Happy Sad Confused - Cillian Murphy

Episode Date: October 10, 2019

He generally doesn't do a lot of interviews so that makes this extended chat with the great Cillian Murphy all the more special. Cillian visits Josh to chat about his beginnings, collaborations with Danny Boyle and Christopher Nolan, and why he keeps coming back for more "Peaky Blinders".  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

D.C. high volume, Batman. The Dark Nights definitive DC comic stories adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear, I have to make them afraid. He's got a motorcycle. Get after him or have you shot. What do you mean blow up the building? From this moment on,

none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, Sad, Confused begins now. Today on Happy, Sad, Confused, Killion Murphy returns with Season 5 of Peaky Blinders. Hey guys, I'm Josh Harrow. It's welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused.

This is a special one. I say that a lot. Okay, I admit it, I say every episode special. But Killian Murphy is the guest on today's Happy Say I Confused. And if you can detect the emotion in my otherwise emotionalist body, I actually feel excitement today, guys, because Killian Murphy's been on the list for a while. And he's a tough one, guys, because he, A, doesn't do that much press. And B, doesn't do it because he frankly doesn't, and I don't blame him.

He doesn't enjoy doing a lot of conversing about his craft and acting. He's not in it for the fame. he's not in it for the celebrity. He's so anti all of that stuff. And for that reason, A, I was worried about even, I was wondering when we'd actually get him in, to be frank. I've been working on this for a while. And B, I didn't know how it would go. Like, would we be miserable to be here? Am I forcing him against his will? Would he hate me? Yada yada. All that stuff. Well, the good news is he came. He was happy. He was in a great mood. And we got along. He was, he's a big old film nerd like me, like you guys

so we got on famously we spent a lot of time afterwards just chit-chatting about other movies that we've seen recently like he he couldn't have been better and I'm so relieved that he turned out to be as charming and delightful

as he was see just because you hate doing press doesn't mean you're a bad guy it often actually means you're a good guy so Killion Murphy if you don't know has been starring the last few years on BBC's Piki Blinder's, which is one of the best shows on TV for my money. I discovered it way too late, like about a year ago.

I caught up on all the episodes, and the new season is out there right now. It's on Netflix, the fifth season of the show. He plays Thomas Shelby, of course, kind of the leader of this crime family. He's now in politics in the fifth season. Such an amazing ensemble of actors that have repeated throughout. And now this season, we get Tom Hardy back in the mix for a little bit. Anya Taylor Joy, we got our friend Sam Claflin on the series now. Well worth your time.

If you haven't caught up with Peeky Blinders, I encourage you to do so right now. And of course, you know, in this conversation, we talk about a bunch of other things. Killian has worked with some of the best filmmakers out there, whether it's Neil Jordan, Danny Boyle. We go in hard on 28 days later and sunshine, which I love. I absolutely adore. and also just, you know, his association with Christopher Nolan, which I think a lot of audiences associate with Killian's career. He, of course, was in Batman. Actually, all three of the Batman films, most notably Batman begins as Jonathan Crane, aka Scared Crow. What you may not know

is he was almost Batman, aka Bruce Wayne himself. He was up for that role. There's actually audition footage on YouTube. You can find a little snippet. of him in the back costume. It didn't work out. He wasn't right for that role, but what Christopher saw something really special in that audition and decided to pivot and make him Scarecrow.

And ever since then, they've worked together on Inception and Dunkirk, and I'm sure they're going to continue working through the rest of their respective careers. So great things can come. Even if you don't get the part you necessarily go in for, other great things can happen out of it. So we're all the better for it, too. So very proud of this conversation, very

out of this conversation, very happy that Killian came by. I hope you guys enjoyed as much as I did. And other than that, what else to mention? I mentioned last week, we've debuted the new Paramount Network series. If you haven't checked out on location, please do so. I think you're going to enjoy it. If you love movies as much as I do, this is a show all about celebrating classic movies and the classic locations where they shot with amazing guests. The first episode is up with the great Lance Reddick talking about the John Wick movies. It's on Paramount Network's YouTube page. It's on Paramount Network's Facebook page. If you dig through my social media, Joshua Horowitz, I've been posting about it so you can't miss it and some

really cool guests to come, including Kevin Smith and In Night Shyamalan and Zoe Deschanel and a ton more. So yeah, good stuff happening all around. Hope you guys are enjoying all the cool fall movies that are starting to come out. If you've seen Joker, hope you dig it. If you didn't, that's okay too. Let's agree to disagree. And that's all I'm going to say now. Let's go to the main event, shall we? Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to happy, say, and confused, spread the good word of my little podcast, and enjoy this chat with Mr. Killian Murphy.

