Cillian Murphy: The 60 Minutes Interview

2023 was the year the world learned to pronounce Killian, the old Irish name seemed to be on everyone's lips when the Oppenheimer film became a box office hit with 13 Oscar nominations, including best actor for Killian Murphy Murphy has worked non-stop for almost 30 years, but it was the epic atomic bomb drama that ignited a star right now with a Golden Globe under his pork pie hat and the Oscars in 3 weeks Murphy is more famous than Welln, so we set out to learn more, the 47-year-old warned us. The old Irishman is reserved and doesn't talk about himself, but we discover that finding Killian Murphy depends on where you look.

The story will continue in a moment. The Irish Dingle Peninsula was named after a goddess before such things were written down and for 6,000 years stories have passed. Hey, then, if the verse dwells in every Irish soul, then, in a country pub, Killian Murphy is among his peers, as he would consider him just a man with a pint to raise and no fame to endure, what's the meaning of Ireland, oh man, to you? I think I can answer that question satisfactorily. Who I am as a person and my values ​​are defined. It's just home. The household includes his wife of 20 years, two teenage children and Scout.

A lab named after the Mockingbird tequilla character he believes Murphy has always left behind. Stories guide his path. You find so much empathy in novels, you know, because there you put yourself in another person's point of view and I have always been a great reader when a movie can connect with someone and that person feels seen or heard or a novel can change the someone's life or a piece of music, an album can change someone's life and all that has happened to me and that is the power of good art. I think there's a straight line from pub music to Oppenheimer, I think you're from the same Source I mean really I do I don't see I see it's all on a Continuum you know what I mean it's just a form of expression expression in the eyes of J.

Robert Oppenheimer the physicist who created the atomic bomb but they never controlled it, they detonated too high in the air, the explosion will not be as powerful, regarding Dr. Oppenheimer, we will take it from here. I remember reading at first about it that it was more of a riddle than an answer and I thought, oh, okay, wow, that's it. That's interesting, I'm curious about your notes. The puzzle was in this script by writer-director Christopher Nolan printed in red, so it couldn't be photocopied. I really thought it was one of the best scripts he had ever read and you told him that I.

I will I mean, I said I would before I read it. It's always a big risk. Why would you do that? It's always been worth it to me. You know, every movie I've worked on with him, I don't. going back I'm not going back there have been six Chris Nolan movies for Murphy Dunkirk Inception and three Batman titles would you like to see my mask you told me that making a movie and seeing it is a miracle, it is and then it's good anyway It's a miracle and then if it connects with the audience it's a miracle then it's a miracle about Miracle about miracle to have a movie like Oppenheimer really is his op himer it wasn't so much a miracle but a hard work that he lost He weighed 28 pounds to get the silhouette and He then ascended the character step by step over six months reading, listening to Oppenheimer's lectures, and logging miles on the beach Performing for the Explorers.

I remember at one point saying to Chris Chris, there seems to be um, he seems to speak Dutch here and I think he's giving a lecture in Dutch here. What we do about it? and Chris said, you mean what are you going to do about it? What is he saying? Murphy says he put everything he learned in the back of his mind and acted on instinct. I think instinct is the most powerful tool you have as an actor, nothing should be predetermined therefore you shouldn't have a plan for how you are going to play things and I love that it's like being hit by the wind and being cushioned by the emotion you can't commit the sin and then I felt sorry for you Emily Blunt plays Oppenheimer's tormented wife you recover it's very visceral to be in a scene with you it's like he transports you He will kidnap you in a scene.

My favorite acting moment in Oppenheimer is the scene after the bomb is dropped and he addresses all the people in Los Alamos in the world. Remember this day. It kind of ties together the concept of being proud. of what they did, yes, and deeply regretting it, yes, all at the same time. I know it's too early to determine what the results of the bombing are, but I bet the Japanese didn't like it at all. It's one thing and if you're as agile as someone like Killian and as vulnerable and smart you can play it all, but I don't know if many people can do what he does.

Killian Murphy discovered agility in his mother's hometown of Cork. He was a teacher, his father a school inspector in high school, Murphy and his brother had a band playing, they took him to acting classes and his first play, this is more like the size of a warehouse than a theater, yeah, but that's the only thing we were used to. theater 1996 20 years old the play was disco pigs which grew to larger theaters and became a film why did you think you could be an actor? I don't. I felt very comfortable on stage in front of an audience since I was little.

I had never done it. Any nerves doing that felt natural, you know, and exciting in this theater, what did you learn about acting? There's a fire escape door right there and that's kind of an alley there, so you get a lot of drunk guys out of their minds. hitting the fire escape door and it's used to give us energy, so I remember learning to take whatever you have, respond to whatever energy is in the room and use it, that's really good training, yeah, keep your character with the drunk guy screaming through the fire escape door, yeah, yeah, me and me and I think theater is such an absurd enterprise when you think about it, you know, because at any moment I could collapse and walk out wrong, it's dangerous, yes, and I love that aspect, yes. that love led him to leave law school and since then there have been a dozen plays and 40 films.

I love when it becomes an immersive experience. I love getting lost in it in the early days, with theater, it felt extraordinary. that with just the power of will and a couple of lights and a good script we were creating this world, so it's kind of addictive when it works well. He performed well in 2013 in a prominent role as the protagonist of the series Peaky. Blinders Murphy stars as Thomas Shelby, who survives World War I to lead a family of gangsters. You are mainly in war, so you know that battle plans always change and rise well.

They're all damaged and broken men, but something hit him and He came back with this incredible drive and ambition and like he's not afraid of death, so now I can do whatever he wants in Tommy Shelby. You created a sympathetic monster you can relate to, kill and kill, the only way my people will listen. I like to be challenged. and when I read something, I want to go. I really don't know how I can do it. In 10 years of Peaky Blinders, Murphy came into his own. I heard very early in my career that a director was one of the Sydneys who could. have been Sydney, doesn't matter, could have been Sydney poock, but one of them said it takes 30 years to become an actor, it's not just technique and experience and all that, it's maturing as a human being and, uh, trying to cope to life and figure it out and all that stuff so that when you've been doing it for 30 years you've hopefully accumulated all that and over time I think you'll get to a point where you could be a Okay, actor, growing up is the theme of Murphy's upcoming film based on the novel.

Little things like these. He plays Bill Furlong, tormented by injustice. His wife fears that his empathy will ruin his life. Don't you have any questions like you want to move on? There are things in this life you should ignore That's Eileene Walsh No actor has known Murphy for long She was his first partner in Disco Pigs 28 years ago Is his work ethic rooted in fear or joy? Oh, that's a good question. I think it can only be Joy. but sometimes it takes a lot of pain to get to that joy, the deeper we go into acting the greater the cost to us and physically I know it has cost Oppenheimer the weight loss he insisted on and you know it was his decision to do it . but it was the right choice to create that incredible silhouette, but from the beginning, our disco pig warm-ups involved us punching each other pretty hard and wanting to go for it and then bursting into her this huge ball of speed that came in It was the beginning of an Oppenheimer, it was all the kind of atom of us Now, after three decades of work, Killian Murphy appears in the most familiar Irish legend of all, maybe there is gold, a 24-karat gold-plated statue at end of his talent spectrum, you've ruined this even though you know the way you used to be an actor, yeah, and now you're a movie star, oh, okay, I think you could be both, you know, I've never understood that term, really star cinema.

I have always felt like an actor. I think it's a term for other people and not for me.