Cillian Murphy

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs Podcast. Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book, and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:44

My castaway this week is the actor Killian Murphy. When the nominations for the Best Actor Oscar were announced earlier this year, it was no surprise to see his name on the shortlist. He'd already won a Golden Globe for his performance in the title role of Christopher Nolan's epic drama Oppenheimer. He specialises in complex, flawed men with dubious morals. Take Thomas Shelby, the gang boss in the globally successful television series Peaky Blinders, which made him a household name. The more pressure his characters are under, it seems, the better he gets. Growing up in Cork, he wanted to be a musician, but after turning down a record deal, he was cast in a short run of Ender Walsh's frenetic play Disco Pigs and never looked back. He says, I've always been interested in the melancholic or the ambiguous or the more transgressive. That, to me, is drama. Getting into those knotty, difficult, uncomfortable places. I find that really stimulating. Killian Murphy, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Cillian Murphy1:42

Thank you, Laurent.

Presenter1:43

It's a real pleasure to have you here today, Killian, and we have to start with Oppenheimer, as everybody's talking about it at the minute. That performance, so much of it was about demonstrating your character's inner turmoil through the tiniest nuances, all those close-ups, you know, and all of that under the surface that was going on.

Speaker 21:57

You know what?

Presenter2:00

Uh

Speaker 12:00

Uh

Presenter2:00

Uh

Speaker 12:00

Yeah.

Presenter2:01

How do you get into the right frame of mind to show us rather than tell us what a character is feeling?

Cillian Murphy2:07

Well, I think that's always been the sort of acting that's intrigued me, is when you can see the character thinking, seeing the face as a landscape kind of. And I knew that Chris was going to do that on this piece, and I knew the character

Cillian Murphy2:22

was so much in his head that we I knew it had to be an interior kind of performance and a small performance. I also knew in the back of my mind that he was shooting this mainly on IMAX cameras so that it would be shown on an eighty foot screen, so that there wasn't that much demonstrating you needed to do physically. It needed to be more

Cillian Murphy2:41

how you could sort of transmit the the thought process through the the face and the eyes and all that. But I knew immediately that it wouldn't be an impression, that's not where my strengths lie, and I knew it would be ultimately a sort of a synthesis of the script, all of the stuff that I had I was absorbing of him and then I guess you bring an element of yourself to it and then you put it all in the mix and it becomes Chris's version and my version of Oppenheimer.

Presenter3:07

So you're going to be on the red carpet for Oscar night. I know that's not always your comfort zone.

Cillian Murphy3:12

Yeah, I I I have struggled with it in the past and you know it's not something I'm ever totally at ease with, but I think you you you have to like choose to enjoy it. And I think you can do that in your in your brain, you know, just make that alteration and it's easier then. And you know, I've had my my wife and my kids with me and that's been lovely. And

Speaker 13:21

Uh

Cillian Murphy3:30

Yeah, you'd be in Egypt not to enjoy it, you know? Just go with it. That's my attitude.

Presenter3:36

Killian, how have you found choosing your discs today?

Cillian Murphy3:39

I sweated over it like everybody does. I showed a couple of friends the list and they said, Oh, well, that's good, Killian. There's no weird, crazy, obscure stuff on there for a change.

Cillian Murphy3:50

Some of them I haven't listened to in years, and it was a joy to listen to them, and some of them I listen to all the time. So I've loved it, I have to say.

Presenter3:57

Well, let's get started. It's disc number one. What are we going to hear?

Cillian Murphy4:00

Oh yeah, so Boy in the Bubble, Paul Simon from Graceland.

Cillian Murphy4:04

This was a cassette that we had in the car when we were kids, so there's four of us and we'd be all squashed in the back.

Cillian Murphy4:10

And we'll be going on camping trips to France or Ireland or wherever we'll be going.

Cillian Murphy4:16

This album, I know every single lyric from every single song. And I don't think I knew how good the album was at the time. I just it was just an album that was on in the car, but now I truly appreciate it.

Speaker 24:28

It was a slow day, and the sun was beating on the soldiers.

Speaker 14:33

Just by the side of the road.

Speaker 14:35

There was a bright light

Speaker 14:37

A shattering of shop windows, the bombing the baby carriers was wired to the radio. These are the days of miracle and wonder.

