The actor Cillian Murphy called “rivetingly magnetic”
The blue-eyed Irish sensation Cillian Murphy first rose to mainstream attention in 2002 after appearing in Danny Boyle’s widely-acclaimed zombie thriller 28 Days Later. Since then, he’s scaled his way to dizzying heights, joining Christopher Nolan for his astounding Dark Knight trilogy and reuniting with Boyle in 2007 for Sunshine.
Alongside his impressive movie oeuvre, including notable titles by Ken Loach, Wes Craven, and Neil Jordan, Murphy planted a firm jewel on his crown with his career-defining role as Tommy Shelby in the BBC’s Peaky Blinders. Later in 2023, Murphy is set to reunite with Nolan in his highly-anticipated drama Oppenheimer.
In the late 1990s, Murphy was in his early 20s and had enjoyed local success as the lead singer, guitarist, and lyricist of the rock band The Sons of Mr. Green Genes. The decisive moment for the young creative came when he turned down a record deal to pursue a career in acting. While music had always been a passion of Murphy’s, he had set his sights on an acting career in his teen years and stuck with his dream.
Most stars couldn’t pick out one definitive moment when they were inspired to become an actor, but Murphy wheedled it out from the memory banks when listing his favourite movies of all time in 2016.
Picking out Jerry Schatzberg’s classic 1973 road movie, Scarecrow, Murphy recalled: “I rented this film by mistake when I was 15 with my brother. They told us it was a scary movie. It pretty much made me want to be an actor. Al Pacino will break your heart. And Gene Hackman will break your other heart.”
Besides his deep admiration for Al Pacino and Gene Hackman, Murphy harkened back to the 1950s to shine a light on one of his earlier acting heroes, the late film noir icon Robert Mitchum.
Selecting Charles Laughton’s classic 1955 movie The Night of the Hunter, Murphy commented: “A masterpiece visually and in so many ways, but also a tragedy as Charles Laughton only directed this one film. Robert Mitchum is so rivetingly magnetic.”
The Night of the Hunter is regarded as one of Mitchum’s finest works in the film noir genre he helped to popularise during Hollywood’s first wave. The screenplay, written by James Agee, was based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb and follows the story of a charming serial killer who, dressed like a preacher, gains his victim’s confidence before devious extortion.
While the movie received underwhelming stats in both critical and financial faculties, it has been somewhat reassessed as a classic over the past six decades.
Watch the trailer for The Night of the Hunter below.
