Автор: Helen O'Hara
After playing seriously bad men in Batman Begins and Red Eye last year, Cillian Murphy is back this week as a rather more sympathetic character, Patrick "Kitten" Braden, in Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto. The story of a transvestite growing up in 1970s rural Ireland, it's a chance for the star to stretch his acting legs and try on some very fetching wigs. We caught up with Cork's favourite son earlier this week, and asked him about scarecrows, make-up, and why blondes have more fun…
So you were originally considered for this role in 1999, we hear.
Is that how long it was? Yeah. Well, I read the book when it came out, and I fell in love with the character, and I knew that Neil had the script and he gave me a screen test and I prepared very hard for the screen test. But then he went away and made another novel and made another film and didn't think the time was right to make Pluto. Then a few years later he produced a film I was in called Intermission, and I pestered him really, about it. Because I'll be 30 this year, and there's only so much longer that I can play the younger parts without a lot of make-up. So that was basically the genesis of it, yeah.
So what was the biggest challenge in playing a role like this?
People obviously latch on to the physical aspect of it, the transformative nature of it. But I kinda knew we could do that, the pretty side of it, with good cameramen and make-up artists and clothes and stuff. It was the soul of the character that I had to get, because if you don't have that, you're just a clotheshorse. The audience isn't going to invest in it and go on a journey with it. So that was really the biggest challenge, finding Kitten's soul, and unwavering optimism and strength.
How did you get to grips with the character? Kitten is such an irrepressible optimist.
It's a very, very hard way to think, to try to get yourself into that frame of mind. I think we're naturally… modern society has worn us down into these general pessimists. So it was like looking at the world without all the filters. It was a very open view of the world, but that is dangerous because then you trust too easily, and you fall in love too easily, and then you get hurt too easily. So it was quite an adjustment to try and get in that frame of mind.
But Kitten also has all this strength and keeps going through all these mishaps.
Yeah. I think in that era with all that violence you need that resilience really, to keep going.
You've made this film touching on the Troubles, and your next film, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, is about the Irish War of Independence. Is that political undertone something that you look for, or is it a co-incidence?
No, they're just good stories. Same as Neil, you just look for interesting stories to tell within that context. I suppose that inevitably, being from Ireland, it's very much a part of who you are, this history of violence and trouble, but I don't actively seek out roles. I am not a politicised person. But violence and struggle lends itself to great drama, so that's the way it goes.
On a technical note, what about Kitten's voice? How did you get that?
Well, it was kind of a process of elimination really. I didn't want her to have an "on" and an "off", the way that some drag queens and some transvestites have very much a persona that they put on when they put on the gear. So therefore I wanted her to be very feminine, organically feminine, naturally feminine. So my voice is pitched quite low, so I had to change that, and to make it quite seductive, so that when the character spoke you listened to her.
And you got to sing as well—is that a lifetime ambition fulfilled?
Well, I'm a frustrated musician, you know. So I used to play in bands for many years. Any chance to play in front of the microphone is kind of a bonus for me.
So we should get you along next time we're doing karaoke?
Yeee—no. No karaoke. This was great, because there was the live band there.
Was it nice to play such a positive character after two bad guys in a row?
Well, I actually shot it in between those two films. But yeah, it was. I fell deeply in love with the character, I had a lot of affection for the character. I just wanted to make sure she was doing OK and give her a big hug, you know. But playing those roles is interesting as well, because they go into parts of your mind that you never investigate as a normal person.
How about your appearance in the film? Do blondes have more fun?
I liked the wig. I liked the way it happened in increments, that it wasn't the full-on transformation until right at the end. And it's brilliant because right at the end when she's at her most supposedly mad, that's when she finds her objectives, her family.
I was going to ask you about the book. It changed quite a lot before it got to the screen—was there anything that you really missed?
No. There was loads of parts I'm sure, that I would have loved to play in the book, but just transposing a novel to film means that you have to edit and cut and trim. But Pat McCabe was very happy with it so that's a big thing. He's in the film. He plays the schoolteacher, so I spent a lot of time talking to him about it. And the book was my primary source material, you know. I just kept going back to it for the character.
So you're not one of these actors that just goes from the script; you do research too?
Yeah. But obviously the script is the blueprint but you can amass research as well. How much or how little of it ends up on screen is kind of irrelevant, as long as you have access to it on the way.
What about talking to real-life transvestites and that side of things?
Yeah. I went out in London and got dressed up with them and did all that. They're amazing people, amazing. Very warm and protective, you know. All they want to do is look pretty—it's not that much to ask. It's just an expression of self. Some people like to go fishing, other people like to dress up in women's clothes.
There is one scene in this film that stuck out, where Kitten has a fantasy that she sees off terrorists by spraying them with perfume. It seemed like the mirror image of the Scarecrow in Batman.
I suppose, yeah. I never made the connection, but it's a fair point. It's like some campy, gay Scarecrow!
So where does this film fit into your career? Is it your biggest stretch yet?
I don't know. I guess because I was doing the dressing in women's clothes thing, but you can't give precedence to one role than another or give more attention to one role than another. I loved doing this role and working with Neil and I would love to work with him again, and I loved the character, but you're only as good as your last film. You have to keep on and keep an eye on finding other stuff, because if you were to say that that was the ultimate film then you'd never do anything again.
But you've made a huge variety of different genres of films so far—is that a conscious decision?
Yeah, that's the only thing I kind of insist upon is diversity, as far as I can. I mean the actors that I admire most are the ones that do the unexpected, the ones that you don't recognise from the last role. That's what appeals to me most about making films, because that's why I became an actor. Not being a personality, but just being a really good actor.
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