Cillian Murphy Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

you never know what makes a show successful if you could identify the ingredients and separate them then you'd be a genius but no one nobody knows it's a combination of factors it's great actors great writing great directors great producers we've been very lucky disco pigs i had done the play disco pigs that was my first ever job and then three years later they made a movie of the play and i played that character and it wasn't the first film i'd done but it was the first film i did i suppose that people took any notice of and i have a lot of affection for that character because it was the first role i ever played professionally i think it's an exploration of it of a highly dysfunctional relationship you know between these kids who are not yet adults really there's it's their 17th birthday and the relationship had been platonic until then and he obviously wants to make it something else and and i think it spins him off into some sort of a breakdown we never really pathologized it because we didn't want to reduce what the character was going through to that but uh yeah he's he's kind of bereft by the other character runt leaving him and uh it sends them into this spiral of kind of of of sort of violence and self-destruction really [Music] i'm over mr crabby boys it's very sad at the ending because he he acquiesces to his own death because i think he knows that he will only set her free through his own demise [Music] it's very sad and beautiful and yeah we shot on a beach around here actually but it's beautifully observed piece of writing in the theater by ender walsh and uh and i think we made a good stab at it as a film you know 28 days later in 28 days later i think danny boyle had seen disco pigs and i think that's why when i got the the audition or it was like one of five auditions i i think he put me through about five auditions for that i mean i'd been you know shallow grave and trainspotting were two definitive films for me growing up i you know before i ever wanted contemplated becoming an actor those two films were highly significant for me and you know danny is you know one of the best directors in the world so it was a huge thing for me to get that role he's got an amazing energy it's kind of infectious uh how enthusiastic he is about every aspect of making a film you know he's totally in love with uh the process of filmmaking and um he never sits down he knows everyone's name he's an incredibly uh thoughtful director and the notes that he gives are they can change your whole performance you know and he really pushed me on that film because i hadn't hadn't done much film acting at that stage and we shot it in the summer of uh 2001 so we'd go out really really really early like four in the morning just pre-dawn and then just as it was the dawn was breaking they would ask people to stop walking and then the art department would run in and just dress it really really quickly [Music] and then cameras all over all over the place but there were these domestic cameras with the little remember the ones with the little tiny little cartridges it was before hd or anything like that tv good old days of tv and uh so everyone could shoot them and they just had loads and loads of footage and we got it like kind of miraculously we got this footage and i think maybe they painted out like lights or stuff but it's all in camera you know that character reaches this place where he he goes from this sort of like very benign terrified bike courier to this sort of vengeful kind of um you know a man who's not afraid to take life and and i think it's because he realizes that this the future that he has rests with these two women and he has to protect them in order to survive [Music] it was a uh it was a a prosthetic prosthetic head i think they used like light cheese for the eyes or something like that maybe they didn't but i like to remember that fact it's a brilliant script by alex garden you know when you put an ordinary man in this extraordinary situation how do you react that's why i think why people identify with the movie because it was like a reimagining of the zombie genre but also a kind of a an examination of of what what what what would one do in that sort of scenario and he is fight or flight thing batman trilogy batman begins dark night dark knight rises i'd seen chris's movies um prior to batman begins and i was a huge fan of them you know following and memento about 10 of us went up for batman and i i was aware that i was clearly not the right material for batman i didn't think so i did a screen test in the whole suit and everything and uh but chris said there might be another part so so we met and we chatted uh and and and i and i and i ended up playing scarecrow in the end yeah he's here oh the batman he's one of the oldest villains in the in the series so they gave me some one of some of the early very early comics which i read even though it's huge you know big studio picture big studio production it's only chris his cameraman and the first lady who are around when you're shooting it's a very private very calm very quiet set there's no monitors there's no video villages none of that stuff and so even though it's a huge movie it feels like a an independent film and i've always felt that the only difference between those films is the resources you have and it's how you utilize the resources so chris is very confident in delivering scale but also he concentrates very much on performance and with that character we wanted to show the two he's supposed to be this sort of a psychiatrist working in an asylum and he's you know quite amenable and clever and all of that yeah dr crane i can't take it anymore it's all too much the walls are closing in blah blah blah a couple of days of this food it'll be true what do you want i want to know how you're going to convince me to keep my mouth shut about what you don't know anything and then he's this this other sort of uh you know this i guess he's there he's a comic book villain would you like to see my mask i use it in my experiments i'm probably not very frightening to a guy like you with these crazies you can't stand it so when did the nut take over the nut house you could have fun and you could be a bit broad and that was fun for me to do i'd never done anything like that i didn't expect to be expect to come back it was wonderful fun to reprise a character up until that point i'd never reprise a character and uh there was a joke on set that he's just the you know the character that refuses to die he's still alive out there somewhere you are phillips driver executive vice president of dragon industries who for years has been living off the blood and sweat of people less powerful than him i'm i am one of you maine has no authority here this is merely a sentencing hearing no choice is yours exile or death [Applause] it's exciting it's old that one scene chris sent me the script but i deliberately didn't want to read the script i just want to read that one scene because i wanted to see the film and enjoy the film without having read it so i didn't read it so i came in and i didn't know what this was about or what where what context it had or anything like