The only actor who intimidated Cillian Murphy: “There was no acting involved for real”
Cillian Murphy is famously not a fan of being in the spotlight, with the actor doing everything in his power to avoid being noticed and stay out of the public eye. It’s a bit that has become nearly as famous as his performances, with occasional glimpses of Murphy as he seamlessly exits or hides near the bar at a high-profile Hollywood event. However, he has an image that is hard to escape after iconic performances in films like Oppenheimer, 28 Days Later and Inception, often portraying weathered and tortured characters grappling with imminent disaster or catastrophe.
However, despite his attempts to avoid the centre of attention, he always seems to draw eyes towards him through his efforts to be inconspicuous, with arresting performances that make it hard to ignore his presence on and off screen. However, perhaps this quality was most useful when starring across one of the ultimate Hollywood heavyweights in his 2012 film, Red Lights.
Directed by Rodrigo Cortes, Red Lights follows two investigators of paranormal hoaxes, Dr Margaret Matheson and her assistant Tom Buckley as they meet a legendary psychic called Simon Silver, with Tom forming an obsession with Silver as their worldviews begin to clash.
Sigourney Weaver and Robert De Niro star in the lead roles alongside Murphy, with the actor having many face-to-face scenes with the acting legend and describing his intimidation at performing in an entirely silent scene with him.
Performing alongside renowned actors of such a high caliber is surely a scary feat, with Murphy describing the process of preparing for such a role alongside such prestigious performers. When discussing this, Murphy said, “The first scene that we shot with De Niro and me. I have no dialogue in that scene. It was my first scene with him, so my character just has to be intimidated and overwhelmed. So there was no acting involved for real in that scene. It was amazing to have the pleasure to just watch him build that scene over the course of the takes, and have him work with Rodrigo. I’ll never forget that”.
Murphy expanded on the experience of working with Weaver and De Niro, saying, “For me, as an actor, when you’re lucky enough to work with actors that good you just have to observe and learn, and I’ve tried to do that over the course of my career. To be actually in a room watching these great screen legends do their stuff is amazing, but ultimately what it comes down to, when Rodrigo says action, it becomes about the scene and the characters and serving them and doing as honest a job as you can. You have to leave that stuff behind, but it was a great privilege to work with people like that”.
While Murphy is now at a career-high after recent performances in Small Things Like These and Oppenheimer, artists always do well to remain inspired by other people in the business, becoming creatively enriched through the performances of their colleagues and learning from the other greats, even if they eventually join this league of greatness themselves.