Speaker 24:45

Uh

Speaker 14:47

This is the long distance call.

Speaker 14:50

The way the camera follows us in slow-mo The way we look to us all

Presenter4:56

Paul Simon and the boy in the bubble. So Killian Murphy, you were born in Cork in nineteen seventy six, the eldest of four. Grew up listening to that track while you were all four of you squashed into the back of the car. What what was your seating position? That can t say a lot about the hierarchy.

Cillian Murphy5:07

This

Cillian Murphy5:08

Let's see.

Cillian Murphy5:10

Well, I remember one particular trip we went on to France on the ferry, and I remember we had a Nissan bluebird.

Cillian Murphy5:18

And I remember it was my mom and dad in the front.

Cillian Murphy5:21

And then me and my brother and my sister in the back, and my little sister in the baby seat, and also my grandmother.

Cillian Murphy5:29

I have no idea.

Presenter5:30

That's too many people for one

Cillian Murphy5:31

It's not possible or legal now, but we did it.

Presenter5:37

So you were the big brother of of the four. Were you a a classic big brother? Were you in charge? Were you the leader of the gang?

Cillian Murphy5:38

Yeah.

Cillian Murphy5:44

I don't know actually. It was funny, my we found some old VHS videos recently. My dad transferred them on and digitized them. And it was funny just seeing all of us hanging around at Christmas time, just messing, kind of having tickle fights and stuff. Because there was no phones, there was nowhere to go. Nobody went for a walk. You'd be watching telly, or maybe you'd read a book.

Cillian Murphy6:06

Or I'd be making a sandwich, but we were just all sitting around

Cillian Murphy6:10

And it was just interesting to see that people not lost in devices, you know.

Presenter6:14

Were you an imaginative kid?

Cillian Murphy6:16

Very much so, yeah. An awful lot of reading, an awful lot of listening to music and playing music and writing songs. And I had a little cassette recorder I would record myself on, like singing initially and then when I was playing guitar just writing stuff. Music was the first thing that really woke me up to the arts or to creativity.

Presenter6:36

And music was really valued at home. That was a big part of family life, I think, wasn't it? For your your parents, Brendan and Mary, did did they meet playing music?

Cillian Murphy6:43

They met in West Kerry at a session, a traditional Irish music session, and that became a kind of constant for us.

Presenter6:47

Mm-hmm.

Cillian Murphy6:52

They were both teachers. My dad was a teacher and then he became an inspector for schools. There were no artists to speak of in the family. They were all teachers almost exclusively on my mother's side. And then.

Cillian Murphy7:05

um far farmers on my dad's side. But w when when we could we'd we'd be going to sessions and pubs, you know, the classic Irish childhood of falling asleep under the table with a packet of crisps and tenora and the

Presenter7:15

Yeah.

Presenter7:17

On a pile of codes.

Cillian Murphy7:18

Yeah, exactly.

Presenter7:19

Okay, got it. Was it a culturally rich household?

Cillian Murphy7:23

Yeah, there was a lot of books on the shelves, but I n we never went to the theater, for example. Uh but th I got a lot of education. Like my mum was a French teacher and then she'd teach me French at home also. My dad was an Irish teacher and he would also teach me Irish at home, so I'd get, you know, in school and then I'd get l uh grinds at home as well.

Presenter7:40

So a house of of books and music. And what were you reading? What were your own passions when you started discovering them?

Cillian Murphy7:46

Obviously it was the famous five and then all the talk and stuff and then

Cillian Murphy7:49

The Irish Writers, anything that was there I kind of read.

Presenter7:53

It's time for some more music, Killian. What are we going to hear next?

Cillian Murphy7:56

Well, I thought I should play some traditional Irish music because it was so much part of my childhood. I mean, I should say that I rejected it all when I was a teenager and wouldn't listen to it. But now I'm starting to really appreciate it again. And this particular track, my dad found this on vinyl in some second-hand shop recently and gave it to me. And I put it on on the turntable, and it just sounds absolutely beautiful. So it's a piece by a piper called Seamus Innocence called The Wandering Mistra.

Cillian Murphy8:44

Uh

Speaker 18:44

Uh

Presenter8:52

Seamus Ennis and the Wandering Minstrel. So, Killian Murphy, tell me a little bit more about your relationship with your dad. Did you have any shared interests while you were growing up? What did you do together?

