With Danny Boyle's Sunshine filling cinemas with sci fi brilliance nationwide, Blockbuster.co.uk's Marshall Julius catches up with one of its brightest stars, Cillian Murphy.
Thin as a rake with Frodo-blue eyes, Cillian Murphy's unconventional good looks and easy charm, coupled with a fierce acting talent and ability to pick outstanding projects, have seen the actor propelled into the A-list, a star on the rise and still only 30. Five years ago he caught our eye in Danny Boyle's apocalyptic horror classic 28 Days Later. Today he returns in Boyle's cerebral science fiction thriller, Sunshine, playing a detached but brilliant physicist sent to re-ignite our dying sun.
"Sunshine is more like science faction," says Cillian, pronounced Killian, "because the sun is going to die. Maybe not for another five billion years, but it is going to happen. It's not
Lost In Space. Sunshine is a lot more serious."
As serious about his craft as his character is about saving the world, Cillian is fearless in the face of filmmakers, chasing roles with a passion. "I read a lot of scripts," he says. "Out of a hundred scripts, maybe four will be interesting, and whatever
Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't take, the rest of us have to fight for."
The day before his 2004 wedding, Murphy proved his commitment to suspense thriller
Red Eye by flying out to Los Angeles to convince director
Wes Craven to cast him as the bad guy. "We met in that famous revolving restaurant and got on really well. Half an hour later I was back at the airport. It was such a great script, I had to be a part of it. Just me and
Rachel McAdams and a lot of great dialogue."
Though memorable in the role, Murphy managed to dodge the typecasting bullet. "I'd done a lot of work before making that movie, and I've done a lot of work since making that movie, and I feel like I've never repeated myself. In the business it's never been an issue. For me, as an actor, I'm not into repeating myself. If I've done something, and I feel like I've done it well, why would you want to go back and do it again?"
Hopefully, should the call come, the
Batman Begins co-star would make an exception to that rule by reprising his role as the villainous Scarecrow in
Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, currently in pre-production. Even if it was just an Arkham Asylum-set cameo. "It would be great if Chris wants the Scarecrow back," says Cillian enthusiastically, "because I think he's the most exciting filmmaker on the planet right now. But really this film is about the Joker and Two-Face. They're both so well cast [
Heath Ledger and
Aaron Eckhart], it's going to be a brilliant movie. I hear it's very dark."
Trivia fans take note that before
Christian Bale was cast in the role, Murphy auditioned to play the caped crusader along with the likes of
Jake Gyllenhaal and
Billy Crudup. Murphy laughs. "I think I'm too skinny for that role somehow! For me, Christian Bale has been the best Batman, and I'm sure he'll continue in the role very successfully. He's a fantastic actor who makes brilliant choices, and he was great to work with. As far as I was concerned at the time, the Batman audition was a chance for me to get in the same room as Christopher Nolan, and to work with him, however briefly. And it paid off, because he saw something he could use in Batman Begins."
Perfectly cast as the lanky Batman villain, Murphy extends his good wishes to Heath Ledger. "Playing the Joker after
Nicholson. Heath is stepping into some really big shoes. I rate him highly as an actor though. He's a proper actor. I don't think he'll be scared by the challenge. I went to a few conventions and met a lot of Batfans, and you feel a real responsibility to get it right. I read as many comics as I could get my hands on, but after a while you have to believe in your script and trust your director and go and make the movie your own. I think they'll do that with The Dark Knight."
For Batman Begins he read a lot of comics. To prepare for Sunshine, a film set largely on a claustrophobic spaceship with a small ensemble cast, Cillian shared a cramped flat with his fellow actors and took a zero gravity ride to experience weightlessness for real. He also spent a lot of time hanging out with hardcore brainiacs.
Murphy stresses the importance of research. "It's essential for a role that you don't have any reference for," he explains. "If you're portraying a physicist, that community deserves your respect. You can't just walk in and go, 'right, this is what I'd imagine a physicist would be like'. You have to hang out with them, chat with them. I asked very brilliant men very stupid questions, as I read as many books on the subject that I could, at least the more accessible ones. You have to have that in your head if you want to be convincing.
"Physics is so counter-intuitive. Time and space. it's so abstract. I kept revising, just to hold on to what it all meant, and what it meant to my character. You have to assume that he's the most brilliant physicist of his generation. So what the hell does that intellect do to you as a personality? How does that affect your interaction with others and your perspective on the world? That to me was interesting.
As for us living together, when the film begins and you're introduced to the characters, they're eating dinner together. As it's a deep space mission, you have to assume they've had 500 dinners together, and though you can act it, when you've actually lived it, it takes the scene to another level. It adds something important."
A lean, hard-working blend of character actor and leading man, Cillian Murphy has only just begun to show us what he's capable of, so please, pay attention, because he's going to be around for a very long time, and you're not going to want to miss anything.