Автор: David Ehrenstein

"When you make movies in Ireland and England about issues like terrorism, it can be very uncomfortable personally," says writer-director Neil Jordan, whose current Breakfast on Pluto—like such past works as The Butcher Boy and The Crying Game—is set against the Catholic vs. Protestant conflicts of the 1970s in a startlingly "up-close and personal" manner.

"In Ireland, that's all over now," he says. "But those stories have a resonance for the rest of the world in a strange way—like whenever a car blows up anywhere."

Breakfast on Pluto is the picaresque tale of a gay cross-dressing foundling, who comes into conflict with his Catholic-priest father (played with masochistic gusto by Liam Neeson) … all the while searching for a birth mother who allegedly bears a striking resemblance to musical-comedy star Mitzi Gaynor.

"I've got five kids, and the need of a boy for his mother is very important," says Jordan, briefly visiting Los Angeles to promote this adaptation of Patrick McCabe's terse, fragmented novel—a work clearly close to his heart.

"It's about this very flamboyant character trying to make sense of his life. But he's struggling with his sexuality. He knew he wanted to wear women's clothes the first time he put on a pair of high heels."

Jordan has famously touched on this area before in The Crying Game. But the star of that 1992 thriller, Jaye Davidson, was, he notes, "just being himself," whereas Cillian Murphy, the brilliant young actor playing Patrick "Kitten" Braden, is not only not a "tranny-boy," he's just become a father.

"I didn't want him to play it camp at all," says Jordan. "I didn't want La Cage aux Folles. Remember: It takes place during the 'glam rock' period, 1971–72, with people like Marc Bolan wearing makeup. Patrick is just a bit more feminine than the style was at the time. But I didn't know if there was anyone who could realize that part. I did a test with all of the hot young Irish actors, and Cillian, who had done very little at the time, was really amazing. That was about four years ago. It took that long to get this film together. I went off and wrote a novel, and every time I'd meet Cillian he'd say, 'We've got to make this before I get too old.' He makes it very, very specific. He doesn't say, 'Look at me—I'm a straight man playing a tranny.' And Cillian doesn't blink, you know. He learned how at a very young age."

There's quite a lot that Murphy—who flew to L.A. from Ireland for just a few hours to promote the film and fly right back—knows.

"I think it was the whole physical side of it that attracted me," the actor recalls. Physically tough overall (in the mode of his compatriot Colin Farrell) but equipped with a strikingly pretty face, Murphy was thrilled at the prospect of a story that runs the gamut from wild comedy to deepening tragedy—with musical numbers and even a magic show in between. "We both knew we could do the looking-pretty stuff," he says. "What I enjoyed was dressing up as an Indian squaw for the 'Running Bear and Little White Dove' number—and singing like Nancy Sinatra."

It's inevitable that the issue of "How do you think playing a part like this will affect your career?" would arise for a young actor who has been vaulting up the "Go Get" lists after his work in such diverse fare as 28 Days Later..., Batman Begins, and Red Eye. But, as might be expected of an actor this daring, Murphy saw Kitten as the role of a lifetime.

"He's a very unique character," Murphy says. "None of what he does is an affectation or a contrivance. Some drag queens will have an 'on' and an 'off' switch. Kitten doesn't have that. He's Kitten all the way."

And that way, says Murphy—who's off to shoot Sunshine, a science-fiction epic for Trainspotting director Danny Boyle—is one we would do well to follow.

"We've all got to find our inner Mitzi Gaynor!"