Автор: Gaynor Flynn


Being the latest name on everyone's lips has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are directors will suddenly take your calls and you can audition for those sought after roles that you would not have got within a hair's breath of before. The disadvantages are that what was previously considered your private life now becomes fair game for the tabloids. Just ask the very private, recently turned 30-year-old actor Cillian (pronounced Kill-ian) Murphy. Two years ago no one had heard of him and if they had, they couldn't pronounce his name. But all that changed in a flash in 2005 with his compelling performances in two high profiled Hollywood films; Batman Returns and Red Eye. Entertainment Weekly placed him third on their list of the "most valuable players" of the year and suddenly everyone wanted to know the Irish lad from Cork.

 

The Law Comes First

This year is shaping up to be even bigger. The London based actor has two films due out in the next few months and both performances are so divergent it's hard to imagine the one actor inhabiting both so authentically. In Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto (out August 17), Murphy plays an endearing transvestite called Patrick "Kitten" Braden in 1960s/70s London. In Ken Loach's Palm (sic) D'Or winning The Wind That Shakes the Barley (out September 14), Cillian takes on the role of a medical student turned IRA volunteer in Ireland in the 20s. He's mesmerising in both, and you can't help but feel that this barely scratches the surface of what Murphy is capable of. It's even more impressive when you consider that he came to acting relatively late and if it weren't for the odd twist of fate, no one outside the law profession would have any idea who the hell Cillian Murphy is.
In 1996 he was studying a law degree at the University College, Cork and playing in his rock band with his younger brother Paidi (sic). He'd been "mad about music" since he was 12-years-old when suddenly, The Sons of Mr. Green Genes (named after a track of Frank Zappa's album Hot Rats), were offered a record deal by the Acid Jazz label in London.
"It was brilliant like," says Murphy, "it's what every young fella dreams about, but my parents were freaked about the whole rock music thing, they thought they were losing both their sons to the devil," he laughs. But when the record company came back with a "fuckin' pathetic" offer, the decision to walk away was easier than he thought. "The deal was, they'd give us 50 quid a week and for that they'd own everything, all the songs that I wrote for the band, our records, and us as well. So we told them to feck off."

 

Rocking the Stage

He decided it was time to ditch the idea of being a rock star, along with his studies, "I was failing anyway," he smiles. Murphy was clearly in need of a new creative outlet, which he found when he happened to catch "an incredibly cool play" called Disco Pigs, by new Irish playwright Edna Walsh. It had such a profound impact on him that in one of those spur-of-the-moment decisions that can change your life, he went backstage and asked for an audition. "I wouldn't say I stalked him [the director] exactly," smiles Murphy. "But I wasn't going to take no for an answer and eventually he got sick of me and gave me a part." What started out as a three week run in Cork became an 18 month tour of Ireland and eventually the West End of London—not bad for someone who had no formal acting training other than a drama module at high school.
So were his parents pleased he'd changed profession? "Ah well no, not exactly," he laughs. "You have to remember they were quite keen on the idea of having a lawyer in the family and acting was definitely one step up from rock music, but only one step."

 

One At a Time, Please

So why choose? Did he ever consider doing a Keanu Reeves or Russell Crowe? "I think you need to concentrate on one thing and I use (sic) to get a high from music but I got a bigger rush from acting and so chasing that feeling is what it's all about for me."
Murphy is a firm believer that "things happen for a reason" and his decision to go with acting was obviously the right one because almost immediately things began to happen. Kirsten Sheridan—daughter of Jim—saw the play as well as Cillian's potential and turned the play into a film. In 2001 Murphy starred as an out of control youth obsessed with the dysfunctional girl next door (Elaine Cassidy). It's a stand out teen drama, superbly acted and Murphy's taut, intense performance brought him to the attention of filmmaker Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) who cast him the following year in the surprise horror-sci-fi hit, 28 Days Later..., which in turn brought him to the attention of Hollywood.
Since then he's played a deserter in Cold Mountain alongside Jude Law and a love sick butcher boy who vies for the attentions of Scarlett Johansson in Girl With A Pearl Earring. He's made one smart acting choice after another and interestingly enough, he's managed to avoid being typecast as the pretty romantic lead—and that's no easy feat when you're as pretty as Murphy.

 

I'm Not Pretty Enough

Much has been made of his appearance, particularly his ice blue eyes, which are indeed very round and very striking. He's beautiful, no doubt about it and he'd give Orlando Bloom a run for his money any day and yet unlike Bloom, who continues to play one romantic leading man after another, Murphy has so far clocked up performances as an evil doctor, a psychotic terrorist, a dysfunctional teenager, a suicidal patient, a transvestite, and an idealistic IRA volunteer. While no two roles are alike, all of the characters he's chosen to play are noticeably damaged. Is he consciously trying to divert people's attention away from his looks and subvert their expectations? "I don't know man," he shrugs clearly embarrassed when it comes to discussing his looks. "As an actor, your appearance is obviously important, but only in so far as the work. It's the same when people call me an Irish actor. I'm not an Irish actor, I'm an actor who's Irish and I want to play all different types of roles and while I'm very proud to be Irish I don't think you should be limited by your extraction which roles you play and what I look like shouldn't limit me either."
While being pretty in Hollywood is a given, being too pretty can be disadvantageous, just ask people like Academy Award winning Halle Berry or Charlize Theron, former models who spent the early part of their careers fighting to be taken seriously, as did Johnny Depp. From day one however, the astute Murphy went for left of centre roles that had nothing to do with beauty, and when he did decide to take on a romantic role in Intermission his character was "a complete fucking misfit," he laughs. Murphy's attitude seems to be, yeah I'm pretty, get over it.