Thank you for coming by today, man. Pleasure. Thanks for having me. Big admirer of your work, you've been on the list for a while to talk to. I know this isn't like the favorite thing to do for you, so I'll try to make this as painless as possible. Yeah, I feel like I've been circling you, whether consciously or unconsciously. I've had, like, everyone, Danny Boyle, Chris Nolan, Brendan Gleason, it's like, this is your life, Killian Murphy, around you, building up to you.

Peaky Blinders, might as well start there. Sure. Because that's what the name of the game is right now. This is a great, great show. Oh, thank you. I've been a fan the last couple. I was a late bloomer. I think maybe a lot of Americans were.

They took them a little time to catch up to what was cooking with BBC. Um, you've done what, 30, I'm trying to think, season five now, probably 30 hours of this. Yes, exactly. Yeah. So, you know, as somebody that probably likes to mix it up and keep it interesting, that's the nature of the job. Are you surprised that this series, this role is still as richly rewarding for you five seasons in? I'm, I'm delighted and surprised and, you know, humbled really. Um, from the get go, from reading it, I knew was kind of something. special. The writing was so strong and so confident and original. This is seven years ago. We started it, so it's quite a while. And I was aware that something was kind of happening in television, you know, because we'd all watched those kind of seminal American shows. Like the Breaking Bads. Exactly. Okay, sure. Yeah. And

I think the BBC were consciously trying to compete, if possible, with those kind of shows. And Steve just happened to step into that moment with these scripts. And I happened to be looking for television at that time. And it was all this lovely kind of confluence of sort of coincidence and serendipity. And it just happened, you know. You mentioned Stephen. And this is Stephen Knight, of course, who's your close collaborator on this one. The brain's behind this wonderful, crazy.

ensemble and saga now. The way it's developed is fascinating. I mean, I almost say to like people that don't know anything about it. It's like imagine like a crime, like the godfather stretched over 30 hours. Like it's it's got that kind of like intricacy within a family played against such a rich tapestry, a rich time period, a rich location. And to see sort of the way these interpersonal relationships kind of intermingle. with history. Yes. It's quite fascinating. What was Stephen's like, did Stephen pitch you or was it on the page what he gave you?

I had met him before for another movie a couple of years before that and we'd gotten on really well and it didn't work out for whatever reason. And so I was an admirer of him and I knew that when I, when we sat down together, we kind of had a, you know, we got on very well. Yeah. And we, and so then when it came around again, I was aware that he was a proper talent at that stage. And then, no, I think he talked to me about it and he talked to me about, you know, what it was influenced by, which was really, you know, the fact that in Britain, television generally had been about the upper classes, the aristocracy, the sort of upstairs downstairs type.

of story and that there had never really been a piece of television that sort of mythologized the working class in Britain, which you guys here in America do so brilliantly, you know, mythologizing cowboys and, you know, Italian Americans, which are all effectively immigrants, essentially. And we, well, I speak as an Irishman, but in Britain, that that hadn't really happened so Steve was was about was about I suppose addressing that and also setting a story not in London but in Birmingham which is the second city but for a long time was not a very fashionable city and but he wrote about where he's from which is Birmingham and this story was handed down to him by his uncles and his mother so he lived with it for a long time before

put pen to paper so it was very rich now inevitably it's um it's it's it's it is a gangster piece and it in it and and uh it is of that genre but i think it has a different spin on it because it's british yeah and because it's between the wars it's it's you see you see these men and they're sort of stumbling through life suffering the aftermath of being, you know, ejected from the most mechanized, most horrific bloodshed ever known to man to that point, which was the First World War. And they're trying to have to just having to adjust to society and having to find a place of themselves. And each of them, the characters in our show, sort of dealing with that in a different way. So that was a very exciting setup.

