Cillian Murphy

At 48 years old, Cillian Murphy has this physical status:

Career

Murphy coerced Pat Kiernan until he landed an audition at Corcadorca Theatre Company, and he made his professional acting debut on stage in September 1996, playing a tumultuous Cork teenager in Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs. "There was something about him," Walsh remembered as he walked into a room with full presence, and "My God." It had nothing to do with the bloody eyes that everyone is talking about all the time. "I was cocky and had nothing to lose," Murphy said, and it fit the role. Originally intended to run for three weeks in Cork, Disco Pigs ended up touring through Europe, Canada, and Australia for two years, and Murphy left both university and band. Despite being determined to return to playing music, he gained fame after his first agent saw a live action of Disco Pigs, and his film career began to flourish.

He appeared in many other theatre productions, including Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1998), The Country Boy (1998), and Juno and the Paycock (both 1999). He appeared in independent films such as On the Edge (2001) and Short Films, including Filleann (2000) and Watchmen (2001). He reprised his role in the film adaptation of Disco Pigs (2001) and appeared in the BBC television mini-series version of The Way We Live Now. During this time, he went from Cork to Dublin first for a few years, then to London in 2001.

Murphy appeared in Adam in Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things at the Gate Theatre in Dublin in 2002. Fintan O'Toole, a writer for The Irish Times, lauded Murphy's work: "Murphy measures out his metamorphosis with an amazing subtlety and intelligence."

Danny Boyle's horror film 28 Days Later (2002) had him in the lead role. After awakening from a coma in a London hospital, pandemic survivor Jim, who is "perplexed to find himself alone in the desolate, post-apocalyptic world," he portrayed pandemic survivor Jim. After being impressed with his role in Disco Pigs, casting director Gail Stevens suggested that Boyle audition Murphy for the role. Stevens claimed that it was only after seeing his slim physique during filming that they decided to have him fully nude at the start of the film. Murphy was shy on camera with a tendency to lean slightly away from the camera, but she was enthused that he had a "dreamy, barely de-energised floating quality that is wonderful for the film," she said. Murphy was released in the United Kingdom in late 2002 and a hit in North America and a worldwide success, bringing Murphy to a large audience for the first time. At the 8th Empire Awards and Breakthrough Male Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards, his performance earned him a nomination for Best Newcomer and Breakthrough Male Performance. Murphy said he found the film to be much deeper than a zombie or horror film, expressing surprise at the film's success and that American audiences responded well to its message and violence. "The film did so well," Murphy said. And now you watch zombie videos; we were the first ones to run zombies, and [that] changed everything. The film has a special place in my heart."

In 2003, he appeared in Konstantine in a stage production of Chekhov's The Seagull at the Edinburgh International Festival. Murphy said he wanted to play Kontastine because the story "goes on this amazing journey through the play"; "he comes to the conclusion that finding new forms has to have something to do."

In Intermission (2003), he appeared as a lovelorn, hapless supermarket stocker plotting a bank heist, which became Ireland's highest-grossing independent film (until The Wind That Shakes the Barley broken the record in 2006). Sarah Lyall of the International Herald Tribune talked about Murphy's "fluent ease to the roles he takes on, a graceful and utterly believable intensity to his portrayals in 28 Days Later and the "sad-sack Dublin shelf-stacker" in Intermission. People rated him as Ireland's next Colin Farrell, but one who seems less likely to be caught gossiping around or brawling inebriation at premieres," his delicate good looks have, as well as his acting prowess. In the popular Hollywood period drama Cold Mountain (2003), he played a small supporting role. He portrayed a deserting soldier who appears in a horrific scene with Jude Law's story, but he was only on vacation in Romania for a week. Murphy remarking that it was the quietest director he'd ever encountered, remarking that director Anthony Minghella was the calmest director he'd ever met. Murphy also appeared in Girl as a butcher in a Pearl Earring (2003) with Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth.

He toured Ireland with the Druid Theatre Company in 2004 (playing Christy Mahon) under Garry Hynes' direction, who had previously directed Murphy in the theatre performances of Juno and the Paycock, as well as in The Country Boy.

In Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005), Murphy appeared as Dr. Jonathan Crane. Murphy never thought he'd be able to portray Bruce Wayne/Batman, but jumped at the opportunity to work with director Nolan when he first saw him. Despite being led by Christian Bale, Nolan was so impressed with Murphy that he gave him the supporting role of Dr. Crane, whose alter ego is Scarecrow. "He has the most extraordinary eyes, and I kept on inventing excuses for him to take his glasses off in close-ups," Nolan told Spin magazine. In Wes Craven's thriller, Red Eye (2005), Jackson Rippner terrorizes Rachel McAdams on an overnight flight. Murphy made "a picture-perfect villain" in the New York Times, according to Manohla Dargis, who says his "baby blues look cool enough to freeze water and his wolfish leer suggests its own terrors." The film was highly praised and earned almost $100 million worldwide.

