Oppenheimer: Why Luis Alvarez Looks So Familiar
The ensemble cast of writer-director Christopher Nolan's historical epic "Oppenheimer" is about as star-studded as it gets, as the film features such esteemed actors as Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and Kenneth Branagh, among many others. And while the three-hour film features ample time for the lead actors to establish their characters, there are many key supporting players who help Nolan round out J. Robert Oppenheimer's (Murphy) story and how the theoretical physicist and his team of scientists developed the atomic bomb as a means to end World War II.
Among the supporting actors in "Oppenheimer" is Alex Wolff. The actor plays Luis Alverez, an experimental physicist who joins Oppenheimer in his work on the Manhattan Project, an ambitious government initiative that yielded America's first nuclear weapons.
While Wolff has a youthful appearance, he is hardly a fresh face in Hollywood. In fact, the actor has starred in nearly 40 screen projects since he kicked off his career in 2005 in a hit kids' movie that turned into a popular cable show. Here's why Wolff may look familiar to viewers.
Alex Wolff teamed with his brother Nat for Nickelodeon's Naked Brothers Band movie and series
The son of "Thirtysomething" actor Polly Draper and her jazz musician husband Michael Wolff, Alex Wolff was just shy of 8 years old when he starred in his first film. Along with his brother, Nat Wolff, Alex Wolff was at the center of Nickelodeon's "The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie," a mockumentary of sorts directed by Draper,
The Wolff brothers play Nat and Alex, a pair of young musicians who are navigating the road to fame. Rounding out the family's involvement in the film is Michael Wolff, who plays the boys' widowed father.
Thanks to the success of "The Naked Brothers Band: The Movie," the Wolffs kept rocking for another three years in "The Naked Brothers Band" series on Nickelodeon, which produced 42 episodes over three seasons from 2007 to 2009. Like she was in the movie version of "The Naked Brothers Band," Draper remained involved in the series as the show's co-creator and head writer, while Michael Wolff reprised his role as his real-life sons' dad.
Comedy was the name of the game for Wolff in the Jumanji movies
Not long after a more dramatic turn in 2016's "Patriots Day," Alex Wolff returned to comedy in the 2017 film "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," a remake-slash-reboot of the original "Jumanji" movie starring Robin Williams in 1995.
The remake updates the core plot device in the original movie — a board game named "Jumanji" — to a video game console, where four teens are absorbed into the game and convert each of them into their chosen avatars in the game's jungle setting. Wolff plays the real-life version of Spencer, who materializes in the game as a tall and very muscular avatar (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) in the jungle environment.
Wolff reprised his role of Spencer in the film's 2019 sequel "Jumanji: The Next Level," and is certainly game to appear in another "Jumanji" film if the filmmakers will have him. "I certainly haven't gotten the call yet. So maybe they're recasting me, who knows, but I hope to be in the next one because I loved doing those movies," Wolff told Looper in an exclusive interview.
Wolff says Hereditary did 'some gymnastics on my emotional well-being'
Showing that he was game to play in any genre, Alex Wolff took on the role of Peter, a tormented teen responsible for the accidental death of his younger sister, Charlie (Milly Shapiro), in the 2018 supernatural horror thriller "Hereditary."
Written and directed by "Midsommar" filmmaker Ari Aster, "Hereditary" deeply affected Wolff in real life. In fact, Wolff revealed that he was never the same after filming "Hereditary," telling Looper in an exclusive interview, "I'll tell you that movie did about as much damage to me as a movie can do."
In an effort to avoid any sense that he was seeking pity, Wolff further described the repercussions of acting in the film. "It's very hard because as an actor, you really don't want to sound pretentious or self-serious or like anything is too serious," Wolff told Looper. "Because we have a cushy job in a lot of ways, but this, emotionally, it was one of those tough ones, it was one of those ones that really did some gymnastics on my emotional well-being."
The indie drama Pig teamed Wolff with Nicolas Cage
In 2021, Alex Wolff starred opposite Oscar winner Nicolas Cage in "Pig," an indie film drama with the titular animal at the center of the storyline. Cage plays Rob, a recluse in the Oregon countryside who recruits his businessman buddy Amir (Wolff) to help find his beloved, truffle-hunting pig after the animal is kidnapped. While searching for clues, Amir begins to put together the shattered pieces behind Rob's mysterious existence before he moved off the grid.
While Wolff reveled in his work with Cage, he admits he was challenged by the venerable actor's methods. Discussing the film with Looper, Wolff revealed his most uncomfortable scene with Cage came when his dialogue with his co-star was met with stretches of silence. "You know, it ups your game, but it's very hard. It's hard. It's hard to keep talking and have someone not talk to you, but I think it ends up serving you," Wolff said.
"What you feel as an actor, like, 'Oh my God, am I doing okay?' really serves a character," he continued. "Because anybody who keeps talking and someone's not talking, they usually then start to spiral and get a little nervous, and insecure out of this. There's no one who gives the other person silence. Imagine if you asked me a question and I just looked at you. I think you'd nervously start to rephrase the question. So, I think that's how it was a little bit, but really fun."
Wolff grew up fast in Shyalmalan's Old
Following his first opportunity to appear alongside Nicolas Cage in "Pig" in 2021, Alex Wolff got to work with another legend, nabbing a role in writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's frightening mystery thriller "Old."
Wolff plays the 15-year-old version of Trent Cappa, the son of a fractured family whose members all begin to age rapidly while visiting a remote beach at a tropical resort. Trent begins the film as a 6-year-old (Nolan River) before time mysteriously speeds up and results in all of them quickly aging. Luca Faustino Rodriguez plays Trent at age 11 before Wolff's scenes as a 15-year-old, and Emun Elliott eventually assumes the role of the adult Trent.
Wolff told Looper that he was not only thrilled for the chance to work with Shyamalan for the first time, but also for the chance to participate in a story by the filmmaker that can't really be defined. "He's such an unbelievable visionary and I think what makes this movie so special is that it's actually not a horror movie really, by any stretch of the imagination," he explained. "It maybe has echoes of scary films in the past, but it's really more along the lines of 'Images' by Robert Altman or a weird 'Through a Glass Darkly,' or 'Persona,' or some [Ingmar] Bergman late Swedish movie. It's just very out there and experimental."