a -CGI-created black dress.

The censored shot of Florence Pugh in Oppenhiemer.

According to Variety, it is not unusual for films to receive edits in more conservative countries. If they don’t receive edits, they risk being banned from the market as seen with recent Disney films West Side Story and Eternals, when Disney refused to edit out the LGBTQ+ characters for Middle Eastern audiences.

Despite the conservative edit, Kiwi audiences are being shown the uncensored version of the film resulting in an M rating due to “Sex scenes, offensive language, nudity and suicide” according to Event Cinemas.

The historical drama about the “father of the atomic bomb” has become a box office success after beating its estimated US$80.5 million ($129.3 million) projection, ultimately coming in at US$82.4 million ($132.4 million) at the box office in its opening weekend.

Internationally, it made US$180 million ($289.3 million) and landed the title of the biggest number two opening weekend ever for a film directed by Nolan – his earlier film The Dark Knight Rises made US$131 million ($210.5 million) in its opening weekend.

Oppenheimer’s release on July 20 coincided with Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated film Barbie which overtook the drama at the box office after making more than US$300 million ($486m) in ticket sales around the world, according to Deadline.

It quickly became the biggest film debut of 2023 - surpassing every Marvel film released this year as well as the hugely popular The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The film also broke the first weekend record for a female-directed film, as well as becoming the second-highest grossing film from a female director worldwide and the highest-grossing film directed by a woman in the US.