The one director Cillian Murphy calls “a master of cinema”
The largely underrated Irish actor Cillian Murphy has worked with some of the greatest filmmakers of the 21st century, giving emotionally-charged performances in each and every movie he has taken on. Collaborating with the likes of Christopher Nolan, Danny Boyle, Ken Loach, John Krasinski, Wes Craven, Ben Wheatley, Sally Potter and Ron Howard, Murphy is well qualified to brand any given filmmaker “a master of cinema”.
Collaborating with Nolan on six occasions, including each of the films in the Dark Knight trilogy, 2010’s Inception, 2017’s Dunkirk and 2023’s Oppenheimer, Murphy is a personal lover of Nolan’s direction style. Such led the filmmaker to cast the Irish star as the lead role in the demanding biopic Oppenheimer, appearing beside the likes of Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh and Matt Damon, as a result, you might think Murphy would name the visionary British creative as his personal “master”.
Yet, Nolan isn’t his man, instead going back to the burgeoning years of his own career in the mid-2000s, when he was collaborating with everyone and anyone willing to take him on. One such director was the acclaimed British social realist Ken Loach, who employed Murphy for the lead role in his eventual Palme d’Or winning movie The Wind that Shakes the Barley, which told the story of two brothers fighting a guerrilla war against British forces during the Irish War of Independence.
Speaking about his time in the movie during an interview with GQ, Murphy stated: “I felt a great responsibility, again, with that film. I auditioned for Ken Loach like four or five times. They’re very rigorous auditions and a lot of improvisations, and obviously I knew about that period of history but not in depth, not to the extent that I subsequently learned about it. Cannes’ got a great relationship with Ken, they rightfully adore his films”.
Establishing just how much he appreciates the filmmaker behind such classics as 1969’s Kes, 2002’s Sweet Sixteen, and 2016’s I, Daniel Blake, Murphy adds: “He’s again, a master of cinema, you know, master of world cinema, so yeah, it was a great privilege to play a part like that as an Irishman and then also as an actor to work with Ken Loach”.
A complex and misunderstood period of Irish history, the film tackles the Irish War of Independence, which occurred from 1919-1921, looking into the familial relationships that were ripped apart due to the conflict. Undoubtedly, the war would have a major impact on the Irish troubles that raged from the late 1960s to the end of the 20th century, with the Republic of Ireland vying for independence from Britain, whilst Northern Island wished to stay loyal to the crown.
Speaking about the film in reference to its context of the War of Independence, Murphy adds: “It was all shot around, you know, Cork, where I’m from, in the summertime, and it was a beautiful summer. It’s beautifully composed shots just of the landscape, and these men in the landscape, and all of the stories in the script are based on real-life events and real-life characters…I don’t think it had been really dealt with, the War of Independence and the Civil War, cinematically like that. Generations of families in Ireland went to see that film. Yeah, I’m very, very, very proud of it”.
Take a look at Murphy discussing his part in the movie in the interview below.