 

Fearing and Loathing the Role

"There has to be an element of fear," he says when asked about what attracts him to a role. "In Batman Returns (sic), it was could I make it at that level, you know could I pull off this character inside this huge American blockbuster." The attraction on 28 Days Later... was "Danny Boyle" and the fact that it was his first big lead role. "At each stage there's been fear, and if you don't have the fear of it, if you're not scared of being able to do it then there's no point for me, there's no challenge."
Kitten was easily his "scariest" role so far. Not that he was worried about what playing a transvestite might do to his image. "Fuck image, when a great part comes along you grab it. What worried me was could I reach this as an actor? I just didn't know if I could get there. I mean the physical stuff didn't worry me, I thought I'd make a pretty girl," he laughs. "They can do miraculous things with make-up you know. But the challenge was whether or not I could make it resonate with an audience?"
He admits that this was a part he "really, really wanted, and that's very scary," he says. "Especially when you know there's two or three other guys after the same role, but you get what you're meant to get I think." And he was meant to get Kitten.
"The Butcher Boy had a huge impact on me growing up. It was one of those films that I saw over and over again. I thought the characters were wonderful and when I read Breakfast on Pluto (both penned by author Patrick McCabe) it had the same kind of impact on me so I was a little in love with Kitten long before I ever thought I'd get to play her, so I put everything I had into the audition."

 

Whatever It Takes

Just how far he's prepared to go to get a role soon becomes obvious when he talks about donning lingerie, stilettos, feather boas and stockings. "What wouldn't I have done," he laughs. "Let's just say that if Neil had asked me to run up and down Grafton Street naked, I would have done it."
Heels and stockings proved to be enough. Once he had the role, he then spent a lot of time looking at women. "It's not as creepy as it sounds," he smiles. "You know I was watching women and observing how they behave to try and make the character more feminine as opposed to camp."
He also hung out in clubs in London and became friends with a lot of the girls. Was he ever recognised in the clubs? "No man, nobody ever recognises me in or out of a dress." Did he discover any insights into the female of the species? "I understand the efforts that's required to look pretty." What about the difference between men and women? "That's too fucking profound a question for me," he laughs. "Women are smarter," is all he will say.
Murphy, who grew up in the south of Ireland, in a "quite middle class happy childhood" has no direct experiences of the troubles of the north, which form the backdrop to the story. "Both my parents are teachers," he said, "and I'm the eldest child [of four] so I was never an outsider like Kitten so there were no parallels and I don't think there ever needs to be parallels. I don't think because you play a character you have to have had the same experiences in life. I mean if that's the case there's only a limited number of roles you can play as an actor you know."
Having said that, his rock star experience came in very handy when he got to perform a number in Pluto. "Yeah, it was a dream of mine, although I didn't imagine myself in a dress when I was doing it," he quips.
He knew he was ready to take on the role, when he got wolf whistles. "The whole experience was brilliant. I felt very free playing Kitten. I think if you are very grounded in who you are, and if you know yourself it allows you complete freedom to take on anything."

 

Just An Ordinary Guy

Murphy does indeed seem to know exactly who he is and what he wants. Besides the emotionally complex role of Kitten, he's also taken the politically charged Loach film in his stride. The film is set to be controversial, and has already been labelled anti British, to which Murphy snorts "bollocks." He won't however discuss the politics of the film. He is equally tight-lipped when it comes to his personal life. He'll happily "waffle on" about the work but clamps down anytime his wife—video installation artist Yvonne McGuinness—is mentioned, or his baby son Malachy.
His theory is that if "you act like a celebrity you get treated like one," so he doesn't. He also doesn't "do" premiers or parties or basically anything that whiffs of fame in any shape or form. "My home life is very ordinary," he insists. "I'm very ordinary, I take out the bins on bin night, I change nappies, I just do the usual stuff and that's why I admire people like Johnny Depp and Sean Penn, because they're gifted actors who rarely turn up in the gossip magazines." Well maybe not so much these days, but they both definitely had their wild phase. Murphy's tactic is obvious. If he convinces the media that he's just a regular boring guy the interest in him will go away. Unfortunately with two stand out performances this year, and another three films due for release in 2007 no one is going to think for a minute, that Cillian Murphy is anything other than intriguing.