Cillian Murphy9:03

I think we connected probably most strongly over music.

Cillian Murphy9:07

When I started playing in bands and stuff, he was the dad that would drive us around and.

Presenter9:12

Help me set up the amps and everything.

Cillian Murphy9:13

Everything.

Presenter9:14

So it was you and your brother who did that together?

Cillian Murphy9:15

Yeah, yeah, we were in a band with like neighbors and school pals and there was a few different versions of it, but um

Cillian Murphy9:22

We took it very, very, very seriously.

Presenter9:25

So the final incarnation of the band was called Sons of Mr. Greenjeans, named after the Frank Zappa track. What was the music like?

Cillian Murphy9:32

There were kind of long songs with complicated middle eights and long guitar solos, and it was it worked very well live. Didn't work so well when we tried to do it in a studio, because you know you just needed that live energy of playing together, whereas we put it to a click track, it just sounded sterile and we lost all the soul.

Presenter9:50

Tell me more about this performing live then. That was where the band really cooked and it all kind of came together. What did that feel like?

Cillian Murphy9:55

What's that?

Cillian Murphy9:57

The best feeling. That sort of nonverbal communication that you have with your bandmates and with the audience when it's just something electric, something is happening in the room.

Cillian Murphy10:07

It's like a tingle, it's something kind of n transcendent really. And I felt bizarrely comfortable up there for a relatively shy kid, you know. And that that was what I really wanted to do. That was it. There was no other question of anything that I wanted to do.

Cillian Murphy10:23

And it for a while it looked like that would work out.

Presenter10:26

Yeah.

Cillian Murphy10:27

Um

Presenter10:27

You were offered a a five album deal, I think, by using

Cillian Murphy10:32

And my brother was a youngster.

Cillian Murphy10:35

And I was just about to leave school, or had left, I can't recall exactly. My parents.

Cillian Murphy10:40

And some of the other parents just refused to allow it to happen and they were right. You know, I wouldn't I wouldn't allow my kid, I think, at that age, to sign his soul away to a corporation or a version of that. So

Presenter10:53

How did you feel about it at the time?

Cillian Murphy10:55

I don't know if I was that heartbroken. I should say I was heartbroken, but I think I just took it on the chin and just moved on. And there was a month in my life, which was July 1996, where we got offered the record deal, we turned it down. I was stupidly doing a law degree and I failed it. And I met my now wife and I got a part in Disco Bigs all within one month. So that was, I think, when things clarified for me and I thought, okay, the music that avenue has been shut down, but this other avenue is opening up.

Presenter11:28

And how did that feel? Was it exciting?

Cillian Murphy11:30

Really, really exciting. You know, I was you know, when you're a kid, you just have that confidence of youth. You just go with what's happening. So I just went down this new path.

Presenter11:39

I would ask more about that, but first let's hear your next piece of music, Kelly and Murphy, your third choice today. What have you got for us?

Cillian Murphy11:45

So this is a band from Cork called the Franken Walters. They were big all around that time that I'm speaking about, around like the mid nineties, and I was obsessed with them.

Cillian Murphy11:57

I used to like go into the pubs that they used to drink in and cork and hang around and try and chat to them and go to all their gigs and

Cillian Murphy12:05

We were very influenced by them as a band, and now later in my life I've become pals with them. And it's just a cracking, cracking pop song. And it's called Walter's Trip.

Speaker 112:17

Yeah. Loafir perched on a tree Eyes of wet desert for him to see He sat there on his daily routine I drank tea in our royal canteen Strove along down the narrowing way

Speaker 112:36

There was bus stops and wild portfolios What pianos and band from the

Presenter12:45

The Frank and Walters and Walters trip. Killian Murphy, let's go back to your school days then. How do you look back at that time? Were you a good student?

Cillian Murphy12:53

I enjoyed s primary school more than secondary school. You know, I was a bit of a messer. Yeah, nothing malicious, but I'd say it was a bit of a pain in the ass to teach. And I think that was probably difficult for my parents knowing that I was that kid in the class that they had to encounter every day. And then secondary school was different.

