The “revolutionary” movie that changed Cillian Murphy’s life: “The massive epiphany”
There comes a time in every actor’s career when they finally feel like everything has clicked into place. They realise what it means to actually ‘get it’, to feel comfortable in their abilities as a versatile star for the first time in their life.
The film industry is maddeningly competitive, so it goes without saying that it is difficult for a young actor to feel secure in themselves, especially when considering that so many ridiculously impressive performers have come before them. It can feel like unreachable standards of success. But for Cillian Murphy, working on one movie early in his career gave him the chance to let go of any suffocating feelings of insecurity and fear.
Murphy’s transition from somewhat modest productions like the British horror film 28 Days Later to Hollywood bonanzas like Batman Begins and Red Eye only took a few years, but the actor was not about to ditch the kinds of movies that had inspired him to act in the first place. So, in 2006, a year after his role as the villainous Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s superhero blockbuster, Murphy packed up and went to home soil to make The Wind That Shakes The Barley, playing a young man who joins the IRA alongside his brother.
Directed by one of Britain’s finest social realists in the great Ken Loach, the film received widespread acclaim, with Murphy’s performance rather unsurprisingly singled out as the high point of the movie (what’s new?). Murphy takes on Damien O’Donovan, and it’s one of those turns where he digs deep, playing a man torn between family and the pull of justice. You can see the weight of it on him, every choice feels like it costs something.
Reflecting on the movie, Murphy once told The Irish Times how pivotal the job was in shaping his approach to acting. “That was the massive epiphany moment for me, because of the nature of how Ken shoots,” he said. “We didn’t have a script, and because you didn’t know what was coming you couldn’t analyse it or prepare. You just had to let go, be available and be in the moment.”
Admitting that he once had a bad habit of overthinking his performances and “beat [himself] up” in the process, working with Loach allowed Murphy to release all inhibition and step into his role with a new frame of mind. “It was revolutionary for me, and I’ve applied that to all work that I’ve done since,” he said. “It was the most valuable lesson I’ve ever learned on a set.”
You don’t me to tell you that Ken Loach is a legendary director. Emerging during the 1960s as the mastermind behind many gritty and groundbreaking television plays, like Cathy Come Home and Up the Junction, he’s now etched in British history. With movies like Poor Cow and Kes, the filmmaker shed light on the lives of working-class folk with few prospects, emphasising the government’s fundamental failures to provide for its citizens.
The filmmaker has never stopped making fiercely political films that tap into the deepest human aspects of issues that we can often feel so detached from, like war or extreme poverty. Loach’s naturalistic approach to cinema evidently extends to the way he works, too, and this script-less method certainly worked its magic on Murphy, who was forced to immerse himself in his role like never before.