that but i just did the scene death or exile frame if you think we're going out onto that ice willingly you have another thing coming death that looks that way very well death by exile i remember trying to keep it secret i it was so hard trying to keep it secret you know uh people just love a spoiler everyone kept asking i think we kept it secret i don't i can't remember inception chris called me up and said this is that there was a role in there in the script and and he sent me the script and i read it this time and uh it was a challenging read you know it was one of those scripts you had to read several times to figure out the sort of vernacular of it and um and it was challenging making it because just trying to figure out where you are all the time and the structure of the piece but chris had been living with that story i think for about 10 years before he got to make it and to make that sort of a story on that sort of a was was incredible and for it to do so well again as a very very sophisticated and not easy blockbuster you know it just shows you never underestimate your audience you know because the audience are just so clever and will go with you the character you know has this kind of um emotional catharsis in the middle of the film which was very important for the story and very important for me performance-wise and i got to act with pete possibly you know who would have been one of my acting heroes and that sequence and that scene and if you work with actors of that level uh [Music] it's really and with directors of that level you know you you you're expected to to get there i know you were disappointed i couldn't be you no no no i was disappointed how you get there i don't know it's some sort of weird alchemy but it happens and then we and we got there and you know it also took we took our time with it because it needed to have that emotional wallop to it for everything else to make sense so that was a good day [Music] [Music] [Music] again with chris you know it's predominantly in camera he's he's very reluctant to use cgi unless entirely essential um so that's why i think his films are so visceral and so such such kind of honesty to them and because most of the stuff you're seeing actually happened to me um i'm sorry who did you say you were brought green from marketing that's not true at all isn't my name is mr charles you remember me don't you i'm the head of your security down here that was my first day on set actually i remember that was my first day on saturday remember the water in the glass tilts like that you feel that you've actually been trained for this mr fisher pay attention to the strangeness of the weather in order to achieve that effect that built a whole the whole bar was on a gimbal that just went so it wasn't again no cgi so they built this huge huge set and we came on and did the scene and then the set just tilted as stuff went crazy but that's the the amount of planning and um thought that went into that whole film to every set every shot every sequence that's the brilliance of chris nolan's imagination you know he it's kind of staggering that that all came from his brain you know [Music] when it shakes the party held a great responsibility again with that film you know i i auditioned for ken loach like four or five times they're very rigorous um auditions and a lot of uh improvisations and obviously i knew about that period of history but not in depth not to the extent that uh i subsequently learned about it ken has got a great relationship with with can they they rightfully adore his films and uh i mean he's he's again a master of cinema you know master of world cinema so yeah it was a great privilege to play a part like that as an irishman and then also as an actor to work with ken lodge he was all shot around you know cork where i'm from in the summer time it was and it was a beautiful summer it's beautifully composed shots just of the landscape and these these men in the landscape and uh and all of the stories in the script are based on real life events and real-life characters but they're kind of amalgamations of those events and characters can you tell me father how there can be a fair election in this country when the most powerful country in the world threatens war this is not the will of the people it is the fear of the people how dare you talk to me in the house of god silence damn you though donovan you are a disgrace to the memory of your parents yes get out i don't think it had been really dealt with the war of independence in the civil war uh cinematically like that generations of families in ireland went to see that film and i am very very very proud of it and sort of the message of the film dunkirk chris called me up and he said he was making this film and uh that it was about dunkirk and then he sent me the script the character doesn't have a name the character is called shivering soldier but i think that um what the character represents is all of those men that came back from that conflict you know mentally destroyed so i felt a great sort of sense of responsibility to portray the character sensitively and uh i did a lot of reading about it i've played sort of characters with ptsd a couple of times so i'm sort of familiar with it but all the veterans that went to see that film er thought the whole film was very very truthful and very representative of what sort of happened you know do you want to come below it's much warmer set up to win even even big george you feel safer on deck you would too if you've been bombed you both it wasn't warm it wasn't warm but uh you know i loved in that stuff that stuff is great uh and again like the the hull of the ship that i've they they find me on that actually built all of that so and it was it was like these breakers coming over it and uh you're stood there i think i was on a wire or something but you're in the middle of the ocean sit on this thing and it's very very real and then you have to dive off and swim to the boat and that's the way chris gets you to that place because you're experiencing it so therefore you know that does a lot of the work for you in terms of the performance and it was yeah it was just a pleasure to work you know with uh like barry kilgan and mark rylance and that that level of of actor again on on chris's films speaking i think everyone that read it at the beginning knew that it was a different level of television script writing but none of us could have predicted that it it would connect with people in such a sort of strong way and that like the fans are really really really loyal and and we're all really really proud i mean steve knight is a phenomenal writer and i think he you know he's just he said to me once that writing the scripts for peaky blinders it's like it comes out of him like spring water do you know what i mean because he's from birmingham these are stories that he was told as a kid so uh this it comes from a place of truth for him at the same time it's a highly um it's highly stylized and heightened you know the the whole sort of look of the show costumes and the haircut and the caps and there and the music it's it's it's had a life of its own and people identify with it you know it's delicate mr shelby concerns the factory