His blue eyes are actually piercing. And then those striking cheekbones! The boyish-looking Irish actor Cillian Murphy is the Berlinale darling of the moment.
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However, the 47-year-old also knows exactly how to open hearts in the capital: “I love Berlin, this is my fifth time here,” he said on Thursday at Potsdamer Platz. He makes time for the festival, no matter how tight the dates are.
Murphy is currently in demand primarily as Robert Oppenheimer and therefore as the “father of the atomic bomb”. With the film drama “Oppenheimer” he is on course for an Oscar as one of five selected leading actors who can hope for the trophy on March 10th. Probably his toughest competitor: Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers”.
Cillian Murphy als J. Robert Oppenheim
©Quelle: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pic
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“What is right, what is wrong?”
Murphy would certainly have had enough on his plate in Hollywood these days. In Berlin, however, he is the main actor in the opening film “Small Things Like These”. He plays the empathetic Irish coal dealer Bill Furlong, who dares to resist the brutal oppressive system in the Catholic-Irish Magdalen Homes. Unmarried pregnant women were kept behind high walls until the 1990s – supposedly to improve their lifestyle. In fact, their children were taken away from them and given up for adoption.
“Furlong is a Christian trying to act Christianly in a community that does pious things,” Murphy said in Berlin. In life it is always important to listen to your instincts: “What is right, what is wrong?” From his mouth it sounded very simple.
There are definitely parallels between the roles in both current films: a man goes through an inner process of discovery, struggles with his conscience and has to make decisions that are far from just about his own life. With his fine acting and soft features, Murphy seems to be predestined for such difficult screen tasks.
Red carpet sensation
At the Berlinale he shows up in a dark blue shirt and dutifully says thank you when his acting skills are praised. He prefers to have photos taken of himself in the team. Murphy doesn’t like to push himself forward. The Irishman is anything but your typical star. He disappears into his roles as much as possible. And yet, on Thursday night, he was the red carpet sensation at the premiere of “Small Things Like These.”
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Murphy became internationally known in 2002 with Danny Boyle’s British viral thriller “28 Days Later”. In 2003, with Renée Zellweger and Jude Law, he made “On the Road to Cold Mountain” – also a Berlinale opening film at the time, which brought festival director Dieter Kosslick to a sweat of fear because not a single actor or actress appeared on the red carpet at the end. All of them had canceled hours before the event.
Cillian’s performance in Ken Loach’s Cannes winning film “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” is also sensitive. There he is the young doctor Damien, who gives up his career in the early 1920s to fight for the freedom of Ireland against the British occupiers. His idealism becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile with his bitter experiences.
Sponsored by Christopher Nolan
If there is one director who has particularly boosted Murphy’s career, it is Christopher Nolan. The director originally wanted Murphy to play “Batman” in his trilogy, but the role of the avenger in Gotham City simply didn’t fit with this underwhelming actor. Instead, Murphy played the nerdy Dr. Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow, a crazy scientist.
Murphy played this character three times, including in Nolan’s science fiction drama “Inception” and as a traumatized soldier in the war film “Dunkirk.” “Oppenheimer” is now the sixth collaboration between the two. The director already had his actor in mind when writing the script.
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That’s an impressive filmography for someone who originally didn’t want to be an actor but a musician. As a twenty-year-old, Murphy played with his younger brother as guitarist and singer in his own band called The Sons of Mr. Greengenes.
A London record deal fell through, not least because his brother, who was still a minor, had to go to school. And so Cillian first studied law at University College Cork, but was inspired to act by a performance of “A Clockwork Orange” and soon traveled around the world with a theater troupe. Now he is making Berlin shine.
His appearance is just one example of the tricks the Berlinale uses to replenish its meager Hollywood offerings. The Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o: (“12 Years a Slave”) is a daily regular on the red carpet as jury president. Director Martin Scorsese receives the Golden Bear for life’s work – but he preferred to show his “Killers of the Flower Moon” at the competition in Cannes. And Kristen Stewart, jury president from last year, is registered with the blood-soaked romantic film “Love Lies Bleeding”, although it was previously shown at the Sundance Festival in the USA.
There is also the Netflix production “Spaceman” with Adam Sandler and Atom Egoyan’s “Seven Veils” with Amanda Seyfried. The only flawless US entry in the competition is the psychological thriller “A Different Man” by Aaron Schimberg.
Originally, artistic director Carlo Chatrian had hoped that “Dune 2” could bring a hot atmosphere to the Berlinale, as the blockbuster will be released in cinemas at the end of February. But director Denis Villeneuve turned down the festival. Unlike Cillian Murphy, the Berlinale was obviously not important enough for him.
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He also leaves it at a short trip. Of necessity: On Sunday he has to show his irresistible smile again in London. The British film awards are up for grabs. And how does the humble Murphy rate his chances? “Let’s see what happens,” he said in Berlin.