In conversation with Cillian Murphy: Cork star on Peaky Blinders, Irish Oscar hopes, and turning 50
Cillian Murphy, star of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
It is a big year for Cillian Murphy. Yes, he has a busy schedule ahead in terms of new projects such as the upcoming movie, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. But there’s also a key personal date popping up on the calendar in late spring. On May 25, the Cork actor turns 50.
You’d imagine such a milestone inevitably brings some reflection. And when Murphy gets around to totting up what he’s achieved in that first half-century, he’ll probably realise he has quite a few boxes ticked. Obviously, he’s reached the elite level of his chosen profession. Quality work on stage and screen since he first broke through on stage in Disco Pigs in 1996 eventually led to a Best Actor Oscar in 2024 for Oppenheimer.
Away from the acting world, the Ballintemple native has also hit a few marks.
He still comes across as fairly grounded, seems well-liked by his peers, and has been married to his wife, artist Yvonne McGuinness, since 2004, after meeting her in Cork in the 1990s during their student days. The couple have two sons, Malachy, 20, and 18-year-old Aran.
Not a bad list for a mortal man. But has he been dwelling on the upcoming milestone?
“You’d be lying if you said it like you didn’t think about it, because it’s the first time that you’ve got less years left than you have lived. But I’m not hung up about it,” he says.
Whether it’s just coincidence or whether there’s a faint drumbeat in the back of his subconscious, Murphy has been squaring a few circles in recent times. He’s back involved in the world of 28 Days Later, reprising his role for the latest sequels to the dystopian horror film that announced him on the world stage in 2002 at the age of 26.
More pertinently for now, he’s also returned to the character of Thomas Shelby, the Peaky Blinders boss whose distinctive cap he first donned in 2013. Across six seasons, he turned the Birmingham gang leader into one of the most iconic British TV characters of the 21st century.
So why go back? For Murphy, there was a sense of unfinished business when the sixth instalment was broadcast in 2022. They had hoped to shoot a seventh season, but the covid epidemic scuppered that plan. We saw Tommy ride off into the countryside on his white horse, and everyone involved got somewhat sidetracked with other projects.
A film script continued to be developed, however, and eventually the stars aligned in terms of timings and logistics.
“I was always available if they felt like there was more story to tell,” says Murphy of a film that he’s also a producer on. “And it was exciting to see if we could move from telling a story in six hours to two hours. And could we keep the same elements that the fans love and the people associate with , but make it into a feature film.
“That was the challenge.”
Without giving too much away about the film’s plot, we get reacquainted with Tommy Shelby far away from the mean streets of Birmingham. It’s 1940 — six years on from the series six finale — and the world is at war again.
Tommy is also a man who’s been reckoning with his life’s tally. He’s been passing time by writing some sort of memoir and doing a fair bit of self-medicating, but has generally been keeping his head down. Inevitably, trouble is never too far away. Just like one of his OG counterparts across the Atlantic, he thought he was out, but they pull him back in.
Murphy was conscious that his character needed to be slightly different than the man we left in 1934. “As happens to us all, that vitality was wearing off,” he explains.
For those outside the business, it’s tempting to imagine that an actor can quickly jump back into a character that they’ve spent so long playing. Easily nail the look, the gait, that tricky Brummie accent. Apparently not.
“Every time, it always takes a number of months. It’s not just putting the cap on and like, lighting a cigarette,” says Murphy. “When you’re in it, it feels very, very familiar. But it’s not instant.”
creator Steven Knight has regularly spoken of how his parents’ tales of the Birmingham suburb of Small Heath in the wake of the First World War provided the original inspiration for the show. Their home city had lost over 12,000 men in the trenches, and even the tens of thousands of others who made it back to the English midlands were left with deep physical and mental scars. Murphy is keenly aware of the historical context that spawned the troubled minds and vicious violence of the gang members.
“I think Tommy and his brothers and all the men of that age are products of that. They thought it was impossible that it could ever happen again. And then it does,” he says.