down the road it's bsa rumors get started rumors that there was a robbery no believe what speak i asked with petrol engines so that's why they said from belfast maybe maybe not thomas you're a bookmaker a robber a fighting man you're not a fool you sell those things to anyone you will have part of the reason the show has been successful is that it's it was a world that hadn't been explored before you know in america sort of the the gangster genre or the sort of story of you know immigrants i.e cowboys you know or you know the italians in in scorsese you know like that's been explored and mythologized so effectively over deck for decades whereas in britain speaking as an irish man in britain like that hasn't been explored so much and then that world that industrial world of birmingham it was the sort of center of manufacturing it was in in in britain and in europe at the time so yeah it was like and the sound design of it is very important as well as just heavy industry happening everywhere you know and those furnaces would have been going off like that everywhere so but also it's visually really appealing [Music] he has this uh very funny relationship with mortality tommy and because i think the stuff that he witnessed in france in the trenches you know would changed him and there are things that neither you or i could ever imagine and uh it was the worst job in the in the army at that time being they called them clay kickers it was the worst job they would you know they would they would tunnel down in these in these um tunnels the size of their body and uh they would pass the earth back and they would obviously the tunnels would collapse very often and then they would sometimes they'd be tunneling parallel to the to the germans you know and they would and they would break through and have these fights and there was like hand-to-hand combat and so to come out of that like tommy comes out of that and has decorated and saved lives and done all those things so you can see why other veterans of the war would have respect for him i think what makes him such a dangerous adversary is that he is unafraid to die and i think ultimately death to him might seem like some sort of release at some point in the near future mr churchill will want to speak to you in person mr shelby he has a job for you we will be in touch get out of the grave tinker be on your way people bring that scene up a lot as their favorite scene of the show it's a brilliantly brilliantly uh written scene brilliantly shot scene and i remember reading it and going i don't well that's it he's dead i mean how is he going to get out of this he's he's he's clearly dead and no one predicts this sort of twist in it who hasn't seen it before and they and uh yeah we really spent a lot of time making that and shooting it and and i think because he's so close to death that he almost welcomes it and then when he survives it's like i have to keep going i have to keep going and it was a turning point in his his development as a character i think i've played him now for five this will be the fifth series so it's a um like i said about reprising characters i've never done that before but i have these roles that are extraordinarily written in such great detail and to be able to to go back to them season after scene it's been a real gift for me and i suppose yeah it also it's very personal because people can consume it however they choose you know and blocks in seasons in episodes and you're beamed into their living room so i feel like they have some sort of kinship or ownership or whatever that is stronger than a two-hour performance in a film you know which eventually it goes out of circulation films naturally do whereas television people will discover it and re-watch it and keep re-watching it and it uh and it develops this life of its own which is unpredictable you know breakfast on pluto well i was in love with the book which is written by pat mccabe i had heard that neil jordan was making the film i was going to make the film i was aware that there was a script so i sort of pestered him for an audition and i did a screen test where i kind of glammed up and you know put on makeup and and he liked the screen test and and and we um and eventually gave me the part and we shot the movie and again as a character i have deep deep affection for you know because the character just wants to look pretty and find her mom you know i was born in a small town near the irish border i was left in a basket on a certain doorstep you know her once your real mother [Music] not many people can take the tale of patrick kitten brady kitten after seeing kitten you'll not bring my retreat into this review [Music] it was a great exploration for me you know i mean i had a book as one resource i had the script as another resource and i wanted the character to be feminine as opposed to effeminate i think there's a difference it was a very kind of delicate process it took a long time to get to that sort of physically to that place and also sort of psychologically to that place um but i had a great time making it you know it was a cast of the the sort of who's who of irish film you know and liam neeson and brenda gleason and stephen rayne they're you know actors that i have admired for years and uh it was again a very formative experience for me because it's a big big part and a big challenge and i i had a i had a great time sunshine well i've been look really lucky to recollaborate with certain directors over the over the course of my career and um so so this was also scripted by alex garland and it was danny's next film after 28 days later and uh and like i'd never done a sci-fi thing like that danny had never done a sci-fi thing like that and it was again trying to make a film that was a blockbuster but that was a kind of um that was ticking all the boxes of a blockbuster but that was actually looking at themes a little bit more sophisticated or a little bit more challenging i suppose thematically than your conventional sci-fi blockbuster our sun is dying [Music] mankind faces extinction earth frozen in a solar winter it was very very very technical and it took a long time all of those technical bits particularly the sequence where we're like fixing the shield where we're outside 89 of shield in full sunlight [Music] [Music] go back i'll finish this please i can do this there's a lot of wire work and in those suits and things danny's so visually sort of uh strong in all of his films and we built this huge set and uh they had this massive wall of lights moving towards me and wind machines and all that and i suppose in in the film it's like the character's communion with the sun you know and where it moves into a kind of a transcendental kind of thing or whatever [Music] that that sequence was was great and also just trying to get into that headspace was a great challenge for me you know scientists are really we should listen to scientists question everything you know and that's what those guys do who are kind of like really on the sort of i don't know on the edge of knowledge but i really really enjoyed it again because it was you know a clever and challenging uh mainstream film which is kind of films that i'm attracted to i suppose [Music] you

