An Open Letter from Hollywood
on Oppenheimer and Nuclear Weapons

Oppenheimer depicts the origin story of nuclear weapons, the history of the Manhattan Project, and Robert Oppenheimer’s subsequent warnings against an arms race and the development of even more powerful weapons.

Oppenheimer was right to warn us. 

Today, 13,000 nuclear weapons are held by nine countries. Some are 80 times more powerful than the ones that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

As President Kennedy told the United Nations in 1961:

Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet  may no longer be habitable.

Every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. These weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us. 

As artists and advocates, we want to raise our voices to remind people that while Oppenheimer is history, nuclear weapons are not.

At a time of great uncertainty, even one nuclear weapon—on land, in the sea, in the air, or in space—is too many. To protect our families, our communities, and our world, we must demand that global leaders work to make nuclear weapons history—and build a brighter future. 

Please join us—before our luck runs out.

Rosanna Arquette

Jackson Browne

Ellen Burstyn

Yvette Nicole Brown

Alan Cumming

Misha Collins

Michael Douglas

Jane Fonda

Tony Goldwyn

Clark Gregg

Harry Hamlin

Paul Jay

Annie Lennox

Nicholas Meyer

Ellen Mirojnick

Matthew Modine

Julianne Moore

Viggo Mortensen

Graham Nash

Bill Nye

Charles Oppenheimer

Piper Perabo

June Diane Raphael

Lisa Rinna

Peter Sellars

Bobby Shriver

David Slack

Barbra Streisand

Kristen Stewart

Emma Thompson

Lily Tomlin

Christoph Waltz

Bradley Whitford

Mia Wenjen

Janet Zucker

Jerry Zucker

Ernest J. Moniz
Co-chair and CEO, NTI

Sam Nunn
Co-chair, NTI

Ted Turner
Co-chair, NTI

Joan Rohlfing
President and COO, NTI

In the News 

The open letter was published in the Los Angeles Times, Thursday, March 7 to raise public awareness and engagement around the civilization-ending risks posed by today’s nuclear arsenals.

The letter and broader campaign immediately generated widespread news coverage in Variety, The Guardian, Reuters, Billboard, CNN, The Hollywood Reporter, and elsewhere.

Additional artists continue to add their name to our call to #MakeNukesHistory, including Bradley Whitford, Barbra Streisand, Kristen Stewart, and more.