Cillian Murphy13:09

It was quite an academic school and there wasn't that much scope for the arts there, and it was quite a sporty school, and it wasn't really my thing. But luckily I managed to find we ma we used to play like school concerts and things, and had a really good English teacher, Billy Wall, who who's an he's a poet and novelist, and he very much encouraged me.

Presenter13:28

I think you're still friends. What did he spot in you? Has he ever told you?

Cillian Murphy13:31

I don't, you'd have to ask him, but he really knew how to bring books and plays and poems to life because he really, he wasn't just teaching them, he was exploring what they were about, you know, and he knew being a writer himself and I loved it. And he, yeah, I remember him saying to me, you know, you should maybe think about doing something in the arts. He wasn't quite sure what, neither was I, but it was nice to have. It's always good to have one good teacher in your corner because I know coming from a long line of teachers how important one good teacher is, they can make a big difference. And I think they're undervalued as a profession, but they can really set you on the right course.

Presenter14:10

I think when you were about 17, there was another mentor that came into your life who was also a big influence on you, Pat Kiernan. What impact did he have?

Cillian Murphy14:18

Well, he came in and did a a drama module when I was about seventeen and I knew that he had a theater company in in Cork.

Cillian Murphy14:25

So then I'd see him around after that module finished, I'd see him around Cork in pubs and things, and eventually I went to see a production that he did of A Clockwork Orange in Sir Henry's Nightclub in Cork City, and it absolutely blew my mind.

Presenter14:39

And this was your first theatre experience, is that right? Yeah. And a fully immersive inner nightclub Clockwork Orange.

Cillian Murphy14:41

Is that right? Yeah.

Cillian Murphy14:44

Not work.

Cillian Murphy14:45

Yeah, promenade with like bang and techno and kind of dry ice and like guys with mohawks and it was unbelievably vital and kind of dangerous and sexy and relevant and kind of deviant and like for a 17 year old who'd never been to the theater it was absolutely mind-blowing. It's one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my life.

Cillian Murphy15:09

And

Cillian Murphy15:11

After that, um I just pursued him and pestered him for an audition and then when I left school I eventually they gave me an audition.

Presenter15:19

As we heard earlier, you started a law degree and while you were at university you joined the Drama Society. What did you love about it?

Cillian Murphy15:26

I love the camaraderie of it. I loved I still love above all the rehearsal process. It being like a laboratory for four weeks where you're just in a room with the actors trying to excavate meaning from these words and then trying to get it up on its feet and it all seems absurd and you don't have enough time and it's all going to go wrong and you're not going to know your lines in time.

Cillian Murphy15:46

But then by some miracle, it actually works and it happens, and the lights go down on the opening night, and it works. But I've actually always preferred the process to the performance, which I know I shouldn't say, because when you get it up and it's opening night and you're in the theater, then it's a sort of about stamina and trying to keep the form of the play for like six weeks or 12 weeks or 18 months, whatever it is. And I find that hard.

Presenter16:11

Let's have some more music, Killian. Your fourth choice today, please. What have you got for us?

Cillian Murphy16:15

Oh, some you two. So I think I was about 10 or 11 when Joshua Tree came out. I remember myself and my brother used to have like beds side by side and we'd put the cassette player in the middle and we'd put this on and turn the lights off and this song would come on, bullet the blue sky and the it was the first time I ever experienced fear or danger in a piece of music, particularly that spoken word piece that Bono does, you know, the I can see those fighter planes and slapping them down and a man breathes into a saxophone. I don't know what he was talking about, but it was terrifying and brilliant.

Cillian Murphy16:56

When Scott listened to me, his face ran like a rose out of bombers.

Cillian Murphy17:02

All the curses

Speaker 217:03

A royal first was peeling off those dollar bills, slapping them down. 100, 200, and I can see those spider planes.

Speaker 217:15

And I can see those fighter points.

Presenter17:18

You too and Bullet the Blue Sky. Killia Murphy, as you said, you got the part of Pig in Ender Walsh's play Disco Pigs, which was directed by Pat Kienan. Now you hadn't been to drama school, you'd never acted professionally. How did you get the role?

Cillian Murphy17:33

Well, as I said, I'd been pursuing Pat Kiernan around Cork City and Pat eventually said, All right, leave me alone. I'll give you an audition.

Speaker 117:41

If you are not

Cillian Murphy17:43

and he happened to be away, so I met Enda in Cork and I read a pe a scene for him. And I went off hitchhiking to France, I remember, and then I I got the part and they sent the script to my tent.

