The Big Picture

Cillian Murphy delivers an outstanding, career-defining performance in
Small Things Like These
, exploring Ireland’s history.
Murphy makes his debut as a producer with future projects including the
Peaky Blinders f
ilm and
The Immortal Man
.
The film addresses the Catholic Church’s Magdalene Laundries, showcasing complex characters and societal challenges.

Cillian Murphy is surely an actor who needs no introduction — especially with the year he had last year. 2023 was dominated by Oppenheimer, and Murphy won every major award, including the Oscar for Best Actor, for his portrayal of the Father of the Atomic Bomb. While many would describe it as career-defining, the masterful performance should come as no surprise to those familiar with Murphy’s work. From Irish war heroes to Batman villains to one of the most iconic characters of modern television, Murphy has been turning in interesting, eclectic, and soulful portrayals since the beginning of his career.

His post-Oscar run begins with one of his most restrained, compelling, and personal roles to date — the blue-collar family man Bill Furlong in Tim Mierlants’ adaptation of Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These. Murphy returns home to tell the story of a man in 1980s rural Ireland who starts to question the atrocities hiding in plain sight. The film deals with a very sensitive part of Irish history, the Catholic church’s Magdalene laundries, and the systemtic abuse perpetrated by the Church.

Small Things Like These also marks Murphy’s debut as a producer, something he’ll continue with future projects such as the Peaky Blinders film, The Immortal Man, and the highly-anticipated 28 Years Later. While Murphy remains tight-lipped about these exciting titles, he does speak to Collider about reckoning with Ireland’s shameful past, what the true meaning of art is, and the one horror movie he’s been able to watch.

Cillian Murphy’s Wife First Suggested ‘Small Things Like These’
Image Via Lionsgate

COLLIDER: Just a little personal aside, I think I was 10 years ago when I was 17, I saw Ballyturk, so I’ve been such a fan of you and Enda [Walsh, screenwriter of Small Things Like These, ] for years, and I absolutely adored this book and film. You did an exceptional job.

CILLIAN MURPHY: Thank you. I appreciate that.

I was talking to your director, Tim [Mierlants], last week for an interview, and I thought what was really interesting was that he said that your wife — shoutout fellow Kilkenny woman — was who had actually read the book and kind of put you on to this. Can you talk to me about the inception of this project, what made you want to work on this project?

MURPHY: Myself and Tim were looking for a project to make together again after making Peaky Blinders together. And so he came over to Dublin a few years ago, and we were kind of throwing around ideas. And Yvonne, my wife, was there, and we were talking about Claire’s work. And she said, Well, what about Small Things? And I said, I mean, surely the rights will be gone at this stage. But we checked, and miraculously, they were available.

And then Tim read it, and then I sent it to Enda, and Enda had read it already, and loved the idea. And it kind of happened really quickly. Then I, you know, Alan Maloney came, who is my co-producer, and he loved it. So, it kind of happened very, very quickly. And then Matt [Damon] and Ben [Affleck] came on board. So yeah, Yvonne does have to take a lot of credit — for most things in my life.

I want to talk about Bill, your character. You obviously had this gorgeous book to work with. You have a masterful script from Enda, but for you as an actor, what were the little things that helped you step into Bill? Did you pull from real life growing up in Cork in the ‘80s and ‘90s?

MURPHY: You know, being an actor is kind of like being a detective. You’re always looking around for stuff that will help. Having the book as the primary resource was the most important thing, I think so you’re just constantly using that. And then, obviously the script, and then talking with Enda, and talking with Tim, listening to endless podcasts by Claire Keegan about the book. You know, I’ve never actually met her, but we listened a lot to what she had to say about him. That was very useful.

And then, that it’s a recognizable type of Irish man to me. I remember those silent, deep-thinking, kind of reserved countrymen, you know? I remember encountering them as a kid. And that physicality is kind of familiar to me. I know that type of man. So it’s always a draw. You’re like a magpie drawing from everywhere you can when you, but it’s nothing to massively autobiographical or anything like that.

‘Small Things Like These’ Shows a Dark Side to Ireland

I think a lot of Irish people are going to be taken aback by how real these characters feel, especially with Eileen Walsh, who gives a perfect performance as the kind of the woman who’s not heartless, but what does she say? “In order to get by in life, you just have to ignore some things.” So I imagine everyone is doing their work that probably just felt like so easy to fall into that flow of feeling like you are a man in ’80s Ireland.

