It’s good to be ambitious and hungry, but you have to work hard
CILLIAN MURPHY has noticed a shift in his approach in recent years. “I’ve got a bit more patient in general,” he says with a short chuckle. “The whole nonsense that surrounds the industry, which can be very trying to any sane person wanting to have a normal life– I used to find that very wearing.”
Firmly an actor’s actor, it’s unlikely you’ll catch Cillian, who turned 40 in May, ducking in for a selfie with Harry Styles (his co-star in new Christopher Nolan movie Dunkirk, due out in 2017) any day soon.
“It’s good to have ambition and hunger and all that, but it’s not about being the best, or having the most money or the biggest trailer,” he reasons. “It’s about trying to really work hard.”
Born in Cork, and originally a law student before the lure of playing in a band and ultimately acting came knocking, solid, fulfilling work has always been Cillian’s professional guiding star, and not the Hollywood lifestyle that comes with it.
Since his stirring performance in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later in 2002, he’s more than proved his mettle, immersing himself in roles as diverse as the unnerving Scarecrow in Batman Begins, a passionate IRA freedom fighter in Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley and, of course, as intimidating Tommy Shelby in BBC hit Peaky Blinders.
After a long spell in London, he’s now settled back in Ireland with his artist wife, and their two sons and black Labrador puppy.
Cillian says he’s constantly asked about career plans. “People always go, ‘Tell us your strategy’. That’s for economists. We don’t have a clue what’s happening next,” says Cillian, looking stylish in a plain button-down blue shirt and jeans, his hair grown back from Tommy Shelby’s brutal do.
“Genuinely, the whole thing has been chaotic, but you obviously have things you want to do and things you know you won’t do – and then life gets in the way and the availability gets in the way. It’s entirely random,” he says of his own path. “Maybe some superstars have it all mapped out, but I’ve never met one that does.”
Unpredictability, though, is part and parcel of acting. “It’s joyous and terrifying and frustrating, but when it works, it’s great,” he says.
“In terms of work and the people you work with, you want to try and better that. Not knowing if you’re going to be able to sustain that level, I worry about that. But you can’t control it.”
What you can control, he says, is the work you say yes to.
“I’m more choosy about the stuff I do,” he admits of getting a little older.
“If I’m going to go away from home and leave the family, it’s got to be worthwhile, so that is different than when you’re a naive, hungry 20-yearold.”
Anthropoid, his next film, more than ticks these boxes.
The thriller tells the little-known but true story of a group of men who lived in occupied Czechoslovakia and were involved in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler’s third-incommand – and the main architect behind the final solution – whose regime of terror earned him the nickname, the ‘Butcher of Prague’.
Knowing Heydrich’s death would be a huge blow to the Germans, the men need to act quickly, all the while knowing any show of resistance would have deadly consequences for them and their loved ones.
Alongside The Fall and Fifty Shades Of Grey star Jamie Dornan, who plays Jan Kubis, Cillian stars as Slovak Josef Gabcik, a fellow soldier from the Czech Army in exile, who is parachuted with Kubis into Czechoslovakia in 1941.
From the outset, the actor was intrigued.
“This film is slightly unconventional or old-fashioned in its storytelling, and that’s something I’m drawn towards,” he explains.
“You get to spend time with the characters before the next set-piece happens. You’re actually invested in them.
“War films work when you can see yourself in that position, and you say to your partner or whoever you’re going to see it with, ‘What would you do if you were in that situation?’
3RED EYE (2005)
Wes Craven thriller where would-be assassin Jackson Rippner (Cillian) needs the help of a hotel manager (Rachel McAdams) – who he’s conveniently seated next to on a routine flight – to kill the head of Homeland Security.