Cillian Murphy18:02

Which I didn't know you could do, but I sent it to my tent in France. So then I had the part. And we toured that play for eighteen months and yeah, it was like we were just so young and cocky and the play was only an hour long. So we put it on at like eleven or twelve at night, so it felt like that kind of nightclubby thing. So we'd do the play and then we'd just go out and

Cillian Murphy18:24

have go drinking and go to clubs and be messing and it was a great thing to do at nineteen, twenty just to be in a successful show, you know. I was so jammy. But then eventually it com has to stop.

Speaker 118:32

Oh, so jammy.

Cillian Murphy18:35

And it did stop.

Cillian Murphy18:37

Then I was didn't work for a year and was signing on, and that was a kind of a a bit of a shock. But again, you're so young, you don't mind, you just keep going.

Presenter18:46

And you you then, following that experience, had small theatre parts and and parts in films over the next few years. I wonder where your heart lies. Is it on stage or on set?

Cillian Murphy18:56

I don't think I could have walked onto a film set at 20 years of age with no experience whatsoever. I think I needed to do all those hours on stage.

Presenter19:04

Do you get nervous?

Cillian Murphy19:05

Not on stage. I get nervous doing films. The distinction being that I think when you do a play.

Cillian Murphy19:12

You retain control insofar as if it's a terrible night and you're off, you know that tomorrow you can fix it and be better. Whereas if you commit something to celluloid, it's there forever. There's no fixing it. You may have several goes, but so I and I found the whole sort of apparatus of filmmaking, you know, the huge lights and the vans and the trucks and the electricians and all the crew and everything, they would come to a complete stop and complete silence, and then you were supposed to perform.

Cillian Murphy19:41

I found that very, very intimidating when I was a younger actor. I think I've made my peace with it now.

Presenter19:46

Hmm.

Cillian Murphy19:47

But it was a lot to take on.

Presenter19:50

It's time for your next piece of music, Killian Murphy, number five on your desert island discs today. What are we going to hear and why?

Cillian Murphy19:56

I went through a big queen phase again in the eighties. This particular song has always been one of my huge favourites and I and I and I do listen to this quite often. I just adore everything about this song.

Presenter20:07

When do you put it on?

Cillian Murphy20:09

A lot like when I'm driving.

Cillian Murphy20:11

Or like if we have people around in the house, or just to feel good, it just makes me feel good.

Speaker 220:18

I have to spent all my years in believing you, but I just can't believe Lord. Uh

Cillian Murphy20:25

Somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody find me.

Speaker 220:41

I work every day of my life I work till I ain't my bone

Presenter20:49

Queen and Somebody to Love. Killeen Murphy, in two thousand five you were cast as Doctor Jonathan Crane, Scarecrow, in Christopher Nolan's film Batman Begins, and that was the beginning of a continuing collaboration between the two of you. What's the essence of your relationship?

Cillian Murphy21:05

We don't hang out and go bowling or what you're like we're like you know, we are very close colleagues and it's a lovely feeling to walk on to a set and to feel

Presenter21:08

Yeah.

Cillian Murphy21:17

safe and also most importantly to be able to make

Cillian Murphy21:21

an egg of yourself to to be able to fail, to be able to get it wrong.

Presenter21:25

To try stuff.

Cillian Murphy21:25

Yeah.

Cillian Murphy21:26

And I've always ha had that with him, I've always felt that with him, and it's just a gift.

Presenter21:32

I think in the past you have been quite persistent when you've gone after a part, and that's partly how you got to play Kitten Brayden in Neil Jordan's film Breakfast on Pluto, wasn't it? You auditioned in two thousand one, but kept going back to him until two thousand five, when he finally got the funding to make it, and he was able to offer you the part.

Cillian Murphy21:50

Yeah, I pestered him as well. Uh wore him down.

Cillian Murphy21:54

And I believe I might have written him a letter. I was a big advocate for letter writing in the early days. I met a director recently and she said, you know, you wrote me a letter 25 years ago. And I do think that's appreciated. And I would say that to younger actors, to actually take the time to handwrite a letter and post it because no one gets them anymore and they're such special things to get. And I think you have to go after stuff. If you really, really think you're the right actor for it, you need to chase it down.

