Murphy sounds warning to Hollywood
Cork is taking over Hollywood as the showbiz capital of the world, Irish actor Cillian Murphy said today after the Golden Globe nominations were announced.
Cork-born Murphy was nominated for his role in Neil Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto, while another Cork actor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, is nominated for best actor in a mini-series or motion picture made for TV for his portrayal of the young Elvis Presley in Elvis.
“Absolutely, we are taking over as we speak, the whole lot of us, myself and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. It is just great, Jonnie is a brilliant actor and we will have a good evening over there,” Murphy said.
Murphy was nominated in the category, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, as was Navan man Pierce Brosnan for his efforts as a washed-up professional assassin in The Matador.
The 29-year-old actor said he was thrilled with the nomination for his part as a young Irish transvestite in a fictional Irish town in Jordan’s Breakfast on Pluto – a collaboration with The Butcher Boy author Patrick McCabe.
“It is a nice endorsement of the film, I’m very pleased,” he said.
“I enjoyed it tremendously, the transvestism, if that is a word, and the whole story. The book by Pat McCabe was what attracted me to the role and then obviously the chance to work with Neil,” he said.
In preparation for his role as a transvestite, Murphy said: “I spent a lot of time looking at women really, went out in a few transvestite clubs in London, did a lot of rehearsing with Neil and went back to the book again and again as a kind of template.”
Murphy said the film had received strong reviews in the US.
“It is one of those movies, that people really get it or they don’t, but we have had some really cracking reviews,” he said. “I think people in Ireland will really get it, there is a lot of stuff that the Americans have difficulty with you know, but I think when it comes over here people are going to love it.”
The 63rd annual Golden Globes awards will be given out on January 16 and are considered as a strong indicator of who is likely to be successful at the Oscars.
Murphy said he was not even contemplating his chances of taking the Golden Globe award ahead of other actors including Brosnan, Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Jeff Daniels in The Squid and the Whale, Nathan Lane in Broadway musical The Producers and Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line.
“I’m just going to go and enjoy the evening, just to be in the room with those sort of people for me is enough of a kick, anything else after that is a bonus,” he said. “There is no point in dwelling on things you have no control over really.”
