Автор: Lee Wallick

From his breakout role in 28 Days Later… to the scariest of Scarecrows in Batman Begins to a peep show singing transvestite, he's creeped and captivated in equal measures. He won't do "trash" and is more likely to be found at a low-key gig than in any tabloid. Refreshingly committed to his craft, Cillian Murphy talks to Lee Wallick about his journey from A–Z thus far.

A is for Astronaut, Aviators

In your new movie Sunshine you play Capa—a physicist on a mission to save the universe by re-igniting the dying sun, did you ever want to be an astronaut when you were little?

"No. What was I into? Remember that TV show CHiPs? I was into that. I wanted to be a highway patrolman—a Californian Highway patrolman. That, and cowboys and Indians. Space was never an obsession of mine."

Murphy sports large, gently brown tinted, gold-rimmed aviators when stepping out.

B is for Brown Sauce, Batman

What are your thoughts on brown sauce after convincing Colin Farrell's character in Intermission (2003) that it's best served in tea?

"We didn't actually use brown sauce—it was chocolate syrup. I do love it but I've never tried it in tea. After that movie in Ireland a lot of people would come up to me and say 'Man. Brown sauce in tea. [Air kisses his fingertips.] Beautiful.' But I never fucking did it."

Growing up I didn't read Batman comic books but I was obsessed with the toys and gadgets. I used to watch the Adam West reruns on telly then the cartoon shows. I would have loved my 10-year-old self to have seen me when I did the screen test for Batman Begins and also when I was onset having the fights with Batman. I think my 10-year-old self would be very impressed."

Murphy originally tried out for the role of Batman. He lost out to Christian Bale but was called back in to read for The Scarecrow part.

C is for Cillian, Colorstrology, Costume, Characters

The name—it's pronounced with a hard 'C'. Killian. So yes, our headine (sic) is misleading.

Cillian Murphy according to Colorstrology (colorstrology.com)

Birth date: May 25, 1976, in Douglas, Cork, Ireland. Colour: Nile Green (pantone: 14-0121)—Musical, Verbal, Traveller. You are highly verbal and not afraid to speak your mind. Many people born on this day have a talent for music and writing. You have a strong private side and are not always emotionally available. It is sometimes difficult for you to share your personal feelings in intimate relationships. Your personal color (sic) can help you experience a constant flow of joy in your life. Wearing, meditating, or surrounding yourself with Nile Green helps rid the body of doubt, criticism, and judgments.

"I've never been into any of that—but some of it is accurate."

From "Indian squaw" to a shiny, gold spacesuit, you've had a wide-ranging wardrobe in your films. Do you enjoy dressing up?

"That's our job. We dress up and put on voices. That's acting. That's what it's all aobut. I love the transformative nature, inhabiting a character. Some of the hardest roles are the ones where you're playing a slight adjustment to yourself. The easiest ones are the ones where you have to go crazy because that's kind of a barrier between you and the audience. Whereas for when you're playing someone like yourself … For example, in the Ken Loach movie I didn't have to change my appearance or my accent. It's a lot more of an instinctual and honest performance."

D is for Directors, Dictaphone

The directors: Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Sunshine), Ken Loach (The Wind That Shakes the Barley), Paul Soter (Watching the Detectives), Neil Jordan (Breakfast on Pluto), Wes Craven (Red Eye), Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins), Anthony Minghella (Cold Mountain), Peter Webber (Girl With a Pearl Earring), John Crowley (Intermission), Kristen Sheridan (Disco Pigs).

There's a long, long list of directors I haven't worked with but would like to but if you name one, you leave out loads." [My Dictaphone goes on the blink and Murphy comes to the rescue.] "I can work the Dictaphone equals 'I can save the world.'"

E is for Eyes

"My eyes are not something I ever want to become conscious about. And I've said many times, 'I use 'em for lookin' through,' although it never did Paul Newman any harm."

Danny Boyle said you have a unique ability to not blink … "Do I? According to Michael Caine that's one of the secrets of screen acting. I think for some characters it's an intensity you need whereas with others you don't."

F is for Favourite Film

Favourite Film: Scarecrow (1974)

G is for Gigs

"It's quite hard to tune out from acting out there [in L.A.]. I run. And there are good gigs so I go to gigs. I went to see Vic Chestnutt (sic) recently and that was quite good. I also saw Broken Social Scene a while ago and they were very good."

In Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003) Murphy plays a butcher's apprentice in hot pursuit of de-flowering Scarlett Johansson's housemaid (sic).

