Cillian Murphy Just Wants to Talk About Art!

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | February 14, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | February 14, 2024 |

Whenever Cillian Murphy has to make a public appearance—be it a press event or an awards show—he looks like he doesn’t want to be there. And, well, he doesn’t.

“I think it’s a broken model,” he said of the press-tour system. “Everybody is so bored.”

He admitted to being relieved when the SAG-AFTRA strike meant he couldn’t attend the opening weekend of Oppenheimer and said the film clearly didn’t need the press as it did fine without it. He prefers word of mouth, which he thinks is what worked for Peaky Blinders: “The first three seasons there was no advertising, a tiny show on BBC Two; it just caught fire because people talked to each other about it.”

His philosophy can be summed up simply: “It’s like Joanne Woodward said: Acting is like sex—do it, don’t talk about it.” But if he has to talk, he’d rather talk about acting than talk about himself.

“People used to say to me, ‘He has reservations,’ or ‘He’s a difficult interviewee.’ Not really. I love talking about work, about art. What I struggle with—and find unnecessary—and unhelpful about what I want to do, is: ‘Tell me about yourself…’”

He doesn’t even like to watch himself. “Many of my films I haven’t seen,” he said. “Generally, the ones I haven’t seen are the ones I hear are not good.” Like the one he made with Rachel McAdams, Red Eye, of which he said, “I love Rachel McAdams, and we had fun making it, but I don’t think it’s a good movie. It’s a good, B movie.”

See? Even when he does talk about the art, he demurs. He’s a sensitive creature. Leave him alone!