MURPHY: Yeah. Eileen said she recognizes her Mum in there. And I think the character is, like a lot of Irish society there, you had to just get on with it because the church controlled everything. They controlled the health system, they controlled the education system, you know. And it was all sanctioned by the government. And when you think of what she has to lose; she’s got five daughters, the church controls the convent where they go to school and so, they’ve got the whole thing in the palm of their hands. So she’s a good woman, and she’s a good mother, and she cares about people, but she’s practical.

I think some people might walk into this film, if they haven’t read the book, and wonder, this is talking about a part of Irish history that predominantly affected women, but here we are being told through a male perspective. And even though it’s Claire Keegan, even though it works so well because Bill is so much more than just a man, he’s this blue-collar family man with five daughters to think of, what is it about Bill’s perspective do you think was the right way to tell this story?

MURPHY: Well, I think it’s a story written by a woman with the male protagonist in a world full of women, and I think he’s formed by what happened to his mother because he was born “out of wedlock” — to use that awful expression — and yet his mother’s life and his life were saved by the charity of this rich woman, Mrs. Wilson. So, he was defined by this act of kindness, by this act of charity. And I think that has made him the person that he is, and made him that kind, empathetic man, and that just shows.

I think, again, it’s so deep, all of this stuff, it’s so complex. But I think it shows that what happens in childhood happens forever, and the values that you’re given as a child inform you as an adult. So, there’s so many things at play throughout a seemingly simple novel, which is actually very complex.

You’re obviously no stranger to Irish roles. In The Wind that Shakes the Barley , you’re playing this Irish war hero. And then you’re playing someone on the fringes of society in Breakfast on Pluto . Making a film like this and talking about the most shameful things that Irish society has ever been subjected to, did that change the way you felt about being Irish? Did it change the way you feel about your cultural identity? What did you take home with this?

MURPHY: It was very educational in a profoundly depressing way, reading about it. I’m 48 so I very much had a foot in both Irelands; that deeply, deeply religious, conservative Ireland, and then I also have a foot in this very, very liberal, progressive Ireland that we live in now. I kind of straddle both worlds, so that was interesting to me. But then I was raised Catholic, I was taught by Catholic schools and taught by presentation brothers all the way up. And I remember asking my son once when he was younger, I remember saying to him, “So, Malachy, what do you want to be when you grow up? Do you want to be an astronaut or a train driver or a priest? And he said, “What’s a priest, daddy?” And it was like a mad but natural response from a 10-year-old at that time.

But for me, you know, priests were just everywhere. I think what we have to just accept is that the legacy of the Catholic Church in Ireland is one of huge achievements in education, for example, but also this legacy of abuse and cruelty. And we just have to accept both. And for me, it’s not about being anti-faith, because I’m not, and I very much respect people who have faith. I just don’t want faith imposed upon people, and I don’t believe in absolutism of any kind or control of people’s bodies or morals. I just don’t believe in any of that, but it’s not anti-faith.

Related 6 Things You Need To Know About Cillian Murphy’s First Post-‘Oppenheimer’ Role The Oscar winner stars in the big-screen adaptation of Claire Keegan’s award-winning novel.

Yeah, it’s a tough one. Because Bill Furlong has faith, it’s just not the faith that everyone else has. He has faith in humanity, he has faith in doing what’s right for humans I guess. Faith is still a huge part of this book and film, just not Catholicism.

MURPHY: I think so. But I’ve never seen him as a hero. I think he’s having a nervous breakdown, you know, and he’s been sort of pushed towards this act. But his body is pushing towards this, it’s a non-intellectual thing. I think he, in some weird way, thinks he’s saving his mother. And I think that the consequences of what will happen after the screen goes black are very, very serious, but he’s not thinking about that. I think he’s just clearly doing this thing because of all these events that are happening to him simultaneously. But it’s not like he’s an activist.

Yeah, but he is in his own way.

MURPHY: In his own small way, but I think he’s probably, you know, 20 years too soon or 15 years too soon. But. I also think he’s just doing it because something in his being tells him that this is profoundly incorrect and wrong.

‘Small Things Like These’ Marks Cillian Murphy’s First Project as Producer
Image via Berlinale Film Festival 

This is your first time as a producer, and that obviously comes with a plethora of new duties, but I wonder did being a producer as well affect your approach to the character as an actor. Did you feel you had more freedom with what you could do with the character?

MURPHY: No, it didn’t change the creative thing in any way. In fact, it just kind of enriched it I think. What it allowed me to do was to hand-pick the people that I really wanted to work with again, which were Enda, Tim, Alan Maloney, Eileen Walsh, many of the crew, Maureen Hughes, the casting director; many of these people that I’ve worked with over the course of my career, who I know are astonishingly good at what they do, and were really kind to me and supportive to me over the years.