H is for Hollywood Scene/Machine

"People talk about the whole Hollywood machine/scene but it doesn't actually exist. I go over there to meet people with a view to doing a job. Then I come home. Well, for me it doesn't exist. A) Because I don't live there, and B) because I'm only interested in the work. So I guess it's for people who live there and go to the parties and do all the ancillary part of cinema, which is not what I do. I don't think it makes me unique. It's whatever gets you through the night and horses for courses and all that but for me it's about being judged by your work and when an audience member pays 10 bucks to see a movie that I'm in, I don't want them to have any preconceptions or judgments about me as a person so they can loose (sic) themselves in the character. That's the aim. It doesn't always happen but it's what you want."

I is for iPod

His ipod (sic) is called "I will not loose (sic) this ipod (sic)." It goes with him everywhere. When Murphy steps out of the room for a moment I have a cheeky peek at his top played songs:

itunes (sic) top play count:
1. 40 X Republic of Loose "Comeback Girl"
2. 35 X Sufjan Stevens "Chicago"
3. 33 X Beatles "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart's Club Band"
4. 28 X Gruff Rhys "Candylion"
5. 27 X Beatles "Baby You're a Rich Man"
6. 26 X Hot Chip
7. 25 X Art Neville "Bo Diddley"
8. 25 X Kings of Leon "Genius"

J is for Japan

One of the highlights of his upcoming press junket to Japan is staying at the Park Hyatt where he rates the service and "little presents" left on the bed each night as second to none.

K is for Kitten, "Kill"

Arguably one of his best performances to date, Murphy as Patrick "Kitten" Boden (sic) in Breakfast on Pluto—a beautiful (Marc Bolan meets Angie Bowie) transvestite who leaves Ireland for London in search of his mother during the 1970s. It landed him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor.

Nickname: "Kill."

L is for L.A., Law School, Love Song

On L.A.—"I go over there and take meetings. I enjoy the weather and the food and all that but not to live. It's a one-industry town and I have a (sic) other interests than just making films. It gets a bit oppressive with the one industry thing."

Murphy originally planned on being a lawyer before being bit by the acting bug. He dropped out of University College, Cork, where he was studying law to tour in the critically-acclaimed (sic) stage production of Disco Pigs, the film version (2001) of which became his cinematic debut. His West End debut was in John Kolvenbach's Love Song, directed by John Crowley.

M is for Misfit Motif, Meeting Musicians

Murphy's choice of roles has prompted comparisons to Robert Mitchum—psychopathic preacher, misfit extraordinaire in Night of the Hunter.

"I get much more of a kick out of meeting musicians than I do out of meeting actors."

N is for Next

Murphy wants to tell me. But he's not sure he can—legal stuff. The PR is keeping tight-lipped. Rumour has it it's a movie with Keira Knightley and Lyndsay (sic) Lohan. Just rumour.

O is for The One Role, Being Oirish

"I can't say what my one dream role would be because I don't know. Every job you take you think that's it and you always want to approach it with that same enthusiasm. I couldn't answer that because I might get a script in tomorrow."

Is Liam Neeson someone you admire because he hasn't been typecast as an Irish actor? Is typecasting a concern for you?

"No, it hasn't been for me at all. I think at the beginning I was very anxious. I made a couple of small Irish films and I was very keen to break out of that so I made American and British films and played other nationalities. Liam's one those actors that has done that, as has Colin, as has Gabriel Byrne and Stephen Rea. They've all managed to do that so any of them are a good example. I've worked with most of them and I just like that. Obviously, being Irish is much a part of who I am but it shouldn't limit me in any roles I play. I wanted to be sure I wan't (sic) sealed a (sic) Irish after doing a couple of Irish films. I hope I've surpassed that and it makes it easier to go back and do Irish films."

P is for Physicist

How was playing the physicist in Sunshine?

"I enjoyed it. I gave up sciences very early in school. It was more about (sic) having that knowledge and intellect does to the person and the characteristics and the idiosyncrasies—the way it shifts your perspective on life. That's what was interesting to me."

Q is for Quack, Quack

Murphy's ring tone is a duck quacking.

R is for Reading

Murphy is not one to be caught on the tube sans book … "You feel a bit distraught when the tube stops and you don't have a book."

Favourite authors? "I'm more into modern authors. A lot of American writers like Cormick (sic) McCarthy (All the Pretty Horses), Don Delillo (sic) (White Noise, Libra). I really like Ian McEwan (Enduring Love). There's a great Irish writer I'm reading at the moment called Sebastian Barry, a book called A Long, Long Way about the First World War."

S is for Sunshine

What does Sunshine bring to the sci-fi genre?

"It's the first to travel to the sun … They are trying to do a classy sci-fi movie. It's sort of about how space fucks with people's minds. We can't survive without the sun and the air, and the sun is dying…"—so Murphy told Colin Farrell.

