Cillian Murphy Talks ‘Small Things Like These’ (and Rewatching ‘Peaky Blinders’)

Cillian Murphy might have won an Oscar this year, but it hasn't changed much for the Irish actor.

"Honestly, it's all a bit of a fever dream," the Peaky Blinders star says in a recent Zoom. "I haven't really processed it all. I don't really think about it that much."

By the time he took the stage to accept the trophy for playing the haunted J. Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer, Murphy had already banked his next film, Small Things Like These, a project as intimate in scale as Christopher Nolan’s Best Picture-winning epic was massive. Directed by Tim Mielants, it finds Murphy returning to his home country to play Bill Furlong, a small town coal-delivery man in the 1980s who accidentally discovers that the local convent is abusing young women. What he has encountered is one of the Magdalene laundries, one of the famously horrific institutions that targeted girls who had children out of wedlock or engaged in other so-called sins. Furlong, a father of daughters himself, is haunted by what he has seen.

Murphy spoke to GQ about his latest turn—as well as revisiting Tommy Shelby for the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie.

How did you first encounter Claire Keegan's novel?

I read it when it came out in 2020. It floored me. But it wasn't until a year later that we had the idea to make a film, because I was looking for a project to work with Tim Mielants on. But the book had really stayed with me and I kind of hadn't stopped thinking about it. Then when myself and Tim were looking for material, it was actually my wife who said, What about this novel? And miraculously the rights were still available.

It's produced by Artists Equity, a company cofounded by Matt Damon. Did these discussions start while you were working together on Oppenheimer?

Alan Moloney, my producing partner, was making a documentary about U2 in Sarajevo with Matt. And then I was working with Matt on Oppenheimer and he was telling me about Artists Equity, [and] the philosophy of the company. I said, "Well, you might like this." So I gave him the script and he really got it. They really let us make the film we wanted to make, because they're filmmakers themselves and writers and they really understand it. So it just worked out brilliantly.

What was the process of both figuring out how to adapt this novel and how to play this man who is so internal and observational?

The novel is so delicate and so full of stakes even though it's so compact, and we wanted to make the film like that also. It's a very simple story on one hand, but in fact, it's really, really deep and poking at really, really big themes. The flashback element to the story is so important and it has to be so kind of seamless. We didn't want to put up a caption or say like, "30 years ago." We just wanted [it to be], all of a sudden, you're in the past. And it is like the title of the novel—it's the accumulation of small events and realizations that brings him to this moment.

You've made a number of films about Irish history, including The Wind that Shakes the Barley. What does exploring this history through your work mean to you?

Well, in this case, the country is kind of still confronting what happened. It is kind of a national reckoning. There's government commissions and government reports and academic papers on all of these things that you can get your hands on, but the public doesn't really read them. They will consume books and films and I think it's a gentler way to confront it. And it's told through the eyes of everyday, normal citizens.

In some ways this character is an outsider witnessing what's happening at the Magdalene laundries.

I suppose he is observing, but he's also living it. I mean, I think the atmosphere in that town is completely created by the church and the convent and that laundry. It informs every single aspect of that society. And then I think his own personal history with his mother—clearly, if it weren't for an act of charity, she could be one of those girls behind that wall and who knows where he would be? So he is an observer, but he also has five daughters and they're living reminders of what is happening to those other girls. He just can't turn it off. He hasn't been able to do that cognitive dissonance. He can't hold those two conflicting ideas in his head. He's compelled. It's almost like a magnet draws him towards that shed with the girl in there. He just has to do this. I don't think it's premeditated. No, I don't think it's a classically heroic act. It's just something that he's compelled to do.

Were you coming off Oppenheimer and going into this much smaller, more intimate production?

Well, I think I had about six or seven months off after we wrapped. And this script was ready to go before we shot Oppenheimer. We shot it while Chris was cutting Oppenheimer. But it was a lovely experience to be shooting back at home, shooting with Irish crews, and shooting with these amazing Irish actors. To be working with dear friends of mine who happen to be brilliantly talented writers, actors, and directors. So it was really special to shoot.

Do you approach a smaller production any differently than a huge one?

I think you need to take each role as seriously as the next, no matter what the size or scale. For sure, there was an added weight when you're playing somebody like Oppenheimer who is a real life 20th-century icon. He changed the course of history. That has an added weight to it. But I approached playing Furlong with the same amount of rigor and prep and dedication. It's the same thing, but just nobody knows who he is.

How did that prep shape the role?

Because I was producing the film as well, there was a lot of work in terms of working on the script and casting the movie and finding the locations and auditioning the actors, and all of those things, which were really satisfying. I read an awful lot about those homes and the experiences of those women. But mostly it was trying to inhabit the character in a way that felt sort of authentic and real so that he felt like a real human being.

Did you feel any change after the Oscar?

Foolishly or not, I don't know, but I kind of went straight back to work. So I was on a film set again after a couple of weeks, and that was good. That's what I should be doing. And then I went and I had a holiday.

What was that film?

It's a film called Steve that Tim Mielants also directed. And we just wrapped that not long ago.

What do you like working with directors over and over again?

I think it's all about trust. If you trust somebody, you can really be, go straight to the work and be vulnerable and really try things out. [Tim and I] have a very shared aesthetic and shared taste. I just adore working with him. He's a true artist. And I think a lot of my work has been re-collaborations. A lot of the good stuff. It's 20 years since I started working with Chris. So they're also friends, but through that friendship comes really good work. I hope.

When you are working with a director you haven't worked with before, is there a hurdle you have to get past to get to the place of comfort?

It's funny. I haven't actually done that in a while. The last few jobs have been with people that I have known for a long time. In fact, the next job is the Peaky Blinders movie, which is with a director I've worked with before. It won't always be the case, but it's definitely my preference.

What is it like preparing to return to Tommy Shelby?

You have to figure it out again. It's not easy. You can't just switch him on and off. It takes a moment. It takes more than a moment, it takes a few weeks to get back to it. I have to watch some of it to remember what it's all about. But then when you get into it, it does become like a second skin because I've been playing him for like 12 years or something.

What does it feel like when you rewatch it?

Since I started producing—I was a producer on Peaky—you kind of have to. It kind of takes the curse off of it. It was very nice watching it, because it was actually quite a good show.

Are you able to distance yourself from it?

A little bit. It was also quite heartbreaking, you know, because I was watching Helen McCroy, and we lost her. But you can distance yourself from it, and look at and say, "Right, that's the atmosphere we want. That's the look we need, that's the silhouette, and that's the energy we need from it." We need to turn it up for the movie, obviously.