Presenter22:22

Twenty six, you shot Ken Loach's film, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, and that went on to win the Palme d'Or. Now he has said that the key to your performance in that film was that you allowed yourself to be vulnerable. And I wonder what you remember about your approach to that role.

Cillian Murphy22:39

I think you have to be vulnerable. I think it's one of the most powerful tools you have as an actor: vulnerability and empathy. And the way Ken works, which is so unusual, is that you don't get a script, you shoot everything chronologically, but the events happen in real time to the character and to the actor. So you're reacting in a completely instinctual, non-intellectual way. And it changed the way I approached work profoundly making that film. In the story, there was a sort of a traitor in the flying column.

Cillian Murphy23:09

We didn't know this, but at the beginning, he paired me with this youngster, and he had me working very closely with this youngster. We went to like boot camp and look in army training and all that stuff. And he's this great little kid. He was a non-professional actor, someone that Ken found in Cork. Great little personality. And so we really got on and we were really tight. And then it turns out later in the movie that he's the traitor and he's the kid that I have to, that my character has to shoot. But Ken orchestrated it in such a way that it was more than him turning up and us looking at the side and come out and shoot you today. It was like, it was really, I couldn't believe it when I found out. Like I was devastated. And that's just genius, you know, to make that happen. So therefore, when it happened on screen, all of what I was feeling was.

Cillian Murphy23:55

was real, you know?

Presenter23:57

It's time for your sixth disc, Killian. What have you chosen?

Cillian Murphy24:01

So this is a track from Radiohead and it's called Everything in Its Right Place. And this particular tune was revolutionary for me when I heard it. And you know, they just made OK Computer and toured around and it was the biggest album and they were the biggest band. And then they said, no, we're actually going to do this. And I find it very, very inspiring that they went, no, we're not going to do what you think we're going to do. We're going to do what we think we should do. And they put out this album. I think sometimes more than my acting colleagues or acting heroes, sometimes musicians, their courage in the face of the industry or the decisions they make. I mean, people like John Lennon or Sinead O'Connor or, you know, Radiohead, people like that make you brave. And they've always made me braver, I think.

Cillian Murphy25:09

Everything comes up as one comes up.

Cillian Murphy25:14

Everything

Presenter25:16

Radiohead and everything in its right place. In twenty thirteen, you took on a role that that was going to flex every dramatic and other muscle that you had, Tommy Shelby, in the BBC drama Peaky Blinders. How did you persuade the writer Stephen Knight that you were the right person?

Cillian Murphy25:35

I mean, I wasn't the obvious choice physically, and I hadn't up to that point played, I think, anyone who had that sort of physical presence. I don't know if I convinced him in the meeting, but I I don't know if this is apocryphal or he's just made it up because it's a good story, but apparently afterwards I sent him a text saying, Remember, Steve, I'm an actor.

Cillian Murphy25:54

And I do believe that. I do think it's our duty as actors to transform to whatever the part demands. And he was generous enough to give me a go.

Presenter26:03

And I'm sure it helped being part of such a brilliant cast. One of whom I have to ask you about, just before you started filming the final series in 2021, your co-star Helen McCrory, who played the formidable Aunt Polly, died of cancer. What do you remember about that time? Because you and Helen had met before Peaky Blinders ever began, I think.

Cillian Murphy26:22

Yeah.

Cillian Murphy26:23

Yeah, we met, well my goodness, like back in the nineties I auditioned for her, I remember. And I even remember then she was just brilliant. Yeah, she kind of brightened up every ti every you know, she would make any we were sh like a lot of the time shooting in like fields or you know in some like bog somewhere. But Helen was always funny and always brightened up every set. I loved her. And I still I still really miss her, you know.

Presenter26:49

Of course, you know, the series ended and you'd spent ten years in the role. How did it feel to leave it and say goodbye?

Cillian Murphy26:57

Actually, to be totally honest with you, it was a little bit of a relief at that point. I was ready to take a little break. I felt like we'd done such excellent work and I really loved the ambiguity of the ending. It was it was a good time to have a little respite from it. I think we all needed a break from each other, you know.

Presenter27:14

Well, speaking of what comes next, you know everybody's talking about the Peaky Blinders movie. Would you be up for it?

