Christopher Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas were honoured by the King of the United Kingdom for their contributions to film. Nolan, now with an added prefix “Sir”, received a knighthood from King Charles III, while Thomas, a film producer, received a damehood.
Nolan and Thomas have collaborated on several films, namely the Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar, Inception, and, more recently, the Academy Award-winning film Oppenheimer.
After the ceremony, the duo revealed that King Charles told them he liked Oppenheimer, as they received honours at Buckingham Palace. Speaking to the P.A. News Agency, Nolan said, “It was very nice that he knew our work and was aware of it, and, yes, he was hoping that I would take this as encouragement to do more of it.”
Thomas added, “He’d seen Oppenheimer, and he liked it, so that was very gratifying to hear. What I was really thrilled by is the fact that I’ve heard anecdotally since about lots of younger people having their first experience of this story on the big screen, and then delving deeper and doing more of their own research into the events that we portrayed.” The film is a biopic of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, infamously known as the "father of the atomic bomb", for his role in creating the first nuclear weapons during World War II.
When asked what advice he would give future filmmakers, Nolan said, “Find a good partner. We met on the first day of university at UCL and we’ve been making films ever since. The only other useful advice I’ve really thought of is to stick to your guns. If you have something unique to say, just keep at it and try to find an outlet for that.”
Married in 1997, Thomas has been producing Nolan’s films ever since his first feature Memento (1998). Nolan, as a director, is known for blending genres like science-fiction, war, crime, and action with mind-bending twists, ensuring that the audiences are always left guessing.