I would be an eejit not to enjoy Oscars attention!
Spotlight-shy Cillian steps out of his comfort zone to embrace ceremony
OSCAR-nominated actor Cillian Murphy admitted he has struggled with being in the spotlight but will try to enjoy the Academy Awards ceremony next month.
The Cork star has been nominated for Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Oppenheimer and is set to face off Maestro’s Bradley Cooper for the prize.
He has also been nominated for a Bafta for his role in the blockbuster as the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer.
The film received 13 Oscar nods and Cillian has already won a Golden Globe for the role.
Cillian is not usually forthcoming about his private life and has previously spoken about finding red carpets ‘challenging’.
He was asked by Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs yesterday about how he will deal with being out of his comfort zone at the Oscars.
The actor, 47, said: ‘I have struggled with it in the past and, you know, it’s not something I’m ever totally at ease with. But I think you have to, like, choose to enjoy it, and I think you can do that in your brain, just make that alteration, and it’s easier then.
‘I’ll have my wife and my kids with me, and that’s been lovely, and you would be an eejit not to enjoy it. Just go with it, that’s my attitude,’ he added.
He also said that having his wife, the visual artist Yvonne McGuinness, by his side has been ‘crucial’ to feeling grounded as the ‘sort of ancillary aspect of being an actor is quite challenging’.
Cillian said: ‘To have a really secure solid base is important. It’s been really important for me. You have to have that safe place.’
He also admitted he gets ‘ nervous’ doing films more than stage work as there is a record ‘forever’ and you can’t improve on your performance another night.
He said: ‘I found the whole sort of apparatus of film-making – the huge lights and the vans and the trucks and electricians and all the crew and everything – [that] would come to a complete stop and complete silence and then you’re supposed to perform.
‘I found that very, very intimidating when I was younger actor. I think I’ve made my peace with it now, but it was a lot to take on.’ The actor was also in director Nolan’s superhero movie Batman Begins, the science fiction film Inception and the war epic Dunkirk.
Cillian said he has a ‘very close’ colleague-style relationship with Nolan, but they do not ‘hang out
‘I’ll have my wife and kids with me’
and go bowling’. He added: ‘It’s a lovely feeling to walk onto a set and to feel safe, and to also, most importantly, to be able to make an eejit of yourself, to be able to fail, to be able to get it wrong... and I’ve always had that with him.’