Cillian Murphy27:20

Totally. I mean, I've always said that if there is more story to tell and if Steve Knight delivers a script that I know he can deliver because he's such a phenomenal writer, I'll be there. I mean, if we want to watch like fifty-year-old Tommy Shelby, let's do it.

Presenter27:34

I

Presenter27:35

It's time to hear your seventh disc, Killian Murphy. What's coming up next?

Cillian Murphy27:40

The Beatles are my kind of musical touchstone. I think they probably represent, in my mind, one of the greatest artistic achievements of the twentieth century for me personally, not just them musically, but

Cillian Murphy27:52

in terms of their humour and their sort of

Cillian Murphy27:56

Friendship and their tolerance. And I love this song. I love the energy of it. I love.

Cillian Murphy28:03

Paul's hope and optimism and then John's kind of acerbic sort of realist middle eight that he gives us. It's just perfection. It's uh we can work it out.

Speaker 128:14

Think of what you're saying, you can get it right

Cillian Murphy28:21

Think of what I'm saying We can work it out and get it straight I'll say goodnight

Cillian Murphy28:30

We can work it out, life is very short.

Cillian Murphy28:35

And there's no time.

Cillian Murphy28:39

Uh

Cillian Murphy28:40

For fussing and fighting my

Presenter28:43

The Beatles and We Can Work It Out. Killean Murphy, I wonder how easy you find it to switch off after a job, especially the intense ones. You know, we were just talking about how that inhabiting the role of Tommy Shelby. Most of your work is intense these days, you know, big stories, you're you're attracted to to that kind of material.

Presenter29:02

How easy is it to to switch lanes and disappear into normal life again?

Cillian Murphy29:06

It's difficult, but I have a very, very understanding family. They kind of know when I'm re emerging, you know, and I stop walking like the character, you know, and and I know I'm just re emerging, but you're neither like the character or the civilian. You're sort of just figuring it out.

Presenter29:22

So you're in a like a liminal space for a while. Okay. Yeah, and it's a

Cillian Murphy29:23

Space for a while. Okay. Yeah, and it's a bit odd for a while. But it's nothing like people love to make it like this big methody thing. For me, it's not. It's just trying to figure out what to do with my time.

Presenter29:35

And I wonder what having that family support, you know, you've got your your wife and your boys.

Cillian Murphy29:40

Hmm.

Presenter29:40

I wonder what that's allowed you to do, whether that's given you more freedom.

Cillian Murphy29:45

It's been crucial, honestly. I don't think I could have done any of the things that we talked about without having um I've been with my wife for twenty eight years now and it's been the most important thing for me, you know, just and then having those kids and um raising them. I I think'cause the this sort of ancillary aspect of being an actor is quite challenging to me.

Presenter30:06

The fame bit, the the noise around it.

Cillian Murphy30:07

None of that stuff.

Cillian Murphy30:09

Exactly, yeah. The kind of noise of to have a really secure, solid base is important. That's been really important for me. You have to have that safe place, I think I I certainly do, where it's just like an island of comfort and ease.

Speaker 130:15

Yeah.

Presenter30:24

Well, you said that, you know, home and family is one kind of island for you. I'm afraid I'm about to send you off to another, of course.

Cillian Murphy30:30

Of course.

Presenter30:31

How will you prepare yourself for the experience of the desert island? I know you quite like your own company. You're good on your own.

Presenter30:37

No.

Cillian Murphy30:38

Not bad. I'm I'm getting better as I got as I get older. I used to be terrible when I was a youngster. I really could not stand be on my own for

Cillian Murphy30:45

for more than a few hours, but I'm getting better as I get older. I think I'll be alright, you know.

Presenter30:50

And what about switching off? How are you how good are you at at relaxing?

Cillian Murphy30:54

Uh

Presenter30:55

Yeah.

Cillian Murphy30:55

Great, honestly. Yeah, it's something I struggle with.

Presenter30:58

Listeners might have heard you reading a story on one of those meditation apps that's out there.

Cillian Murphy31:03

Oh yeah.

Presenter31:03

I think your voice is there to soothe people to sleep.

Cillian Murphy31:06

Someone came up to me recently said that his wife listened to that while she was giving birth.

Cillian Murphy31:11

Yeah.

Presenter31:12

Isn't it you're reading a very boring story about train travels?

