Cillian Murphy names his most challenging performance: “The Everest of acting”
Since the early 2000s, Cillian Murphy has dominated our screens with roles in British, Irish, and Hollywood productions, lending himself to gritty horrors, superhero films, and even Oscar-winning biopics. It’s hard to dislike the man; he’s never put down a bad performance, and you can tell that he sincerely loves his craft, even if certain roles have sometimes challenged him more than he anticipated.
Murphy has embodied a wide array of characters over the years, from a terrorist in Wes Craven’s Red Eye to the father of the atomic bomb, J Robert Oppenheimer, in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which earned him an Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’. He even played a transgender woman in 2005’s Breakfast on Pluto, while 28 Days Later saw him navigate a society completely broken down by the spread of a highly contagious virus.
It’s safe to say that Murphy has taken on some incredibly complex parts during his career, but it turns out the one he has found the most challenging was actually for the stage. The actor got his start in theatre before transitioning to film roles, making his debut in the play Disco Pigs back in 1996. From there, he appeared in a string of plays that helped him to hone his craft, including Much Ado About Nothing and The Seagull.
While he has dedicated much more of his time to screen productions as opposed to plays, he has still found the time to squeeze performances in over the years, including a run of Misterman, which he performed in various theatres, including the National Theatre in London. Written by Enda Walsh, who was also responsible for Disco Pigs, Murphy stepped into the role of Thomas Magill for the one-man play, which certainly tested his strengths.
Talking to Clash, the actor revealed that it felt like “the Everest of acting”. He explained, “It’s the ultimate challenge.”
Murphy found it quite physically demanding, no less because he had to entertain an audience for the whole runtime entirely by himself – that’s a lot of mental pressure to hold, too. “I’m probably fitter than I’ve ever been in my life as a result. It has that incredible concentration and immersion that I love in any form of acting. With Misterman, I’m generally so physically ruined at the end of it. I’m not complaining about that, I adore it, but you do feel physically wrecked.”
Yet, the hard work was worth it for Murphy, who received rave reviews for his performance, unsurprisingly. Once he finished it, however, he had to be assisted in stepping back into himself: “My wife is always like: ‘You’re in the decompressing stage.’ It’s a deeply subconscious thing, you’re not aware of it. I rely on other people to tell me.”
Misterman saw Murphy grow a beard and channel the intensely religious protagonist who sees everyone around him as sinners. He imitates them, and it’s both bleak and humorous, with Murphy frequently moving around the stage and working with props – he even gets rained on. It’s no surprise that the actor found it challenging work, although that’s often the most rewarding kind.