So from the beginning, all the characters were broken. Yeah. And that's a good place to start as an actor. You don't want a fixed guy. You want the guy that's trying to piece himself back together. Exactly. Yeah. And he, yeah. So is, are you just still discovering new things about Thomas, five seasons in? Yes, for sure. And he writes it so elegantly. He, you know, he, he, he reveals very, very slowly, it's like peeling back layers every, every season. And then you get to go, you get insights back into what Tommy was like pre the First World War. Right. And I think Steve's arc is to ultimately redeem him.

Because, you know, he is, in Steve's words, a, you know, a good man who does bad things to a good end. Right. Which I really like, you know. And he's a contradiction as we all are, you know, as human beings. So, yeah, every, every series, now he's a politician, he's an MP. How do you reconcile that with being a gangster? How do you reconcile being a father with being a gangster? How do you reconcile being a husband?

How do you deal with an ideology, a fascist ideology, something that you can't, something that you can't use machine guns against? So all of that stuff, it's just very rich. Rich territory for you. Yeah, you mentioned that the rise of fascism, which is kind of like the backdrop of this season. You bring in someone I've gone to know well, your Sam Claflin, a very talented actor.

I mean, I've never seen him in a role like this, and that's sort of the fun of this one. He slashes it in this. Oh, he kills it in this one. Yeah. Yeah, stay through the last episode. It's amazing. You end the season on a really great, powerful note.

And it creeps up on you, too, that character. I've been struck from the start. of the show. I mean, you obviously, you anchor this show, but you're surrounded by this amazing ensemble of actors, some of which have been consistent throughout, and some that come and go. Your buddy Tom Hardy. I mean, delicious to watch

always. You guys have worked together a few times. Yeah, we go back, me and Tom, I mean, I kind of knew him years ago when we were both kind of getting going, and then we did a few Chris Nolan films together

or well we were in inception together and then I think I was in one of the dark or one of the Batman films that he was in yeah he was in right arises third yeah and then and then every year in Piki so you know we keep in touch

we get on great and I love acting opposite him he's such a such an inventive unpredictable actor that's what you want yeah and and it feels like they're sort of kind of brothers from another mother or something like that. You know, they were both in the war together

and they have this amazing kind of antagonistic friendship, which I really enjoy. So, yeah, and then people like Sam Neal. Fantastic. You know, Adrian Brody, just Helen McCrory, who I adore, you know, these fantastic actors. And then in the season you bring in people like, On Your Tail or Joy, I mean, it's always keeps it interesting.

So for someone like Tom, I'm just curious. I'm an actor perspective on somebody that's like a friend of his. Like, I don't know about you. I as just like a fan of the medium of acting and just seeing performers I respond to. I like it when actors make big choices that go for it. You know, I think I've been doing Bain, which could have. He could have fallen flat on his face. And I was just like obsessed with what he did there.

I don't know about you. Loved it, yeah. Right? Loved it. I mean, what is your kind of philosophy on, like, is it good? I mean, this maybe is the wrong phrase. but go big or go home. You don't always need to go big on a character

if it doesn't necessitate that. But you do want to make strong choices. For sure. And I think it comes from the environment that you're in, which is generally created by the director. Right. Now, for example, if you're on a Nolan picture, inevitably Chris has written it.

Yes. And he's directing it. So, and he's, you know, one of the greatest filmmakers we have today. Yeah. So you're in a really safe place to create and to sort of, explore and, you know, try stuff that might in another context seem outrageous.

But, you know, when you have the confidence of a filmmaker who is going to walk you through it and protect you on set and in the edit and know how to calibrate that. Yeah. And I think those situations, that's what every actor hopes for is that that safety net, that place where you can experiment and go big and it might not always work. But then you can change it. And, you know, that's what we all hope for, I think. Can you, so like for something like Thomas, who is 180 from you, as far from you seemingly as possible, I would hope.

Believe me, I'm not that interesting. Well, I'll be the judge of that. But, I mean, even in the physicality of him, the way he carries himself, I'm sure you're not a smoker, I don't think. No. You've had to smoke a lot of fake cigarettes over the last six years. Yeah, yeah, like I suppose when I read it, I read the scripts and I knew this guy had to be sort of, he had to be physically intimidating. He had to be intimidating in his presence. So we, it was an exercise in kind of trying to find ways that me, who's not a very physically imposing person, could embody this character who was that sort of physically imposed. So, you know, it's dropped the voice. I was going to say the voice is, and that's something that I've noticed in a bunch of your characters over the years.