Channel: GQ

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Keywords: celebrity, iconic, cillian murphy, iconic characters, cillian murphy 2019, cillian murphy interview, cillian murphy gq, cillian murphy iconic characters, cillian murphy characters, cillian murphy movie, cillian murphy movies, cillian murphy scarecrow, cillian murphy batman, cillian murphy 28 days later, cillian murphy dunkirk, cillian murphy inception, cillian murphy peaky blinders, cillian murphy sunshine, cillian murphy disco pigs, cillian murphy show, cillian, gq, gq magazine

Id: hkO8qXCFYWA

Length: 30min 8sec (1808 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 02 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/thebluehippobitch]

Me: holy fuck does Cillian look way different in that second frame.

[u/Glumbot_2]

I know this is not exclusively Peaky Blinders related, but I figured since many people here, including myself, are huge fans of Cillian as an actor in general they'd also enjoy this.

Edit: He starts talking about Peaky Blinders at 18:42 in the video, so if you want to skip ahead go for it.

Edit#2: Here is an article that GQ also wrote about him, a lot of it is about Peaky Blinders, and his personal life as well - https://www.gq.com/story/cillian-murphy-profile

[u/TrilogySoldier]

Thank you for sharing! Extremely interesting!

[u/[deleted]]

Cillian with some scruff?

I approve.

[u/honestliee]

I could listen to him talk all day goddamn.

[u/DIRTBOMB56]

What a guy

[u/SGF93]

Thanks so much for the link! 👍🏻

[u/[deleted]]

What a man.

[u/very_large_bird]

Last time I saw that batman movie was years ago and I only just watched peaky blinders. I didn't even notice they were the same actor.