To be able to go, “Wouldn’t it be brilliant to bring all these people back together again and work with them all?” And it worked out. So that was really exciting. And the practical stuff of budgets and tax credits, Alan Maloney is a genius at all that stuff, but he’s also really good creatively. So for me, it’s the thing of bringing people together is the most exciting thing, connecting people. And then also, being in the edit and watching the film take shape. I was heavily involved in the music and things like that. That stuff is very exciting to me.

And you’re working as a producer on the very highly anticipated The Immortal Man, the Peaky Blinders film. What can you tell us about it? What can people expect, maybe something that they didn’t see in the show?

MURPHY: You know that I can’t tell you anything. [Laughs]

Cillian Murphy Is Finished Shooting ’28 Weeks Later’
Image Via Searchlight Pictures

Okay, I’ll try something else. Because I am the Horror Editor here at Collider. So I’d love to know, is there anything you can tell us about 28 Years Later that we haven’t seen in the original trilogy? And a question I’ve always wanted to ask you because you worked with one of the greatest horror filmmakers of all time, Wes Craven, I’d love to know, is there anything that he taught you that you might now bring to horror projects in the future?

MURPHY: Ah, interesting. I can’t tell you anything about 28 Years Later other than we’ve shot it, the second one.

Wes Craven — but he wasn’t making a horror movie [2006’s Red Eye] then. It was a sort of thriller, which is interesting. And I don’t watch horror movies because I’m too much of a scaredy cat. The only horror movie I think I’ve ever watched is The Shining, because it’s Kubrick. Otherwise, I’m too much of a scaredy cat. So, I didn’t really learn much from him. I guess he was very good at jump scares and all of that stuff, but it felt like we were in a different genre making that movie.

I think those horror sensibilities do creep in, though. You go into that film [Red Eye] and you know right away it’s a Wes Craven, even though it’s not Scream , it’s not Nightmare on Elm Street , you can still tell.

MURPHY: Really? Okay, you’d know better than I would.

You need to watch them! That could be your Halloween watching. I think it’s fair to say that Small Things Like These doesn’t paint Irish society in the best light. It paints it in a very honest light. As you’re preparing for this to be released, how do you feel about the Irish public seeing this? Are you nervous?

MURPHY: I’m not nervous, I’m excited. A film isn’t finished until the audience sees it. So I’m very, very invested in what the Irish people think. And the book is so beloved here, and it’s on the curriculum. My young fella is learning it in sixth year. So I think a lot of people know what they’re gonna get going into it. But I also just think art is a good way of looking at these difficult times in history, in the history of any country. We’ve played this film in Berlin, obviously, and it did really well, and we played it in America, and there is a universality to it that people are really responding to, which is brilliant.

When I talked to Tim, I asked him, “What’s one message you’d like people to take away from the story?” And I think he summed it up perfectly, he said, “To be silent is to be complicit.” Would you agree with that? When you read the book, what was the main thing you took away from it?

MURPHY: I think he’s right. That’s true, but I’m very reluctant to ever tell people what to think. What happens with this film is that it goes to black, and then the credits roll, and people stay in their seats and they stay and they start chatting. Because the film only really starts where the screen goes black. People have many different points of view. I just want people to be provoked. It’s a provocation to say, like, “What do you think about this?” And it can be just pure entertainment, or it can be something more. I like films that have a point of view and poke at you gently to say, “What do you think about this?”

That’s it about both the book and the film. It doesn’t spoon-feed you how to feel at all. And I think the same with Oppenheimer. You know, he’s by no means this kind of straight hero, and there’s a villainout side, but Nolan, leaves that kind of for you to decide for yourself. And I think it’s very similar here.

MURPHY: That’s the point of art, I think, is not to answer the questions, but to ask them.

Small Things Like These is in theaters in the US on November 8.

In a small Irish town during the 1980s, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, encounters a moral dilemma when he discovers hidden injustices within the community. As Christmas approaches, he must confront the societal pressures and personal convictions that challenge his sense of integrity and humanity.Release Date November 1, 2024 Director Tim Mielants Cast Cillian Murphy , Michelle Fairley , Emily Watson , Clare Dunne , Joanne Crawford , Mark McKenna , Amy De Bhrún , Agnes O’Casey , Eileen Walsh , Abby Fitz , Ian O’Reilly , Helen Behan , Tom Leavey , Cillian O’Gairbhi , Aidan O’Hare , Zara Devlin , Aoife Gaffney , Liadan Dunlea , Ella Cannon , Louis Kirwan , Sarah Morris , Faye Brazil , John McCarthy , Ciarán Hinds Runtime 96 Minutes Writers Claire Keegan , Enda Walsh Expand

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