Like, that's always, that can really tell a lot about a character. Well, it's a way of finding, you know, you can find a way into a character through various ways. And I spent a lot of time with Tommy trying to find ways. Like he's a decorated soldier, a veteran of the First World War, right? So the guy is, you know, he's seen stuff that you and I couldn't even begin to conceive. So then the haircut, the voice, the walk, the costumes, you do everything you can to make you not look like just an actor has walked in off the street. So it was a long process to get there and it's kind of evolved over the course of the show. It must boggle your mind that the haircut has become, I'm sure in every interview you talk about the hair cut.

Well, it's nuts, isn't it? I mean, it's become a thing. It's like you've started a trend, like that's lasted. It's like a, it's not since the friend's Rachel haircut. It's, yeah, it's beloved of, like, fashionistas and hipsters. And I, you know, the weird thing is I keep saying to them, you realize it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's to prevent against lice. It's, just be aware. Nothing more trendy than.

going against the whole ways. Yeah, in hair infestation. But it's a very graphic silhouette. Yes. Do you know what I mean? Of course, yeah. With that haircut, the cap and the costume, it became instantly sort of recognizable as a piquy thing.

Again, it was a total fluke, but we just chanced upon something. All of this is kind of alchemy. Of course. It's not in a boardroom. You're like, wait, how are we going to get the zeitgeist to be interested in us? No one knows. And no one knows. Yeah. And again, if you ever try and shoot for a specific demographic, you ever try and shoot for, you know, to be fashionable or relevant, you're dead.

Yeah. None of these things happened by design. It was just total, like, it was just look. You also have, over the years, I've had, you know, maybe the coolest soundtrack of any show. Yeah, if I were you, I, like, maybe I was going to say I would have red right hand as my ringtone. Maybe I wouldn't. Maybe that's the worst, actually, possible idea. And some musicians have fallen in love the show, too. Bowie was a fan, wasn't he? Yeah.

That's amazing. Bowie was a fan. Did he reach out to you? Yeah, I got to meet him. Yeah, that was quite humbling and sort of unbelievable that he was a fan and wanted to have his music in the show. And Leonard Cohn and radio head. And Nick Cave, obviously, it all kind of started with Nick Cave.

Sure. He sort of set the bar and the tone and the atmosphere of what the music would be. But musicians really seem to love the show. And this year, Anna Calvi did the score. And she's an incredible artist. Yeah, I'm a music obsessive. So it's just, I can't, you know, it's a... Yeah, this must be icing on the cake for someone like you.

I know you would have been just as happy making music your life. Well, yes, except it wouldn't be very... good but but but to to have musicians that I've idolized you know um after their music to the show has been so just just kind of a pinch yourself on you know so going back if you'll indulge me for at least a little bit like when you so music was a love as much as acting or even before acting growing up is that fair to say oh yeah I didn't start acting until I was 19 so it was all music yeah so what did your your parents you come from a long line of teachers right a lot of teachers in the family.

Yeah. What did they make of the artist's son who was fascinated by music and then acting? Well, here's the thing. Because they were all teachers, majority of them were teachers, it's not to say that they didn't have a, you know, big interest in the arts. It was just at that time in Ireland, there was very, very few people made actually a living from being an actor or a writer or a musician. and if they did, they had to leave.

And so it was always, there was always books in our house, always music in our house. But it just... It wasn't, a realistic, yeah. Yeah, possibility. So, and I didn't even, I just sort of fell into it by accident, you know. But they're very proud and very happy, you know, and yeah, it's worked out fine. I'd say so. What were the films in TV?

that really drew you in as a boy. Do you remember what really made it impact any number of theater-going experiences for you? Yeah, there's a few things. I mean, Twin Peaks was a huge thing. Watching that as a kid. I remember watching that and like hiding behind the sofa, just watching it.

I think we're almost exactly the same age, so we would have been, I think, like, 12 or 13 was around when, yeah. And it still haunts me to this day, you know, some of those images. That Angelo Baldimente score. core i mean the whole the atmosphere see one of the hardest things to do i think in film and television is atmosphere yeah where you feel like you're in it you feel like it gets into the fiber of your being you know you can smell it almost yeah that's so hard to get and lynch just does that you know and i always think of it even though i could rewatch the opening credits to that show

over and over i mean like you see like the waterfall and the music and you're just there yeah you're there and you know again it's another one of those how why but it just it just it's It just works. You've never worked with Lynch, have you? No. I would just love to. Pretty amazing. Yeah, I don't want to unnerve you, but I've watched a bunch of the missing films that I hadn't seen in your filmography the last few days.

