Cillian Murphy: The 60 Minutes Interview

2023 was the year the world learned to pronounce Killian the ancient Irish name seemed to be on everyone's lips as the

film Oppenheimer became a blockbuster with 13 Oscar nominations including best actor for Killian Murphy Murphy has

worked non-stop for nearly 30 years but it was the Epic drama of the atomic bomb that ignited a star in this moment with

a Golden Globe under his pork pie hat and the Oscars 3 weeks away Murphy is more famous than welln so we set out to learn more we were warned the

47-year-old Irishman is reserved and wouldn't talk about himself but we discovered finding Killian Murphy

depends on where you look the story will continue in a moment [Music]

Ireland's Dingle Peninsula was named for a goddess before such things were written and for 6,000 years stories have passed by

ear so if verse inhabits every Irish Soul then in a Country Pub Killian Murphy is

among peers as he would have it just a man with a pint to lift and no Fame to Bear what is the meaning of Ireland oh

man to you I don't think I can answer that question satisfactorily it's defined who who I am as a person um and my

values it's just home home includes his wife of 20 years two teenage sons and Scout a lab named for the character in

tequilla Mockingbird that figures Murphy has always let stories lead his path you find so much empathy in novels you know because there you are

putting yourself into somebody else's point of view and I've always been a big reader when a movie can connect with someone and they feel seen or feel heard or a

novel can change somebody's life or piece a music an album can change someone's life and I've had all that happen to me and that's the power of

good art I think there's a straight line from the music in the pub to Oppenheimer I think they're from the same Source I mean I really do I I don't see I see it's all in a Continuum you know what I

mean it's just a form of expression expression in the eyes of J Robert Oppenheimer the physicist who created the atom bomb but never

controlled it they detonated too high in the air the blast won't be as powerful with respect Dr Oppenheimer we'll take it from

here I remember reading at the beginning about him that he was more riddle than answer and I thought oh okay wow that's

that's interesting I'm curious about your notes riddle was in this script by writer director Christopher Nolan printed in Red so it couldn't be

photocopied I did genuinely think it's one of the greatest screenplays I'd ever read and you told him I'll do it I mean I said I'd do it before I read it I always that's quite a risk why would you

do that it's always paid off for me you know in every film that I've worked with him on I'm not going back I'm not going back there have been

six Chris Nolan films for Murphy Dunkirk Inception and three Batman titles would you like to see my mask you

told me that getting a film made and getting it seen yeah is a miracle it is and then if if if it's anyway good that's a miracle and then if it connects with audiences that's a miracle so it's

a miracle upon Miracle upon miracal to have a film like Oppenheimer it really is his op himer was not so much a

miracle as hard work he lost 28 lbs to get the silhouette then he rose to the character step by step over six months

reading listening to oppenheimer's lectures and covering miles on the Beach Performing for scout I remember at one point I said to

Chris Chris there appears to be um he appears to speak Dutch here and I think he's giving a lecture in Dutch here what are we going to do about about that and Chris said you mean what are you going to do about

that what's he saying Murphy says he put all he learned in the back of his mind and acted on Instinct I think instinct is your most powerful tool that you have

as an actor nothing must be predetermined so therefore you mustn't have a plan about how you're going to play stuff and I love that it's like being buffeted by the wind and being buffered by

emotion you don't get to commit the sin and then I was all feel sorry for you Emily Blunt plays oppenheimer's tormented

wife you pull yourself together he's very visceral to be in a scene with it's like you he transports you he'll kidnap you in a scene my

favorite acting moment of his in Oppenheimer is the scene after the bomb has been dropped and he's addressing all of the people at Los

Alamos the world well remember this day he somehow welds together the concept of

being proud of what they did yes and regretting it very deeply yes yes all at the same time I know it's too soon to

it's too soon to determine what the results of the bombing are but I'll bet the Japanese didn't like [Music]

it no one moment is about one thing and if you're as agile as someone like Killian and as vulnerable and as clever you can play it all but I don't

know if many people can do what he does Killian Murphy discovered agility in his hometown cork his mother was a teacher his father a school

inspector in high school Murphy and his brother had a band performing led to acting class and his first play this is more like the

size of a storage room than a theater yeah but that's all we were used to his first theater 1996 age 20 the play was

disco pigs which grew to bigger theaters and became a movie why did you think you could be an actor I didn't I was very comfortable on stage in front of an

audience from when I was little I never had any nerves doing that it felt um natural you know and thrilling in this

theater what did you learn about acting there's a a fire escape door right there and that's a kind of an Alleyway there and so you get a lot of like drunk guys

out of their mind bashing up against the the fire escape door and it's used to kind of energize us so I remember learning about like taking whatever you

have sort of responding to whatever the energy is in the room and using it that's really good training yeah maintaining your character with the drunk guy yelling through the fire

escape door yeah yeah I and I and I think theater is such a a an absurd undertaking when you think of it you know because at any point it could

collapse and go wrong it's dangerous yeah and I L that aspect of it yeah that love led him to drop law school and since then there have been a dozen plays

and 40 movies I love it when it becomes an immersive experience um uh I love getting lost in it in the

early days that was with theater it felt kind of extraordinary that with just the Power of Will and a couple of lights and a good script we were creating this world um so so it's that's kind of

addictive when it works well it worked well in 2013 in a breakout role as a leading man in the series peaky blinders Murphy

plays Thomas Shelby who survives World War I to lead a family of gangsters you mostly in the war so you know the battle

plans always change and get up well here it is they're all damaged broken men but something got knocked in him and he came

back with this incredible drive and ambition and like I'm not afraid of death so now I can do whatever I [Music]

want in Tommy Shelby you created a sympathetic relatable monster kill and

kill the only way to my people listen I like to be challenged and I I when I read something I want to go I don't

really know how I can do that in 10 years of peaky blinders Murphy came into his own I heard very early on in my career a director it was one of the sydneys it could have been Sydney no

matter it could have been Sydney poock but one of them said it takes 30 years to make an actor it's not just technique and experience and all that it's it's

it's maturing as a as a as a human being and and uh trying to Grapple with life and figure it out and all of that stuff so by the time you've been doing it for

30 years you've all of that banked hopefully and eventually then I think you'll get to a point where you might be an okay

actor maturing is the theme of Murphy's next film based on the novel small things like these he plays Bill Furlong

tormented by by Injustice his wife fears his empathy will upend their lives don't you have a question as if you want to get on in this

life there are things you have to ignore that's eileene Walsh no actor has known Murphy longer she was his first

partner in Disco pigs 28 years ago is his work ethic rooted in fear or Joy oh that's a good

question I think it can only be Joy but it sometimes takes a lot of pain to get to that Joy the deeper we go with acting the cost is greater for

us and physically I know Oppenheimer you know has costed him for the weight loss he insisted and you know it was his choice

to do but and it was the the right choice to create that amazing silhouette but from the very beginning our warm-ups

for disco pigs involved us punching each other quite hard and like going for it and then

bursting out into it this huge ball of velocity coming into it was the beginning of an Oppenheimer was the whole kind of atom of

[Music] us now after three decades of work Killian Murphy is cast in the most

familiar Irish Legend of all maybe there is gold a 24 Karat goldplated statue at the end of of his spectrum of talent you

have screwed this up though you know in what way you used to be an actor yeah and now you're a movie star oh

okay am I I think you could be both you know I I I've never understood that term really movie star I've always just felt like I'm an actor that's I think a term

for other people rather than for me