Автор: Colin Fraser

One of the most versatile actors working today, Cillian Murphy discusses his recent body of work with Colin Fraser.

Actor Cillian Murphy was on a punishing schedule of TV, radio, and press interviews plus the usual red carpet meet and greets. Although his publicist claimed he wasn't pushing Murphy as hard as many of his wards, the 30-year-old looked tired. We put it down to the lunch of beer and battered fish, enough to send anyone to sleep on a sunny afternoon.

Just as Breakfast on Pluto, his latest film, leaves cinemas, the bright-eyed Irishman was in town to promote his new work, The Wind that Shakes the Barley. It's a tough and provocative film that took the big prize at Cannes this year. Set in the 1920s, it stars Murphy as a young doctor who takes up arms against Britain as Ireland's civil unrest was born. It's a long way from Irish Kitty, Pluto's transvestite terrorist. "Although they both deal with the Troubles, I wouldn't draw any correlation between them," he says. "Kitten tries to highlight the absurdity and gets caught up in it, then becomes a transvestite bomber in London."

The second thing you notice about Murphy is the enormous, pale blue eyes. The first is his slight frame. Either the publicist has been punishing him too hard or he needs more beer and battered fish. One suspects it's the intensity of his profession that keeps him slim. Although he studied law, the lack of lectures afforded him more time for his band and the "performance gene" eventually took over.

"I pretty much acquired the passion as I went along. I learnt on the job really." Murphy auditioned for local theatre in Cork and before you can say 'watch this space', he has worked with some of the industry's biggest names: Danny Boyle, Christopher Nolan, Neil Jordan, and Ken Loach among them. In the last four years, Murphy has played a near-future holocaust survivor, a freedom fighter, a transvestite, and Batman's nemesis.

Breakfast on Pluto is the latest from Ireland's darling director, Neil Crying Game Jordan. "Working with him was wonderful. He has creativity coming out of every pore in his body. He gave me great freedom to go inhabit that character and make choices with it." That character was Patrick 'Kitten' Brady (sic), the central, naïve and somewhat obnoxious figure in Pat McCabe's novel, set against an IRA bombing spree in the mid-1970s.

"I didn't have any reference at the time. Kitten is a combination of the book, some research, Neil and Pat. I drew from all of that," he says. Murphy doesn't consider himself a method man and Kitten didn't come home to shock the family. "You either leave a bit of yourself there, or a bit of you comes away with it. I don't make a conscious effort to stay in character but it's bound to affect you. It's all very abstract what I'm saying now. I think my wife experiences my absences from normal life more."

Just as well, given his next role was to be an IRA freedom fighter. "You have to start with the script and start with the words on the page. If you have a bad script, the best director in the world is only ever going to make it mediocre. But if you have a great script and a great director you're going to get something special."

Which is exactly what happened with the award-winning The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Director Ken Loach "has been quietly making wonderful films for the last 30 years. Picking up that that prize in Cannes you know, that was a big deal." Did Murphy feel lucky to have been chosen for the lead? "Sure! Acting is a combination of things. It's a bit of luck, it's being in the right place at the right time. Perseverance. I am lucky that intelligent films are being made that are smart and challenging."

In Barley, he and the cast were put through boot-camp and given weapons training. Lines arrived just before shooting the scenes. "You experience events as the character experiences them, so I had to be open to the situation. I had to react as honestly as possible to what was taking place and the situation that the character finds himself in." It worked. The Wind that Shakes the Barley is being touted as the year's best film and has done phenomenal business in Ireland as well as Britain, "despite that initial knee-jerk reaction. It works as a human story and a political story. I hope that it gets people talking."

Murphy is making good use of his frequent flyer card these days, and an iPod loaded with suitably gritty groups like TV On the Radio and Broken Social Scene help fill in an increasing number of flights. "I enjoy seeing the human psyche when there's a lot at stake, that's ultimately human drama. I enjoy playing characters that are under pressure and finding out how they deal with it. The films and books that most appeal to me are like that."

It's probably what keeps him so thin.