So I watched Disco Pigs, and I watched, I'm ashamed to say I had never seen Breakfast on Pluto, even though I'm a huge Neil Jordan fan. But Disco Pigs was the big one that really did transition for you. You had done this on the stage for a while, and then you guys made a film of it. Yeah. So you kind of lived that character for a while. Yeah, I did it when I was like 19. It was my first ever professional role on stage. And then I went off and did other bits and bobs.

Yeah. And they did a couple of other films. But that was about four years later. We made the film of the play. And I suppose it was the first film that people saw, really. Yeah. Did it immediately open doors? Did you feel like a world was opening up

to you in terms of opportunity? Well, Danny Boyle saw it when he was casting 28 days later. So that certainly, it put me in the room with him and then I had to audition for 28 days later. I would assume as you must have been a fan of Danny's by telling me down that room. Yeah, I mean, shallow grave train spotting

were seminal, sort of formative movies for me. I remember watching them in the cinema. So, yeah, I was like, I recognize. that fact that he was, you know, world-class director. And I worked my ass off on those auditions. Sure. He's been in here, and I've talked to a number of times. He's just such a spirit to him.

Like, he's just like, he's like someone like Tarantino. You could talk to him about film for hours, and he seemingly has like boundless enthusiasm. Yes. Is that fair to say on the set of his films? Yeah, like he, the joy of filmmaking just runs through him. And I remember the thing that always stands out for me about Dan, is that he he you know some directors will have a perch behind video village and they'll sit there

Danny never sits down never like so you have a 16 hour day whatever he's never he never sits down and that that enthusiasm or that joy just percolates down to all of the crew and they all would they'd follow him to the end of the world you know because he has such passion for it and he knows every single person's name you know these are the small things that matter absolutely and and And that's what makes you sort of a leader, you know what I mean, in that, because ultimately the director is the leader. Is it disheartening sometimes when you look around? I mean, all directors do it different ways.

Some live in Video Village, some are right by the camera. Would you rather have them kind of next to that camera? Well, I can only speak from my experience, and I've been very lucky, but people like Danny Boyd, people like Nolan, they are in and involved with every single detail of every department. And effectively, if they could, they would be the head of each department. But, you know, it's a collaborative business. But, yeah, no, like Chris Nolan, when he shoots those movies,

it's Chris and the cameraman and Chris and a little monitor. That's it. And the boom-up. Even, you know, and they have these sense of epic scale, but it feels like making a little indie movie, you know. Yeah, that's what the best, too. I mean, I also re-watched Sunshine, which for my money is one of the great underrated like classics of the last...

Underrated. I think so. I mean in that like... No, I agree with you. Don't you think? I mean, it's a gorgeous like marriage of like music and sound and image and just

emotion. It's a powerful piece of work. Space movies are tough, you know? I know it took a lot out of him. He's talked about how like that one kind of broke him. Yeah, it was tough for all of us. And I think sometimes with space movies as well,

there's a few we could mention that when they were released, people were like, oh sure. And then... Even 2001. at the time. Yeah. Like alien, do you know what I mean? And then, and then people over time go, actually, and I think that's kind of happened with Sunshine. It didn't, didn't, it came out also on the hottest day of the year. I'm Ernie right there in London, which didn't have. Great viral

marketing by Danny Boyle and Fox's part. Let's not go and see that film today. But yeah, in fact, Tarantino, it's one of his favorite space movies. So, um, we were all very, Well, I certainly was very heartened to hear that, because I'm very proud of it. Yeah. And going back to 28 days, that was, I mean, also notable in one of the first, if not the first digital films. Did that make any difference to you at the time? Like, did you notice, do you notice the apparatus that's being used? Or do you notice, wait, I'm doing takes that are going on for an hour as opposed to five minutes?

Well, you see, they were, that was, they were domestic DV cameras. They were, like, on these little tiny cartridges. Oh, okay. These big cumbersome yokes. And it was Anthony Dodd Mantle who shot that film who's an incredible DP. He would have been part of the dogma movement, you know. And so we could have those cameras everywhere and you'd just get like anyone could operate them once they were, Anthony set them up the correct way.

