Right now Cillian Murphy, Oscar-nominated and the first Irishman to win Best Actor at the BAFTAs is just about the most discussed actor around and an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" this week proves that the "Oppenheimer" star just as humble and interesting as we suspected.
Interviewing the "Oppenheimer" and "Small Things Like These" star, Cillian Murphy in Cork and Kerry, "60 Minute" host, Scott Pelley, started his 13-minute segment with the line "2023 was the year the world learned to pronounce Cillian." The Corkman wowed in Christopher Nolan's World War II epic "Oppenheimer" and has been in constant in entertainment industry discussions since the movie's $952.04 million box office success.
This "60 Minute" interview shows Murphy speaking about home, honing his talents, and how he doesn't see himself as a Hollywood movie star.
Born in Cork, where he started his career and now with two homes and his family based in Ireland, when asked what the country means to him Murphy answered: "I don't think I can answer that question satisfactorily. It's defined who I am as a person and my values. It's just home."
Murphy went on to say just how important reading novels has been in his life and that the screenplay for "Oppenheimer", written by Christopher Nolan, was one of the best he'd ever read. He even joked that he might have even accepted the role without reading it, showing just how trusted the name of Nolan is in Hollywood. "Oppenheimer" is the sixth Nolan movie Murphy has starred in, the others being "Dunkirk," "Inception" and three "Batman" titles.
A famously committed actor, Murphy lost 20 kilos for the role and even learned a 30k word speech in Dutch for this intense performance. During the "60 Minute" interview co-star, Emily Blunt, who plays his tormented wife, called Murphy's performance as "visceral".
She said "It's like you, he transports you. He'll kidnap you in a scene."
She added "If you're as agile as someone like Cillian, and as vulnerable, and as clever, you can play it all. But I don't know if many people can do what he does."
The interview goes on to examine how Murphy's career started out and how he ended up dropping out of law school. Over the years he has emerged as one of Ireland's and now the world's greatest actors but his first major role came back in 2001 with the movie "Disco Pigs". Now 23 years later Cillian Murphy has won a Golden Globe, become the first Irishman to win a BAFTA and is well on the way to becoming the first to nab Best Actor at the Oscars.
Speaking to "60 Minutes" he said "I heard very early on in my career, a director, it was one of the Sydneys, it could've been Sidney Lumet or it could've been Sydney Pollack, 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 maturing as a human being and 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 have all of that banked, hopefully. And eventually, then I think you'll get to a point where you might be an okay actor. "
We reckon he's there, however, when asked if he considers himself an actor or a movie star, Murphy said "Oh OK, am I? I think you can be both. You know-- 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."
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