The BSA (Birmingham Small Arms Company) is depicted in the very first series in 2013, and the real-life factory is revisited in the new film as the Luftwaffe bombs the city during the Blitz. Tommy’s own wartime service also comes into play as those two awful conflicts provide perfect bookends.
As well as the man playing the lead, there’s always been a strong Irish presence in the show, and that tradition continues in . Fontaines DC dominate the soundtrack, and Barry Keoghan is most prominent among the newcomers to the cast.
Murphy had previously worked with the Dubliner on Dunkirk (2017), and they’ve remained in occasional contact since. “He’s gone from strength to strength,” Murphy says of Keoghan, who plays Tommy Shelby’s son Duke in the film. “He has that thing where you just put a camera on him, and he’s instantly interesting. And he has a sort-of dangerous quality to him on camera, but he also has this vulnerability. hey are sort-of contradictory traits, but he has them all.”
Another young Irish actor whose career Murphy is closely following is that of his youngest son, Aran. He has a role in Taika Waititi’s forthcoming sci-fi film Klara and the Sun, and will also pop up later this year in War, a legal drama series on Sky and HBO. “He’s just a massive fan of film and television and theatre,” says his father.
Meanwhile, the elder Murphy is off next month to begin shooting on a prison-set drama with Daniel Craig and director Damien Chazelle ( , ).
He reckons work will probably curtail plans to mark that upcoming birthday. As to the future, he mentions he’d like to take life a “bit slower” but, as well as various acting projects, Murphy has been enjoying his role as producer, both on The Immortal Man and other recent films he’s been involved in.
“I started producing on the third season of , so I kind of cut my teeth on it there,” he says. “I love it because it’s actually very creative for me. And I think it helps for the other producers, to have somebody that’s on the ground.
“I’ve also learned so much, and I love being involved in the post-production, being in the edit, working on the score.”
And remaining ambitions?
“Ambition was never really the driving force. Curiosity was more the thing,” he corrects.
One event he won’t be involved in is the Academy Awards on March 15, though he is delighted to see Jessie Buckley and the strong Irish representation again this year.
He also singles out John Kelly and his , nominated for Best Animated Short. “I think the film industry in Ireland is brilliant. It’s going from strength to strength,” he says.
And will Murphy be staying up to watch the ceremony? “I go to bed at half past nine, so it’s unlikely,” he laughs.
Spoken like a man who really is approaching 50.
Before he was an actor, Cillian Murphy was a musician. As a teenager, he sang and played guitar in Cork band Sons Of Mr Green Genes (whose members still occasionally jam together), and his love of music has remained undimmed through the decades. The Corkman has been hands-on in organising gigs for the Sounds From A Safe Harbour Festival in his native city, and he has even hosted his radio own show on BBC 6 Music.
With those two artistic worlds collide. From the very first series in 2013 right up to new film, , music has been front-and-centre in the Birmingham-set drama.
Murphy tips his cap to Antony Genn and Martin Slattery, the talented duo who composed the score for . But the actor – who also worked as a producer on the film and some of the TV series – has been involved in putting together an impressive soundtrack for the film. It includes tunes from Nick Cave, Lankum, and Amy Taylor (Amyl & the Sniffers), as well as a particularly strong showing from Grian Chatten and his band Fontaines DC.
Around the time that was starting its shoot, the Fontaines' most recent album, , had a launch event in London. Murphy went along with composer Genn (an early member of Pulp) and film director Tom Harper.
At the launch, the band played the album’s title track, and the Peaky people had a lightbulb moment when they heard a lyric that was perfect for one of the key scenes in the film.
“They play that song Romance, and there's this lyric in it where he says, ‘In with the pigs in the pen’. It was like he had written it for this film,” enthuses Murphy. “So then we chatted to him about composing more music.”
As well as several original tunes, Chatten can be heard with fellow-Irish musicians Lankum on , and he also sings on a version of Massive Attack’s (one of two covers of songs by the Bristol band on the soundtrack).
“I'm really proud of the music on this,” says Murphy.
- ‘’ is on Netflix from Friday, March 20. The official soundtrack will be released on March 6, the same day the film arrives in selected cinemas.
