Red-Eye

Sandra Kraisirideja
Actor Cillian Murphy has a face made for magazine covers—with cheekbones any supermodel would kill for—and a lanky figure that slides casually into a chair at the Regent Beverly Wilshire.

Dressed in a white, V-neck T-shirt and navy blue pinstripe suit jacket with jeans, Murphy, 29, doesn’t seem fazed by the increased interest he’s getting from Hollywood.

Horror fans were introduced to Murphy in “28 Days Later,” but mainstream audiences got their first glimpse of the Irish actor this summer as Dr. Jonathan Crane aka “Scarecrow” in “Batman Begins.”

Next up for Murphy is a starring role in Wes Craven’s “Red-Eye” opposite Rachel McAdams.

As Jackson Rippner—a gun-for-hire who, during a red eye flight to Florida, forces Lisa ?? (McAdams) to help with the assassination of the deputy secretary for homeland security—Murphy once again displays a natural talent for playing not-so-nice characters who waver between being creepy and charming.

With two films released within several months of each other with Murphy as a bad guy, is the actor worried that American audiences will forever typecast him as a villain?

“Look, that’s distribution which I have no control over. If people decide to put these movies out that way, that’s fine. I made like 10 feature films and played the bad guy in two of them,” said Murphy, who has faith that audiences know he’s an actor who will go on to play other parts.

“Having said that, I will concede that I’ve probably done my quota now of bad guys. They were just really interesting parts and characters for me and I had a great time doing them,” said Murphy, who credits the 1973 film “Scarecrow” with Gene Hackman and Al Pacino for sparking his interest in acting and film.

Craven had seen Murphy in “28 Days Later,” but was concerned the actor would be too thin for the role of Jackson. “They kept saying this guy, Cillian, really wants to do the film. He wants to work with you. Yeah, but he sounds like an Irish man calling from the pub,” recalled Craven.

Upon hearing Craven’s concerns, Murphy got on a plane to LAX to meet the director and seal the deal. His determination worked and Craven cast Murphy for the part.

“He doesn't have the normal American leading man pretty face,” Craven said. “It's a little knobby. A little angular. A little bit like he's taken a few punches and given a few.

“I felt like [there was] something…a certain gravitas that really is interesting. I checked his resume before the meeting and he'd done Shakespeare. Danny Boyle had selected him and hinged a whole movie on him and I thought, you know what, this is worth the gamble.”

McAdams, who spent weeks with Murphy cramped in a pair of airline seats during filming, found him to be very funny. “He’s a joker,” McAdams said. “He loves to tell really bad jokes, and I’m a sucker for bad jokes, I love them.”

The two actors built up a level of trust over the course of filming, which was invaluable, McAdams said.

One scene that stands out for McAdams is when her character is confronted by Jackson in the airplane lavatory.

“He is such a good physical actor,” McAdams said. “He’s really good with the choreography. He’s so convincing when it comes to being shot at or being stabbed. He’s just so believable, yet it’s very controlled.”

When it comes to real-life high pressure situations, Murphy said he’s, “fine except inanimate objects tend to set me off when they don’t work. But, I’m pretty good with people I think.”

Murphy started acting at age 20 after seeing “A Clockwork Orange” performed at a nightclub in Cork.
“It was completely cool and sexy and brilliant and I knocked on the door of the theater company and asked for an audition. They gave me a part in a play called ‘Disco Pigs’ and they made that into a movie and then I continued after that.”

These days Murphy judges his celebrity status by “how many people can pronounce my name correctly.” (It’s “Kill-ian”).
“I live in London and you never, ever get people coming up to you. Back home in Cork or in Ireland, yeah, obviously. But, everyone is really sweet,” Murphy said.

Up next for Murphy is a science fiction film, “Sunshine,” which also marks his second collaboration with Boyle.

“I just want to improve as an actor, learn as an actor and hone my craft. I’ve never trained or anything so I’ve been learning at theater and at film. Each performance you want it to be better than the last one. You don’t want it to ever be your best because that would mean that you’ve stopped. You want to keep on keepin’ on.”

Source: Originally printed in Entertainment Today