Name: MAY 25 - Cillian Murphy about his passion for acting
Uploaded: 2025-01-01T15:36:28.000Z
Duration: 8 min 25 s
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I'm Cillian Murphy and I'm an actor, I suppose.

The superlative

I grew up in Cork, my parents were teachers, pretty average middle class upbringing, you  Cillian, I've also heard you say that one of your happiest places is on set when you hear the word action.

I mean, if I'm in the film, obviously.  I feel like hiding watching.

Otherwise it's just awkward for everyone involved.

Yeah, well it is, it's that thing of where, you know, that's the kind of the moments you've been looking forward to building up towards and it is true to say that time kind of slows down and you stop sensing things in a kind of a normal way and I love it, I mean it's my favourite part of the whole thing and it's the thing you kind of live for, I think.

I mean, I love watching comedies or whatever, but the films that I really, really, the ones that are close to my heart, I guess, are the dramatic ones, you know, and the pieces, generally not just films like pieces of art and literature and everything, they tend to be the ones, I think, where the stakes are raised and to me that is drama.

The greater the stakes, the greater the drama and that, to me, is more compelling to watch and that's, I guess, the sort of material that I'm drawn to.

When the real drama kicks in, when the stakes are raised, which to me, you know, that is real drama, when the stakes become about kind of life and death, you're fully invested in these characters.

As actors, you get attracted to stories that are kind of, it's a very, it's a David and Goliath kind of story.

I love all the big, I love the, I relish those big scenes, those confrontational scenes, they're very, very satisfying for an actor when you get that calibre of actor acting opposite, you know.

So they're never, there's nothing that, you always go home from work going, wow, I went to work today, you know, it's a little bit special when we, when it kicks off and it's kind of unpredictable, which I like as well, you know.

And as a director, the most precious thing you've got to work with each day is the actor's instinct.

You don't have the script as your, as your document, you're just, you're reacting as it happens, you know, on film.

I've received orders to execute the spies.

Ah, Jesus Christ, lads, he's on you for the life.

Hamilton's a Swede, you could order him to leave the country.

He cost us three lives already, could have been more, it was his own choice.

Ah, but Chris, we can't do that, he's one of our own.

He does things so cleverly and so subtly and so sort of unexpectedly, but for people who've seen the film, I have to shoot this kid in this, who becomes a traitor in the film.

And only like years later, I realised that during the boot camp and during all the sort of training, he would always put me with this kid, like that we would be together and we would sort of, you know, just hang out and he was, he was like 17 or something like that.

And he was a lovely, sweet kid and we hung out and, and we got close and then I realised that, that he, what he was subtly doing was sort of making, I don't know, I was becoming close to this kid who eventually in this story, you know, I'd have to shoot him.

And so when, when we came to do that scene, it was, it was way more emotional and powerful than it would ever have been on like, oh, we're just doing it today because, you know, you've seen that, you've read that scene and, and hi, nice to meet you, and now I'm going to shoot you.

It was, we were buddies, you know, and I had this sort of older brother type thing that Ken, in his wonderful way, had sort of provoked, you know, to be broken.

You know, because you're shooting chronological, because you're, you're finding out the information as the character does, you, you, you become aware that perhaps this is, there's something happening here.

But again, it's not an intellectual thing, it's a, it's an emotional thing.

So I guess that we were all aware that, okay, there's someone, someone has betrayed us in the column, someone, and we're all hoping against hope that it wasn't this kid, and then, and then, and then begins to sort of, the inevitability of it becomes clear.

It'll be, be from there round to the fruit.

It's the purest environment you could ever have.

That's what all this, you know, very, very precise preparation and precise casting and is all to achieve this truth, I guess.

It fundamentally changed how I approach acting, and it's never been the same since.

I think you always, you have to learn from each job you do as an actor, you're constantly learning, and it's an ongoing learning process, really.

You know, there's no marks, there's no action, there's no cut.

It was like going on this adventure with all these people who you became very, very close to.

We had gone on this journey, which felt to us as close as it could possibly be to reality.

So it becomes all emotion and not intellect.

So by the end, certainly for me, it didn't feel like I was performing, I was just kind of swept up in this world that we'd created and that we were invested in that felt completely authentic and real and truthful.

And that was because Ken set it up that way.

What you want as an actor, or certainly what I want, is to work with people with strong visions, you know, and you can't find anybody with a stronger vision than Christopher Nolan.

I mean, he's written, produced and directed this thing, and it's kind of phenomenal.

And there is absolutely scope to collaborate, but you want to work with someone who is that.

I mean, he knows exactly every frame of the film as he's shooting it, which is so comforting.

I think the reason people re-collaborate is because you build up a shorthand.

You build up a level of trust, and you can go straight to the work.

So hopefully there's that kind of simpatico between Chris and the people that he re-collaborates with, and it's as simple as that.

It's a real privilege to work with him every time.

I mean, there's no argument that he's one of the greatest directors around at the moment.

So as an actor, selfishly, you want to work with the best people, and he's definitely one of those.

But every relationship between a director and an actor should be collaborative.

I mean, they're the boss and they're the leader, but it has to be an exchange of ideas always.

Can you detach enough that when you watch yourself, you're still really emotionally moved by what you see when you watch it back?

I don't know any actor that likes watching his or herself.

It's always quite a distressing experience.

But what's good about this is that there's lots of stuff that we're not in, so it's great to watch Polly's storyline or Arthur's storyline that you're not necessarily part of, so you can unclench for that period.

Take the paper bag away from your face before you reconnect.