The movie that made Cillian Murphy “very, very nervous”
To his audiences, Cillian Murphy might not seem like the kind of actor who gets nervous. His performances are filled to the brim with intent and confidence, whether we’re revisiting his role as Brummie crime boss Tommy Shelby on the set of Peaky Blinders or watching him entirely encompass the complexities of the titular Oppenheimer. However, there was one film that made the Irish actor particularly anxious.
After finding his start between plays and a lead role in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, Murphy began a long-standing collaborative relationship with Christopher Nolan in 2005. The director had taken on the mammoth task of adapting the story of Batman to screen, and Murphy was cast as the villainous scarecrow, a role that made him “very, very nervous”, as he recalled in an interview with Matt Patches.
Reminiscing on working with Nolan, he stated, “To be honest, he’s remained constant. I remember being blown away when I walked onto the Batman set. I mean I was very, very nervous, and it was like a big responsibility for me. But it felt like just walking onto the set of an independent film.”
It’s easy to see why the film was a particularly intimidating project for Murphy. Comic book fans can be some of the harshest critics, desperate to see their favourite characters depicted faithfully on screen. With a budget of $150million and a series of huge names attached to the film, including Morgan Freeman and Christian Bale, it’s a set that seems more than worthy of a few nerves.
However, Murphy’s concerns were settled by the comforting presence and processes of Nolan, who created a “very, very intimate” atmosphere in which actors are free to experiment and emote. “It’s just him and Wally Pfister, the cameraman, and he’s right beside the camera watching the action take place between the actors,” the actor explained.
“That’s a very rare skill, I think, to be able to do intimacy, scale and emotion at the same time,” Murphy concluded. With this directorial skill in mind, alongside his reputation as one of the most celebrated filmmakers working today, it makes sense that Murphy would go on to hone a lengthy creative relationship with the Dark Knight trilogy director.
Clearly undeterred by the intense nerves he felt at the outset, Murphy went on to star in the entire trilogy, returning to his role as the Scarecrow in The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. He also starred in the director’s 2010 dream-infiltrating drama Inception, his 2017 war film Dunkirk and, most recently, the lumbering Oppenheimer, their work together spanning almost two decades.