But everyone was just carrying around these little cartridges of film going. And, you know, you'd live so flimsy. Yeah. And it's like, wait. That's so actually frightening as a artist. But it wasn't quite digital as we know it now. The quality is unbelievably

grainy. Right, you can imitate or achieve anything with digital now virtually. Don't tell no one that, but a lot of people No, not for Chris. But like very low fidelity,

as opposed to what I'm trying to say. But it almost gives it the thing that he wanted, I think, was the idea that it was like someone was just running behind them with the domestic camera filming them, you know? And it was, I think,

influenced by that dog my movement which was around that time was around at that time yeah so in the wake i mean that that that is i mean yes as much as disco pigs opens up a world that opened up a whole variety of options for you that must have been challenging exciting a lot to take in as a young actor did you feel like i know what to do with this kind of to use the horrible phrase of like juice in hollywood you know what i mean like did you know how to like set priorities and know what kind of path you wanted to set out on at that point? Well, no

is the short answer, but I guess I was very blessed to have worked with Danny that early in my career and to realize that you know, I was kind of informed by the way he worked. Yeah. And

the sort of movies that he talked to me about and the intensity at which he worked. And also Alex Garland, who wrote it, who was a friend of mine, you know, he influenced me a lot. And so I was very clear than I think about the sort of films that I wanted to do and the sort of films that I wanted to steer clear of. Yes. Yeah, I read some quote of yours. It's like, I'm not even going to try and like approximate it, but like the power of saying no. It's as important to know what

to say no to. Yeah. And I, uh, I would have been, I suppose, quite shy and stuff. And, um, uh, not very good at doing the old work in the room, shall we say. And, uh, um, I, um, I always felt, and I still feel that the work should do the talk gig, not the person. So, yeah, I went back and did more theatre after 28 days there. It didn't like it didn't go

skyrocket all of a sudden. Yeah. Yeah, you were, it's kind of spoiled in a way by like working with these people like relatively early on, like Danny and then soon they're at relatively soon there after meeting Christopher Nolan. Yeah. Who are the ones that can like operate on the grandest scales, but

make it still feel intimate and special and not like cookie cutter hollywood crap um you meet christopher on the audition for batman begins yes um you were a fan i know ummento following yeah insomnia at that point um there's tape out there of you in the bat suit online if one wants to watch yeah and you could see why i didn't get the part you're a slight man you're you could have filled out if you wanted to well you know at that time whatever. I knew that Christian Bale was auditioning and I was like, well, that's obvious that he

should play the park. The American psycho guy? Look at his chest. He's a phenomenal actor. He's amazing. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it seemed to me obvious. But for me, I was just taking it like it, it was like a trip. It was like a, wow, I get to go on the Warner lot and do a screen test with Chris Nolan. Boom, I can tell my

kids about that. Sure. If nothing else. And then it turned into something else. Does something like happen where anybody that gets in the bat suit, you feel like you have to, like, change your voice and do kind of growl? Like, it just, you have to, right? Or will register? Yeah. I mean, I, I, I, I wasn't directed to do that. But it just felt like, yeah, yeah, you don't want to be like, hi, I'm Batman. It doesn't make any stuff. It doesn't work. No. No, for some reason, yeah, it just, it, it, it, it, yeah, something drops when you put that, when you put that cowl on.

tightness in the belt or something. Thankfully, it worked out for everybody because also I will say, like, I don't know about you. I don't know if you think back. Like, if you became Batman, you might be miserable. Like, I don't know.

Like, knowing what I know about you, like, I don't know if, like, that would have been the life you would want in a way. Do you think about it in those terms? I don't ever think about it like that because it ended up working out great for me because I ended up having a very fruitful working relationship with Chris. And I think Christian Bale, like, just smashed it as Bruce Wayne about mine.

So, no, I never really think about it like that. I believe as well, you know, if you have some sort of authenticity about you, that you get the roles you're meant to have. Right. That sounds really cheesy. What I mean is that if you're relatively comfortable in the path you want to move along. creatively, that stuff comes to for a reason. I mentioned, I finally caught up on breakfast on Pluto

many years too late, but what an exceptional performance and I'm such, I've always been a fan of Neil Jordan's. He's so good, man. So great, I mean, yeah, I'm sure as any great Irish actor that's on the list, you want to work with Neil Jordan. And just like a beautiful portrait of kitten is such like an open-hearted, sweet character. Talk about voice.

