Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” star Cillian Murphy on playing complicated characters: “That’s where good art exists

When asked if he likes doing interviews to promote a film, Cillian Murphy, star of the new film “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” said: “I enjoy the thoughtful discussions about the themes and the work. That’s what I enjoy. I think it’s the most condensed version, it’s very difficult to summarize something that you’ve worked on for years and years. I guess I realize, I guess I’m just quite a shy person. So that maybe potentially makes me a fucking interviewee!”

Quite the contrary. When we caught up with Murphy in his old London neighborhood, we found that the Irish actor’s thoughtful, deliberate approach to an interview mirrored the way he approaches a role.

For someone who doesn’t chase the spotlight, this star’s performances in films such as “Inception,” “Dunkirk” and “Oppenheimer” often win out.

“They say that taking action is like taking revenge on a timid man,” he said.

Because you can be whoever you want to be? “I think so. I certainly feel very comfortable on stage and very comfortable in someone else’s shoes.”

For years, these shoes belonged to Tommy Shelby, the charismatic gangster who rules Birmingham, England, after World War I in “Peaky Blinders.” Beginning in 2013 as a small show on the BBC, it developed a cult following, was picked up by Netflix and ran for six seasons. Today, the story continues in the film “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” which pits Tommy Shelby against a new rival: his own son, played by Barry Keoghan.

When asked how he played a character like Shelby, Murphy replied: “I read an awful lot about Britain between the wars, about the effects of what we now call PTSD. And then you kind of have to understand the physicality, understand the walk, understand the voice, understand the costume, understand the mannerisms, understand the energy of the character, all that.

“What if you play the same character for so many years?” I asked. “Was there ever a time when you thought, I don’t want to be too associated with this guy?“

“No, I mean, there’s this adage in show business like, don’t give up on a success, and I think that’s correct,” Murphy responded. “If something works, the audience likes it, the writing is good, you still like it, don’t give up on it, you know?”

He admits to being attracted to particularly complicated, complex or tormented characters: “I think that’s where good art exists, in general. Certainly, in the art that I appreciate, it’s never easy. It’s a little tricky. It’s not reductive, because human behavior is so bizarre. That’s what I like.”

The portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s film mixed all of this. Murphy lost weight to become the nervous, brilliant theoretical physicist tormented by his own creation, the atomic bomb. A box office phenomenon, the film grossed nearly a billion dollars and earned Murphy the Oscar for best actor in 2024.

Does winning an Oscar take some pressure off? Or does it add pressure? “I don’t really know,” Murphy said. “You know, I made a few films after ‘Oppenheimer,’ I made this little film called ‘Small Things Like These,’ and then I made a film called ‘Steve.’ I guess if that helped get those films (which were very important to me) and those stories out into the world, if that helped, then I’ll take it, I’ll look into it.”

Being an “Academy Award winner,” he says, is “one of those iconic things in our industry. You just feel very honored to be in that club, I guess. I don’t think about it very often!”

In a park in the north London neighborhood where he lived with his family for more than a decade, the movie star didn’t want to play the role. He tries to carry the “celebrity thing” lightly. “The less people know about you, the more you can play a character, you know?” he said. “And just portray that character as honestly and convincingly as possible. …And inevitably that gets eroded a little bit, I guess, if you’re in higher-profile work, but you try to preserve it as best you can.”

“How are you trying to preserve it? Because you’re certainly doing great work,” I said.

“I guess so. I don’t know, there’s always tension,” he said.

He lives in Ireland with his wife, the artist Yvonne McGuinness. The couple have two sons, now aged 18 and 20. “I like running, walking the dog, meeting my friends, going to the pub, you know, all that boring stuff!”

The 49-year-old tries to stay offline, but has become the unwitting face of an internet meme – the epitome of ‘looking over’. And we might have noticed it ourselves after an admittedly delicate question: “Your eyes, your cheekbones, get a lot of comments,” I told him, to which he rolled his eyes.

“Well, I mean, what can I do with that?” » said Murphy. “Honestly, I don’t pay any attention to it. Just try to get the job done, you know. And that’s not something you can control, is it?”

“But it works for you. Are these things that people remember, that they talk about, that they write about?”

“Yeah, I guess, but again, it’s like I don’t really have a point of view on it. It’s just embarrassing.”

He focuses on what he can control: the job. “You take your work very seriously and you promote your work because you want people to see it, and then you shut up,” he said.

Cillian Murphy maintains this calm between projects, much less interested, he says, in the bubble of celebrity than in the pursuit of a good story.

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Cillian Murphy (Video)

To watch a trailer for “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” click on the video player below.

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Story produced by Mikaela Burfano. Editor: Carol Ross.

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