Murphy received numerous accolades for his 2005 draconian roles, among them a nomination as Best Villain at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards for Batman Begins. He was named among the top entertainers in 2005 by Entertainment Weekly, a newspaper that showcases ten entertainers with outstanding breakthrough performances. "Cillian Murphy, who has angelic looks that can be sinister, is one of the most elegantly seductive creatures in recent cinema," New Yorker writer David Denby wrote.

In Neil Jordan's comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto (2005), Murphy played Patrick/"Kitten" Braden, a transgender Irish woman in search of her mother, based on Patrick McCabe's book of the same name. Murphy transforms from androgynous teen to a blond bombshell in the film's kaleidoscopic backdrop of 1970s glitter rock fashion, magic shows, red-light districts, and IRA violence. He had auditioned for the role in 2001 and, although Jordan loved him for the role, The Crying Game's director, however, was reluctant to revisit transgender and IRA questions. In a bid to have the film produced before Murphy became too old to play the part, the actor trained for the role by meeting a transvestite who robed him and clubbing with other transvestites. The role needed "serious priming" with eyebrow plucking and leg hair removal, as well as Roger Ebert's observations that Murphy played the role with a "bemused and hopeful voice." Though lukewarm reviews of Breakfast on Pluto tended to praise Murphy's appearance, a few commentators dissuaded The Village Voice, which panned the film, found him "unconvincing" and overly cute. Murphy was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy on Pluto for Breakfast on Pluto, and he was voted to the fourth Irish Film and Television Academy Best Actor Award. In their "The 24 Greatest Performances of 2005" series, Premiere magazine praised Kitten's appearance as Kitten.

Murphy starred in The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a film about the Irish Civil War and the Irish Civil War, which received the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and became Ireland's most popular Irish independent film at the Irish box office. Murphy was especially keen on being in the film due to his close ties to Cork, Ireland, where the film was shot. Before winning the role, Murphy auditioned six times for Damien O'Donovan, a young doctor turned virtuous, before becoming a young doctor. Murphy said he was "tremendously proud" of the film, noting that the "memories run so deep -- the politics, the divisions, and everyone has stories of family members who were caught up in the conflict. In portraying the character, David Denby referred to Murphy's moments of deep stillness and idiosyncrasies. "Murphy is particularly good at playing the zealotry, as well as the soul-searching and the regret," Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote. We're given a man who is dead because he's obliged to act in ways that are incompatible with his origins and his education." Murphy was given the 2006 Actor of the Year award for his work in The Wind That Shakes the Barley, according to the GQ magazine.

Murphy returned to the stage for the first time in London's West End, opposite Neve Campbell, from November 2006 to February 2007. He was the leading role in John Kolvenbach's play Love Song. Beane's character, according to Theatre Record, he is a "winsome, twitching woman," who emphasizes how he goes from painfully shy "wallpaper" to a large, amorous male. His appearance in Variety magazine rated him as "as magnetic onstage as on film," with his comment that "unhurried discovery pulls the character's faint preciousness back from the brink's idiot-savant naivete.

He appeared in the science fiction film Sunshine (2007) as a physicist-astronaut accused of re-igniting the sun, which was also directed by Danny Boyle. Watching the Detectives (2006) starring Lucy Liu; the indie film premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival and was released direct-to-DVD. In the film Hippie Hippie Shake, which was shot in 2007, Richard Neville, editor of the psychedelic radical underground magazine Oz, was filmed in 2007, but the project, which was much postponed in 2011, was eventually shelved in 2011.

Murphy appeared in Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008), the sequel to Batman Begins, before he appeared in The Edge of Love—about a love triangle involving the poet Dylan Thomas — involving Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, and Matthew Rhys. Murphy made his debut in another medium, on a postage stamp; the Irish Post Office, An Post, An Post, issued a series of four stamps honoring the ingenuity of films recently released in Ireland, including one featuring Murphy in a Still From The Wind That Shakes The Barley. In 2009, Murphy starred opposite rock singer Feist and actor David Fox in The Water, directed by Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene. The 15-minute Canadian short film, which was released online in April 2009, is almost silent until the Feist song of the same title comes close to the end. Murphy was attracted to the role of being a fan of the Broken Social Scene and the possibility of making a silent film, which he described as the "most difficult challenge for any actor." Murphy appeared in Perpety, a crime drama starring Intermission's designers, in which he portrayed a petty criminal fleeing from a gangster played by Brendan Gleeson.