Cillian Murphy31:15

So dull. It's just me talking about being on a train rolling across Ireland. But then I think that's the point of it.

Presenter31:22

Yeah.

Presenter31:23

It's time for your next piece of music. What have you got for us?

Cillian Murphy31:26

There's an amazing amount of great music coming out of Ireland at the moment, and there was so much to choose from, but one of my favorite albums of last year was by an artist called Lisa O'Neill, and I thought I should play some of Lisa's music, and this is called If I Was a Painter.

Speaker 231:41

If I was a painter.

Speaker 231:46

The colours no end

Speaker 231:51

Right when the whole thing simply gains

Speaker 231:59

Where everything runs

Speaker 232:04

Into everything.

Presenter32:07

Lisa O'Neill and If I Was a Painter. So, Killian Murphy, it's time for me to send you away to the island. I'm going to give you the books to take with you, the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare, and you can select a book of your own to take. What would you like?

Cillian Murphy32:23

This is a really pretentious choice.

Presenter32:25

Okay, so just to get that out there, yeah.

Cillian Murphy32:25

So just to get that out there, I have the complete works of Samuel Beckett at home.

Cillian Murphy32:32

And it has a beautiful, beautiful portrait of him.

Cillian Murphy32:35

looking ver it was sort of very stern and beautiful face.

Cillian Murphy32:39

looking down at me because I have not taken it down.

Cillian Murphy32:43

And read it, and there's he's one of my favourite, favourite writers, and there's it's such a body of work, it's all of it.

Presenter32:50

So, this is the dramatic works and includes the novels as well? Everything. Okay.

Cillian Murphy32:55

Everything, and I know I need to read it all, and I will.

Cillian Murphy33:00

And this would be the perfect opportunity to start at the start and end at the end.

Presenter33:04

Oh yeah, definitely. You can have that. I quite like the idea of you having him on the island to just keep you right.

Cillian Murphy33:09

It would be nice.

Presenter33:10

It could be a companion.

Cillian Murphy33:11

Yeah, with that beautiful portrait, yeah, looking at me, I'd put him up in a rock.

Presenter33:15

Absolutely. You can also have a luxury item. What will that be?

Cillian Murphy33:18

I mean, I'd take a guitar if I could.

Presenter33:20

Do you still play?

Cillian Murphy33:21

I mess around. Maple don't play as much as I should, but I it would that would keep me going if I could be creative in some way, you know, just I think I get very agitated if I couldn't make something, you know.

Presenter33:35

And finally, which track of the eight that you shared with us today would you save from the waves first if you needed to?

Cillian Murphy33:41

This has been really, really hard, but I think it would have to be the Beatles because I think the sentiment of that song would keep me going throughout and it's quite jolly. I think I'll need a bit of a geo.

Presenter33:53

Killian Murphy, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thanks, Tarns.

Cillian Murphy33:57

Pleasure.

Presenter34:19

Hello. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Killian. I'm sure Samuel Beckett will keep him busy on the island. We've cast away many actors, including Samantha Morton, Wendell Pierce, and Anne-Marie Duff. Killian's director colleagues Christopher Nolan and Ken Loach are in our back catalogue too. You can find these episodes in our Desert Island Discs programme archive and through BBC Sounds. The studio manager for today's programme was Jackie Marjoram. The assistant producer was Christine Pavlovsky and the producer was Paula McGinley. The series editor is John Gowdy. Next time, my guest will be the volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer. I do hope you'll join us.

Cillian Murphy35:05

On This Cultural Life from BBC Radio 4, leading artists and performers reveal their creative inspirations.

Speaker 135:15

Disc Uh

Cillian Murphy35:15

Does their best now?

Speaker 135:16

And work.

Cillian Murphy35:16

A game.

Speaker 135:16

I do get messages all the time saying this is our life. The handmaid's tale is already here.

Cillian Murphy35:22

And reflect on their own cultural lives. Rock stars need to be simply drawn. They can't be too complex. Join me, John Wilson, and my guests, including Nick Cave, Stephen Frye, Margaret Atwood, Florence Pugh, Paul McCartney, and Whoopi Goldberg. I always knew I was going to be a character actor. I'd never thought I was going to be a famous movie person. This cultural life. Listen on BBC Sounds.