T is for Trash, Theatre

"I have no plan. I know very firmly what I don't want to do: trash. Then you look for the interesting roles but they only come around, if you're lucky, once or twice a year. And then everyone wants them. So, I'm quite happy to kick around the house when I'm not working. I've said this before but I don't think employment equates with success. I think actors confuse that. For me success equates with quality. Not the amount of films I'm in but the quality of films I'm in. You could have a whole list but 60% of them you don't want to talk about in interviews or your PR person is saying 'don't mention that movie.' Any of the movies I've done I'm proud to talk about. I'm proud of all of them. I'm not saying that this is going to be the case always because I understand situations where you need to look after yourself financially but right now I'm very anxious to do work that I believe in.

On stage, Murphy's collaborations with Tony Award-winning director Garry Hynes include The Country Boy, Juno and the Paycock (Johnny Boyle), and most recently Playboy of the Western World (Christy) at the Gaity Theatrein Dublin. Murphy also starred as Konstantin in the Edinburgh Fest production of The Seagull It was while playing Konstantin that he was called out ot test for Batman.

"I just finished Love Song three weeks ago. I think I need to do theatre as often as possible. It makes you a better actor. You're acting every night, eight shows a week. It's not a skill that you can really practice unless you're working. I realised that really good films only come round twice a year or so, in between waiting for good film roles it's always good to do theatre, keep those muscles in training."

U is for Ukulele

"I play the Ukulele. It's very portable. If you're traveling (sic) by plane …" Do you play on the plane? "No. But if you put your guitar into the hold you don't want baggage handlers trashing it so it's good to have a little ukulele. It's a beautiful sound." (Murphy also plays the guitar and sings.)

V is for Vegetarian, Villain

"I'm not a vegetarian for moral reasons. It's because meat is shitty. Organic meat isn't but it's easier for me to not eat it. You know with bird flu and all that shit for me it makes sense to eat vegetarian. I think it's pretty grim. A lot of people can't afford good organic meat. And then there's the stuff that says it's organic and you're not sure if it is. Also, when you work on film sets, or when I started working on film sets, generally it was safer to eat the vegetarian option. You didn't know where the fuckin' meat was coming from. When they order two-dozen chickens they are not going to get organic free-range chickens."

Surely, you can request this sort of thing now? "I'm talking about when I was a kid, starting out at 20. And it's always stayed with me and I feel healthier because of it. It's not the slaughter of animals that bothers me because that's nature. What bothers me is mass farming and the antibiotics they pump into chickens."

Murphy was nominated for Best Villain at the 2005 MTV awards for his "Scarecrow" role in Batman Begins.

You're played your fair share of villains, between Red Eye (2005) and Batman Begins (2005). Are you over it? "Yes, I think I've done my quota now. It was fun."

W is for The Wind That Shakes the Barley (the film won the Palme D'Or at Cannes in 2006)

What was making that film like? "He [Ken Loach] is a master. It was wonderful. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience to be at home, to be making a film about my heritage, about my country's history. It was very important."

What did you learn about in particular? "It was historical stuff that's been kind of swept under the carpet in Ireland, I learnt quite a bit. Stuff we don't really know or wasn't (sic) taught in school. About my own family's involvement in it: I had a second cousin who was killed by the Black and Tans. My grandfather, my father told me, was shot at by the Black and Tans. He was playing music that was banned and was shot at randomly. You learn these things and you realize (sic) it's not like a fictional character living in this alternate universe. These were actually real people who went through this 90 years ago. Younger than I am now, 10 years younger than I am now, they gave their lives for what they believed in. It's pretty monumental."

X is for X-rated

Murphy stripped off for 28 Days Later… (2002). "If it serves the story. Anything that's superfluous to the story looks pony (sic) anyway."

Y is for Yvonne

Murphy married longer-term girlfriend, video installation artist Yvonne McGuinness, from Dublin—they met in 2004 (sic) at one of his gigs when he was 20. They now live in Queen's Park, London and have a 17-month-old son, Malachy.

Z is for Frank Zappa

"I was a huge Frank Zappa fan in the beginning. I still listen to him occasionally but when I discovered him it was a huge revelation. I was about 17. I was big into the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison and stuff like that so I was never into that 'far out' stuff until I discovered Zappa. I was over here. Actually, it was my brother who discovered him. He was like 'Kill, we have to watch this'—it was a recording on BBC. It was amazing [voice trails off into the dreamy distance] … But there's some Zappa I can't listen to. It's more the instrumental stuff I like."

Murphy and his brother Paidi (sic) formed a band called Sons of Mr. Green Genes, named after one of Zappa's songs. They were once offered a five-album deal by the Acid Jazz label in London.