In 2010, he made a return to theatre in Galway, Broadway, and back again, during a stage performance that honoured the Druid Theatre Company's 35th anniversary. Murphy, co-starring Elliot Page, Susan Sarandon, and Bill Pullman, starred him in Peacock (2010) as a man with a split personality who fools people into believing he is also his own wife. "A handsomely mounted psychological thriller with an arresting lead role by Cillian Murphy," said Christian Toto of the Washington Times, although Murphy was not a stranger to playing in drag, his role in the film set a "new standard for gender bending roles." Murphy appeared in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), playing entrepreneur Robert Fischer, whose mind is purged by DiCaprio's character Cobb's attempt to convince him to rewrite his company. In Tron: Legacy, Murphy also appeared in Uncredited burst Edward Dillinger Jr., son of original Tron antagonist Ed Dillinger (David Warner).

Murphy appeared in Enda Walsh's stage monodrama Misterman, which had previously appeared on Disco Pigs. The performance was first staged in Galway and then moved to St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. "The live nature of it makes it so dangerous," Murphy said of the role. You're only there because of the audience's positive will, which is exacerbated by the fact that it is a one-man performance." His appearance earned critical acclaim, as well as the award of the Irish Times Theatre Award and a Drama Desk Prize. Murphy's character, according to Sarah Lyall of the International Herald Tribune, was a "complex mixture of sympathetic and not nice at all," a deeply wounded man, but with a "unique moral code" that praises his ability to mimic wickedly. Murphy's "unusual ability to create and inhabit scary characters from the big screen to the tiny stage in the Misterman show Misterman" was flooded on one evening, not with applause but with silence, resulting in a standing ovation for his memorable performance. He appeared in Retreat, a British horror film that had limited success. He appeared in the science fiction film In Time (2011), starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, which was not well reviewed.

Murphy appeared in Red Lights (2012) with Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver. He portrayed Tom Buckley, the assistant to Weaver's character who is a paranormal investigator. Murphy regarded De Niro as one of his career's most difficult times. "My first scene when I first visited him is supposed to be afraid and afraid." There was no actor involved. The guy is around. You can't be present at all. I'll never have that. It's just like something else" when you put a camera on it. Critics and under-performers at the box office blasted the film. Murphy went on to reprise his role as the Scarecrow in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and he played Mike in the British independent film Broken (2012). His appearance earned him a British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Murphy has appeared in Peaky Blinders, a BBC television series about a criminal group in Birmingham during the post-World War I period. Jason Statham was first selected for the role by director Steven Knight, who met both actors to discuss the role. "Cillian, when you see him," the knight said later, "isn't Tommy, obviously." After getting a text message from Murphy that read, "Remember, I'm an actor," he picked Murphy. Murphy told The Independent, "The scripts" were so compelling and convincing, and his story was so complicated and varied, layered and contradictory. "I have to do this," I was thinking. Peaky Blinders had been praised and received high praise. On the BBC in October 2014, a second series was broadcasting. On August 25, the first episode of season 5 was broadcast on BBC One. "If we did start shooting in January (2021), we wouldn't finish until May or June, which would be another six months of editing," director Anthony Byrne said in an interview with Digital Spy. This will mark the beginning of or the beginning of 2022 for the last season of Peaky Blinders. Murphy made his directorial debut in 2013 with a music video for the band Money's single Hold Me Forever. Dancers from the English National Ballet appear in the film, which was shot at The Old Vic Theatre in London.

Murphy appeared in the drama Aloft and Wally Pfister's Transcendence in 2014. According to Rotten Tomatoes, both of these publications received mainly critical feedback. Murphy reunited with Enda Walsh in the play Ballyturk the same year. In Ron Howard's 2015 film In the Heart of the Sea, he appeared. He appeared on "8:58" and "The Clock," Paul Hartnoll's album 8:58, in 2015. The two had met before, but Hartnoll was scoring the second season of Peaky Blinders. Murphy starred in Ben Wheatley's Free Fire in 2016 and portrayed Czechoslovak World War II army soldier Jozef Gabk, who was involved in Operation Anthropoid, Reinhard Heydrich's assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Anthropoid. Cillian's performance in Anthropoid had been predicted, according to Rupert Hawksley of The Telegraph, but he has said he is "not expected to do an awful lot, other than smoke and look perplexed."

In Christopher Nolan's war film Dunkirk (2017), Murphy played a shell-shocked army officer recovered from a wrecked ship. He believed that his character, who is anonymous and was merely referred to as Shivering Soldier, was "representative of what thousands of soldiers have endured, which is the full emotional and psychological toll that war can have." Murphy appears in A Quiet Place Part II, which was published May 28, 2021, as Emmett, a teen survivor and an old family friend of the Abbotts. Following the events of the first film, Murphy's character reluctantly takes in the Abbotts.

Murphy was confirmed to appear in Nolan's forthcoming film Oppenheimer, J. Robert Oppenheimer, which was due to be released on July 21, 2023.

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