‘Filming destroys theatre’ says Cillian Murphy

Hollywood star Cillian Murphy has criticised the decision by theatre bosses to screen performances of their productions live.

Several institutions, including the National Theatre, now broadcast their productions in cinemas.

But the actor, 38, who recently starred in Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk, said filming destroys true theatre.

“If you put a camera on the theatre, it dies,” he told Radio Times magazine.

“Similarly with music, I hate all these YouTube clips, it’s meant to be ephemeral, in the moment. I don’t like live-stream theatre. For me, it’s two worlds colliding that shouldn’t.”

He added: “Theatre should always be a wide shot. Theatre’s close-up is stillness. What I love, in the theatre, is that I get to act with my body. The idea of someone putting a camera on that — I wouldn’t do it.”

Earlier this year, playwright Alan Ayckbourn voiced his concern that theatre-goers could stop going to see live performances at regional theatres if they were heading to cinemas to watch shows broadcast from London instead.

Research has found that live screenings attract a less affluent audience than those who go to the theatre, and a “significant” minority who did not normally visit the theatre.

Murphy, who returns in BBC gangster drama Peaky Blinders on October 2, said he wanted to work in television despite his success in Hollywood.

“I was watching all of these shows I loved on TV — House of Cards, The Fall, The Wire — and going, ‘Wow, I want to be in these’,” he said.

“But I wasn’t getting sent the scripts. So I emphatically said to my agent, ‘I need to do some good television.’ And that’s when it came along.”