Yahoo News Christopher Nolan Explains Why He Doesn’t Have a Smartphone: ‘It’s About the Level of Distraction’
“I do a lot of my best thinking in those kind of in-between moments that people now fill with online activity, so it benefits me," the director previously told PEOPLE
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Christopher Nolan won’t let anything distract him from his films — especially a smartphone.
The Oppenheimer director, 52, revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he is pretty much unplugged when it comes to communication, by not carrying a smartphone or using email.
He also told the publication that he writes the scripts for his films on a computer that doesn’t have an internet connection.
“My kids would probably say I’m a complete Luddite,” Nolan said, using the term for a person opposed to using new technology.
Related: Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer': Everything to Know
However, he noted to THR that he “would actually resist that description." And while he thinks “technology and what it can provide is amazing,” the Oscar nominee actually has a good reason for staying off a smartphone.
“My personal choice is about how involved I get,” he explained. “It’s about the level of distraction. If I’m generating my material and writing my own scripts, being on a smartphone all day wouldn’t be very useful for me.”
PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive / Alamy
Christopher Nolan and Kenneth Branagh on the set of "Dunkirk"Nolan previously told PEOPLE in 2020 that he uses a flip phone that he takes with him “from time to time” and that staying unplugged is beneficial to his art.
“I'm easily distractible so I don't really want to have access to the internet every time when I'm bored,” he said. “I do a lot of my best thinking in those kind of in-between moments that people now fill with online activity, so it benefits me.”
The Dark Knight filmmaker also explained his aversion to contacting people through the email, saying that he has “never been particularly interested in communicating with people in that way. I just calling people from a landline.”
He added, “I mean, everybody finds their own way to communicate with people and deal with things.”
Nolan’s latest film follows J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy), the scientist who famously led the Manhattan Project — the effort to create an atomic bomb during World War II. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography titled American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer and also stars Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh.
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The film hits theaters the same day as Barbie, which also happens to feature a cast member who avoids using smartphones like the director. Michael Cera revealed in PEOPLE's Barbie special issue that he was left out of a cast group chat since he has a flip phone.
"I don’t have an iPhone myself. … I have a flip phone," Cera told PEOPLE. "But I still think I wouldn’t belong on [the group chat] anyway, because [my character] Allan is sort of in his own little world.”
Oppenheimer and Barbie release in theaters on July 21.
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