The quiet passion of Cillian Murphy
Rolling Stone UK|June/July 2023
More than 25 years after his debut, the Peaky star remains driven by his craft, bringing an intensity to every part, including his latest as J Robert Oppenheimer, inventor of the atomic bomb. Here, he discusses starring in and producing a ­ film depicting the dark story of Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries, as well as reprising his role as Tommy Shelby on the big screen.
By Christina Newland. Photography by Kosmas Pavlos
The quiet passion of Cillian Murphy

The sun is shining in the small riverside town of New Ross, but it’s still chilly when the wind bites; a feeble attempt at early spring. It’s Good Friday, and I’m standing outside St . Mary ’s, an imposing defunct Catholic school in rural County Wexford, Ireland. Crew members scamper towards their lights and cranes. Two rows of haggard schoolgirls, heads lolling, are led by a nun through the yard. Incongruously, through the sunshine, a snow machine periodically emits suds that melt on your face as you pass: this is Christmas 1984 via Easter weekend 2023. There, amid a clutch of equipment and crew members in the usual onset menagerie, stands Cillian Murphy, producer and star of Small Things Like These, in a cinematic return to his native Ireland.

Murphy isn’t easy to spot straight away. Your eyes don’t immediately land on him as if following an unholy halo of superstar light; he is not presiding over anything or taking up extra room anywhere. That may seem strange, given that many of us have spent years watching his charisma on screen cut swathes through every scene, or gazing into those otherworldly ice-blue eyes that occasionally offer a flash of gangster malevolence.

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