Oxford’s Florence Pugh has recalled the awkward moment a camera broke while she was shooting a sex scene in Oppenheimer.

The 28-year-old actress said the tech mishap derailed an intimate scene between her and co-star Cillian Murphy during filming for the summer box-office movie about the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer.

It forced the stark naked actors to cover their own bodies in front of the crew while waiting for the camera to be fixed, she said.

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Ms Pugh plays Jean Tatlock, with the film showing her affair with theoretical physicist Oppenheimer, played by Oscar-nominated Mr Murphy.

She told the embarrassing tale while speaking on a Universal panel alongside Mr Murphy and Emily Blunt, who plays Kitty Oppenheimer.

"In the middle of our sex scene, the camera broke,” she said, while speaking of her time on set.

"One camera was in the shop being fixed, and (director Christopher Nolan) turned and asked someone 'where is the other camera?'

"So Cillian and I are in this room together, and it's a closed set, so we're both holding our bodies, and this camera surgeon comes into the room and starts doing repairs and I'm like, 'well, this is my moment to learn'.

"So, tell me, 'what's wrong with this camera?'" she jokingly recalled asking as the camera was repaired.

Ms Pugh was born in Oxford and her father Clinton runs two restaurants in Cowley Road.