That must have been a big part of it to like find that cadence and yeah yeah i spent a lot of time preparing for that one um like like months and trying to get that right yeah and again it's it's it's it's like you know with tommy it's a it's a series of sort of explorations and exercises and um just tests to see what works best and what doesn't work yeah eventually you you kind of narrow it down um another one on the list that i'm sure you take pride in is when that shakes the barley kennelooch who's a fascinating filmmaker. I mean, it's hard to make, you know, quote-unquote important film that doesn't feel like medicine.

That is, I mean, that film at the end of the day is really about brothers and just packs a wallet by the end. Yeah. No, I mean, again, you know, I think he's one of the greatest filmmakers we have. And if you look at his body of work, the performances he gets from actors, the messages that his films have within them. the integrity that he has as a filmmaker. Yeah, I just feel very privileged. I've worked with him. And he's also a human, like an astounding human being.

Yeah. So, yeah, that was another kind of milestone for me. And, you know, as an Irish man, to make a film about my country and actually my county where I grew up. And then for it to sort of resonate was really satisfied. Yeah, and a film about obviously the IRA. and how it would support families and what it did to your country. I mean, growing up, just that time period,

you must have grown up when the IRA. Like, what was your understanding of the IRA as a child? Well, I mean, we, you know, I grew up in the 80s, really, and like the South, it was really just on the news. Yeah. It never, never came home in any sort of tangible, tangible way. But, you know, it was all over our curriculum in school. But the Civil War, which,

Ken deals with in the film that had never really been treated on screen and when it came out like generations of like grandmothers were going to see with their grandchildren and stuff and I think it was a good thing

it was kind of a cathartic thing for the country Yeah jumping around a little bit but like it occurred me I forgot to bring up what I thought was another exceptional actor you got to work with in

breakfast on Pluto was Liam Neeson which in a role that like very unlike I've seen him do before must have been a treat is he somebody that you kind of revered when you were coming of age as an actor Oh absolutely I mean there's a sort of

you know Liam Neeson Brendan Leeson and Stephen Ray yeah Gabriel Byrne those guys you know they lay the way for all of us and we were all sort of in awe of them and I still am and I've got to work I haven't had to work with Gabriel, but I've got to work with all the others with Brendan like five or six times and Stephen several times in film and on stage as well. So they were all, they couldn't have been more encouraging and more supportive of me as I set out and whatever you call it.

And yeah, they're just gentlemen. Is it weird to work with someone like you're in Dunkirk and you see Barry? Barry Hogan, be like, oh, wait, there's the next the next gen. Yeah, and how good is he? He's great. I just met him for the first time. What a spirit on him. He's got the stuff. He really has. He's so good. You know, like people like him and

Jack Rainer, you know. Jack was just here too. He's great. Yeah. They're such strong actors. Yeah, so yeah, for a small country, I think we have a fair output. Yeah. A couple other few things I'll hit and then I promise to release you out into the wildser. What did you make of the Inception script the first time you read it?

Did you need Christopher to explain to you what the hell was going on? Or did it read on the page? No, I think it took a few reads. Stents, I'm sure. Yeah. But you have to remember, he lived with that story for 15 years or something before he'd got to make the film. So he knew every single frame of that film. And so, again, you felt totally safe, total confidence.

And I'm like, hang on. whose mind or what level and he would just just tell you know work it all out of you and again the beauty is like at the end of the day I mean it's a film with a lot of bells and whistles and they're gorgeous to look at

and experience but like oh wait it's a story about a father and a son it's Pete Pasta away one of his set sadly his final performances it's just kind of beautiful scenes with you guys at the end amidst all this bombastic

excitement yeah that's but that's I think that's what what Chris does so brilliant he makes these credibly sophisticated blockbuster movies but they have a real emotion to them. I find them incredibly moving his films. I wait for the

Christopher Nolan James Bond movie one day which I feel is inevitable. Do you think it's going to happen? Absolutely. He's been making it in some ways in different forms already and he's unabashed in his love. It's just needs to be the right timing I think, don't you? I mean, listen, I'll go to see it.

