‘Oppenheimer’ director Christopher Nolan says sex scene ‘essential’

Oppenheimer is an explosive movie — and not just because of the bomb.

The hotly anticipated Christopher Nolan blockbuster contains a controversial — and steamy — sex scene, which “The Dark Knight” director was “nervous” to film. 

“Any time you’re challenging yourself to work in areas you haven’t worked in before, you should be appropriately nervous and appropriately careful and planned and prepared,” Nolan, 52, told Insider. 

The dramatic departure from Nolan’s usual style — his films famously avoid sex and nudity — has fans hot and bothered.

“Knowing Nolan he’ll sprinkle a dash of making out with a teaspoon of moaning and call it a day,” one fan snarked on social media.

“I’m worried Christopher Nolan didn’t know what sex is and he had the actors stand naked pressing their thumbs to each others foreheads,” another joked. 

The movie, out July 21, is a biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), “father of the atomic bomb.”

The supporting cast is a who’s who of famous faces, including Matt Damon (who broke a promise to his wife in order to appear in the film), Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt. 

Christopher Nolan’s movies are seen by some as cold and sterile. Female characters are often a remote presence on the outskirts of the story. Nolan’s Batman and Joker were both chaste. Tom Hardy’s smirking dream thief character in “Inception” kept his clothes on. 

The science-y biopic seems a less than sexy choice for the director’s first, reportedly “prolonged” steamy scene, which happens between Murphy’s Oppenheimer and lover/physician Jean Tatlock (Pugh). Their affair continues even after he marries Kitty (Blunt). 

Early reviews from critics are calling the the film “sensual.” The Post’s Johnny Oleksinski called it “a movie that makes you say “Oh, my God” over and over again.”

Nolan told reporters that it would have been impossible to tell the story without the sex.

““When you look at Oppenheimer’s life and you look at his story, that aspect of his life, the aspect of his sexuality, his way with women, the charm that he exuded, it’s an essential part of his story,” the “Interstellar” director said. 

“It felt very important to understand their relationship and to really see inside it and understand what made it tick without being coy or allusive about it — but to try to be intimate, to try and be in there with him and fully understand the relationship that was so important to him.”