The movies that made Cillian Murphy want to be a better actor: “Can I ever be as compelling?”
There is no doubt that Cillian Murphy has established himself as one of the great actors of our time. It’s evidenced by the Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG awards under his belt for his turn as the inventor of the nuclear weapon in Oppenheimer, and a BAFTA for his acclaimed role as crime lord Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders. Yet, the actor can often be rather humble about his own career and success.
In an interview with Deadline for their video series Miramax Presents The Film That Lit My Fuse, the 49-year-old Cork-native argues this is because his first dream was to be a musician. This, sadly, didn’t work out, and so he has “always felt like a bit of an interloper” in the film world. There is one movie, however, that he often rewatches that serves to shake this feeling and as a reminder of why he fell in love with cinema in the first place.
When asked if there were any movies he watched while making his way as an actor that made him question if he could rise to the performance level of its leads and play in the same sandbox, Murphy noted two. The first is The Butcher Boy, based on the 1992 novel of the same name. He recalled watching the 1997 Irish dark comedy in the cinema and being enamoured by it, so much so that he left after the screening and immediately bought another ticket for a rewatch.
The other is Punch-Drunk Love by Paul Thomas Anderson. “That really made me sit up and think, ‘I wonder, can I ever be as compelling or as interesting or as unique or as different as that film is?’” Murphy elaborated. The 2002 rom-com stars Adam Sandler, Emily Watson and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman—one of Murphy’s favourite screen actors.
In typical Sandler-movie fashion, we follow the male lead’s lonely, washed-out lifestyle as he charms the girl through the most goofy and chaotic yet heartwarming of journeys. “It’s a movie just about humans, about human behaviour. It’s this beautiful love story, and it has this very unusual, unique tone and atmosphere to it,” Murphy said. Commenting on the power of watching films over and over, especially ones that leave a mark, he noted, “That film is one that I go back to all the time. Great movies reveal more each time you watch them. The best ones do. But it does inspire you, it does remind you why you fell in love with cinema in the first place.”
Other films that Murphy lists as influential on him include the classic 1980s-kid-favourite Star Wars, of which he admitted, “I am that age, that generation. I remember being completely transfixed by everything, having all the figurines and spaceships”. Alongside was the Gene Hackman and Al Pacino road-trip buddy comedy Scarecrow. Renting the latter for Halloween, having been promised by the video store worker that it was “terrifying”, the 1972 movie instead had a massive impact on him as a teenager.
The characterisation specifically made an impression, much like his feelings towards Punch-Drunk Love. “I didn’t really have the vocabulary for it then, but now I might be able to articulate it; I think it was the naturalism, it was the humanity of it,” Murphy shared, adding, “It’s a film that I give to actor friends and director friends who might not have seen it.”
So there we have it, Harrison Ford, Gene Hackman, Al Pacino and Adam Sandler, that’s Cillian Murphy’s Mount Rushmore of acting.