Um, yeah, I won't go down the bond route. I know every actor that I've talked to over the years whenever you bring up James Bond, they're like, oh, no, I can't say anything. No, no, no comment. It's fine, it's fine. Um, we have a weird indirect connection in that my brother wrote Tron Legacy. Oh, really? He'd say it, Adam Horowitz.

Oh, cool. Yeah, and, uh, and you, of course, you had a notable cameo in that one. Well, yeah, because I, um, because I adore the first movie and who does. It doesn't, you know, and it's, again, a movie I watched as a kid. Like, it would come on the telly sometimes late at night. What am I? Exactly. This movie.

And I was just bugging my age and going, is there any way, I can get, is there anything in that that I can just be in it just for my kids? And everyone keeps saying, oh, they were setting it up for something. I don't know if they were. I just wanted to be in it, you know. That's all. I got some inside info. They were setting up for something more late. I think you would have come back.

I didn't know that. I don't understand how a $400 million movie doesn't get a sequel. It was good. I liked it. I started a petition. You are on a notable sequel you can't say anything about. I think he just shot the new Quiet Place movie, right? Fun to be.

I mean, John Krasinski's obviously, this time he could focus solely on the directing, presumably. How was that experience without, I know you can't say much about it, but did it feel? There's a good story about that. I brought my kids to see that movie in the cinema last year, and I thought it was one of the best films of the year and I voted for it in all the awards and and I I penned a letter to John Krasinski an email just can I rarely do this just to say man what an achievement because to me again it was ostensibly you know a sort of a genre of film but to me it felt it was all about family of course yeah and I found it like Emily Blunt's performance and and

the the the the family unit I found it just so moving and yeah And also terrifying. So anyway, I penned this email, but then I didn't have the guts to send it to him. I just got embarrassed. And then he called me up and said, look, there's a part in the sequel. That's how powerful John Grisinski is. He can read the emails that aren't even sent. I know.

He's just like his own server. He's the master of Tron. He's the MCU. Yeah. Do you know what you're doing next? you mentioned, stage is going to take a back seat for a while. That's a commitment.

Yeah, I just, I did a very intense play here in New York last, this year, and I just need a rest. So, and I just finished Quiet Place a couple of weeks ago. So, and I'm just having a rest. Do you show your sons much film? Like, when they came of age, when they started to, like, be, like, old enough to watch films?

Like, did you have the list of the ones you needed to expose to them? Yeah, yeah. Mostly, you know, I'm not going to show them, you know, I don't know. Like Croix-Sahoranger, yeah, exactly. But I want to, you know, all the classic 80s movies, you know what I mean, like back to the future, you know. I mean, and all the Indiana Jones, all those movies, like, big, I've had, I got so, you know, the goonies, just just watching those movies and seeing the joy in their faces. Yeah, that has been a real thrill.

They all work, thankfully. They still work. All of those work, they didn't fail. You didn't mention the ones that don't quite hold up with those works still. And they always ask me, like, how long ago is it made? And it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Don't make me feel older than I am.

Thanks for taking, indulging it a little bit of the, this is your wife, Killian Murphy. I appreciate it, man. I'm thrilled that you came by today to chat about Peaky Blinders. Thanks, man. Congratulations on the new season. Everybody should check it out. It's on Netflix. Peaky Blinders, if you're late to the party, it's never too late.

Join the fun. It's an amazing piece of work. Killeen, thanks again. Lovely to chat, man. Thank you. Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it. Thanks, ma'am.

That was great. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh. American history is full of infamous tales that continue to captivate audiences, decades or even hundreds of years after they happened. On the infamous America podcast, you'll hear the true stories of the Salem Witch Trials

and the escape attempts from Alcatraz, of bank robbers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, of killers like Lizzie Borden and Charles Starkweather, of mysteries like the Black Dahlia and D.B. Cooper, and of events that inspired movies like Goodfellas, Killers of a Flower Moon, Zodiac, Eight Men Out, and many more. I'm Chris Wimmer. Join me as we crisscrossed the country from the Miami Drug Wars and Dixie Mafia in the South, to mobsters in Chicago and New York, to arsonists, kidnappers, and killers in California, to unsolved mysteries in the heartland and in remote corners of Alaska. Every episode features narrative writing and cinematic music, and there are hundreds of episodes available to binge.

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