Cillian Murphy's eight steps on the road to success: Family, school and key roles
L-R: Cillian Murphy in Disco Pigs, Peaky Blinders, and Oppenheimer.
Cillian Murphy raised in the solidly-middle-class suburb of Ballintemple, the eldest of four children (two boys, two girls). He attended primary school at St Anthony’s in Ballinlough, and at about the age of 13 began his secondary education at the fee-paying Presentation Brothers school in the city. Both his parents were teachers – mother Mary taught French, while father Brendan taught Irish before going on to become a school inspector.
Murphy's parents have kept a low profile in relation to their son’s fame, with Brendan stating recently on Raidió na Gaeltachta in a rare interview: "We don't like to make too much fuss about him. He's got a job like the sons and daughters of other people, and the difference - he gets a lot of publicity."
This unphased approach seems to be reflected in Cillian’s own attitude to the ‘noise’ of the fame-game and, while he has been on the PR trail in the lead-up to the Oscars, the actor generally tries to avoid the trappings of celebrity life.
He has two sons of his own with wife Yvonne McGuinness, whom he met in Cork in 1996 when she was an art student. Turning 48 in May, Murphy has spoken of how having the secure base of a solid family has been so important to him throughout his life.
During his early years of secondary education, Murphy didn’t quite dive into a Pres school culture that placed great emphasis on academic achievement and sporting prowess, particularly on the rugby field. He regularly got into trouble with teachers and rarely had a work ethic to make the most of his obvious brightness.
For his last two years in school, he did get on track somewhat, partly thanks to a growing interest in English and the arts. Much of this was down to William ‘Bill’ Wall, a teacher and writer who made an impression on the teenage Murphy. “He had a natural inclining for culture,” recalls Wall, who encouraged his student’s artistic pursuits. When he attended University College Cork to study for a law degree, a similar pattern developed where academically he was under-achieving, but involvement in the dramatic society opened up the world of acting to him.
On BBC radio show Desert Island Discs recently, Murphy said: “Music was the first thing that really woke me up to the arts. Or to creativity.” He also recalled being brought to pubs by his parents for traditional music sessions, and family spins with Paul Simon blasting on the car stereo. By his mid-teens, Murphy’s relatively sophisticated tastes are underlined by the band he formed with his younger brother, Pádraig, and a number of school friends.
Sons Of Mr Green Genes were named after a Frank Zappa song and leaned towards funky workouts with Cillian on vocals and rhythm guitar. They wore outlandish vintage clothes, and Murphy soon realised he loved being on stage in front of a live crowd. Cork also had a thriving music scene in the early 1990s and Murphy was a huge fan of relatively successful local act, the Frank & Walters.
The Green Genes were making waves of their own, and had a provisional offer of a recording contract with prestigious UK label Acid Jazz. Pressure from parents of various band members, the moderate financial reward on the table, and Cillian’s burgeoning interesting in acting, meant they declined the offer and the group gradually fizzled out.
Murphy had first encountered Pat Kiernan when the young director had come to his school to teach a drama module. Soon after, the aspiring actor saw the innovative theatre-maker’s promenade production of A Clockwork Orange at Sir Henry’s. “It blew my mind,” Murphy would recall about a show that convinced him to “pester” Kiernan for a role in a future project. The stars eventually aligned and the 20-year-old was cast alongside Eileen Walsh in Corcadorca’s production of Enda Walsh’s second play.
Disco Pigs’ edgy tale of two teenagers on a mad night out in Cork opened at Triskel in September 1996, and gradually snowballed into a hugely-successful phenomenon that provided a breakthrough for the four main creatives involved. By now, Murphy had dropped out of college, and while the immediate aftermath of Disco Pigs felt like a fallow time, the die was very much cast as to what his profession was going to be. Arise, Cillian Murphy the actor.
Murphy departed Cork and spent periods in both Dublin and London, honing his craft in a number of theatre roles and indie films, including a bigscreen adaptation of Disco Pigs. His role as Pig paid dividends when he was spotted by the casting director on Danny Boyle’s horror-thriller, 28 Days Later.
Murphy took the lead role as an ordinary guy who wakes up in a London hospital to an unfolding zombie apocalypse. The 9/11 attacks took place during the making of the film, which possibly helped the dystopian tale tap into the new zeitgeist when it was released in 2002 to much acclaim.
Boyle told film writer Roger Ebert that the physicality Murphy had already acquired through his stage roles, and his ‘changeability’ were already apparent. “For 28 Days Later, you thought, ‘He’s so perfect as an affable, carefree bike messenger, but how is he going to turn into an avenging angel?’ —which is what he ends up as, capable of the kind of violence that the infected are capable of,” said Boyle. In January of this year, it was reported that a second sequel to the film is in the works – possibly entitled 28 Years Later - and that Murphy may be involved.
Though Murphy already had plenty decent experience under his belt by the time he returned to Co Cork to work on Ken Loach’s independence-era drama, it was still an educational experience for the then 29-year-old.
The Cannes Palme d’Or-winner was shot chronologically, with actors only seeing the loose script in individual segments. Murphy praised this for forcing him to act in a more instinctual manner. “It changed the way I approach work profoundly making that film,” he told Desert Island Discs.
Murphy has been picky about his movie commitments in recent years, not least as he’d made quite the investment in the time needed to film the six series of the Birmingham-based crime drama that ran from 2013 to 2022.
Gang boss Tommy Shelby became one of the most iconic characters of British TV this century, and it’s something of a mystery why the Corkman never received even a Bafta nomination for the role. Surely he deserved one at the very least for nailing that Brummie accent.
“Dearest Cillian. Finally, a chance to see you lead… Love, Chris.” Those handwritten words on the copy of the Oppenheimer script that Christopher Nolan sent to Cillian Murphy literally marked the latest chapter in a 20-year working relationship between the two men.
They first met when the London-born director was looking for someone to play Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins (2005). Nolan had noticed Murphy in a still from 28 Days Later. “I’d just been very struck by his appearance and his amazing eyes and that gaze,” he told US website IGN.
Both parties agreed the young actor wasn’t right for a role eventually played by Christian Bale, but he did take on the part of Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow. It was the first of six films the duo would work on, including Inception and Dunkirk.
All the previous movies had Murphy in support or ensemble roles. His first lead for Nolan has resulted in the Corkman picking up the ultimate prize for an actor.
