Entertainment
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” star Cillian Murphy on playing complicated characters: “That’s where good art exists
Asked whether he enjoys doing interviews to promote a film, Cillian Murphy, star of the new film “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” replied, “I enjoy a considered chat about the themes and the work. That I enjoy. I think it’s the more condensed version of it, it’s very hard to soundbite something you’ve worked for years and years on. I guess I’m realizing, I guess I’m just quite a shy person. So that makes me maybe potentially a **** interviewee!”
Quite the contrary. When we met Murphy in his old London neighborhood, we found the Irish actor’s thoughtful and deliberate approach to an interview mirrors the way he tackles a role.
For someone who does not chase the spotlight, performances by this star of such films as “Inception,” “Dunkirk,” and “Oppenheimer” often command it.
“They say acting is like the shy man’s revenge,” he said.
Because you can be whomever you want to be? “I think so. I certainly feel very comfortable on stage, and very comfortable inhabiting somebody else’s shoes.”
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For years those shoes have belonged to Tommy Shelby, the charismatic gangster who rules post-World War I Birmingham, England in “Peaky Blinders.” Starting in 2013 as a small show on the BBC, it developed a cult following, was picked up by Netflix, and ran for six seasons. Now the story continues in the movie “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” which pits Tommy Shelby against a new rival: his own son, played by Barry Keoghan.
Asked how he gets into a character like Shelby, Murphy said, “I did an awful lot of reading about Britain between the wars, about the effects of what we now know as PTSD. And then you kind of have to figure out the physicality, figure out the walk, figure out the voice, figure out the costume, figure out the mannerisms, figure out the energy of the character, all that stuff.”
“How about playing the same character for so many years?” I asked. “Is there ever a time you thought, I don’t want to be too associated with this guy?“
“Nah, I mean there’s this adage in show business like, don’t quit a hit, and I think that is correct,” Murphy replied. “If something’s working, audiences love it, the writing is good, you’re still enjoying it, don’t quit it, you know?”
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He admits that he is drawn to particularly complicated, complex or tormented characters: “I think that’s where good art exists, generally. Certainly in the art that I enjoy, it’s never easy. It’s a little tricky. It’s not reductive, because human behavior is so weird. That’s the stuff that I like.”
Portraying J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s film mixed all of that. Murphy shed weight to become the wiry, brilliant theoretical physicist tormented by his own creation, the atomic bomb. A box office phenomenon, the film took in nearly a billion dollars, and earned Murphy the Oscar for best actor in 2024.
Does winning an Oscar take some pressure off? Or does it add pressure? “I don’t really know,” Murphy said. “You know, I made a couple of films after ‘Oppenheimer,’ made this little film called ‘Small Things Like These,’ and then I made a film called ‘Steve.’ I suppose if it helped get those films (that were very important to me) and those stories out into the world, if that helped, then I’ll take that, I’ll lean into that.”
Being an “Academy Award-winner,” he says, is “one of those kind of iconic things in our industry. You just feel very humbled to be in that club, I suppose. I don’t think about it very often!”
At a park in the North London neighborhood where he lived with his family for more than a decade, the movie star did not want to play that part. He tries to wear the “fame thing” lightly. “The less that people know about you, the more you can inhabit a character, you know?” he said. “And just portray that character as honestly and convincingly as possible. … And inevitably, that becomes a little bit eroded, I suppose, if you’re in more high-profile work, but you try and preserve it as best as you can.”
“How do you try to preserve it? Because you’re certainly doing high-profile work,” I said.
“I guess so, yeah. I don’t know, there’s a tension always,” he said.
He lives in Ireland with his wife, artist Yvonne McGuinness. The couple has two sons, now 18 and 20. “I like to run, walk the dog, meet my pals, go to the pub, you know, all the boring stuff!”
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The 49-year-old tries to stay offline, but became the unwitting face of an internet meme – the epitome of looking “over it.” And we might’ve caught a flash of that ourselves after an admittedly awkward question: “Your eyes, your cheekbones, get a lot of comment,” I said, to which he rolled his eyes back.
“Well, I mean, what can I do with that?” Murphy said. “I don’t pay any attention to that, honestly. Just try and make the work, you know. and that’s not something you can control, is it?”
“But it works for you. They’re things that people remember that they talk about, that they write about?”
“Yeah, I guess, but again, it’s like I have no point of view really on that. It is just embarrassing.”
He focuses on what he can control: the craft. “You do take the work deadly seriously, and you promote the work because you want people to see it, and then you just go quiet,” he said.
Cillian Murphy guards that quiet between projects, much less interested, he says, in the bubble of stardom, than the pursuit of a good story.
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Cillian Murphy (Video)
To watch a trailer for “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man,” click on the video player below.
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Story produced by Mikaela Burfano. Editor: Carol Ross.
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- Shahrah-e-Bhutto to reduce traffic pressure within city: Sindh CM.
- CM directs completion of all mixed-traffic lanes along Red Line.
- Work on BRT Red Line project progressing at pace: Sindh minister.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Sunday announced that Shahrah-e-Bhutto would be opened for traffic before Eid ul Adha, describing the road’s opening as an “Eid gift for the people of Karachi”.
The Sindh CM made the announcement following an inspection of major infrastructure projects across the city.
“Shahrah-e-Bhutto will significantly reduce traffic pressure within the city and improve connectivity between the M-9 and N-5 highways,” he said, adding that heavy traffic will shift outside the city, bringing relief to Karachi’s residents.
“This road is not just another project; it will serve as a lifeline for Karachi’s economy,” the Sindh CM said.
During an inspection of the under-construction Azeempura flyover at Shah Faisal Colony, he directed Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab to complete the project within 90 days.
The flyover is part of Shahrah-e-Bhutto, which is being constructed near the Shah Faisal Interchange to provide a signal-free passage for traffic to and from Jinnah Terminal and the adjoining areas.
The Sindh CM also directed authorities to accelerate work on the Karachi Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line corridor, saying that all mixed-traffic lanes along the Red Line corridor should be completed within two months.
“The Red Line and Shahrah-e-Bhutto are critical corridors for the city, and there will be no unnecessary delays or compromise on quality,” he added.
Separately, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon defended delays in the BRT Red Line project, saying that difficult but necessary decisions had been taken to move work forward.
“This delay was not due to government negligence,” Memon told the media during his visit to the Red Line project site.
He said work on Lot-1 and Lot-2 was progressing at a pace, particularly after the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) was assigned responsibilities.
The minister added that the previous contractor had been issued warnings and payments were cleared, but the pace of work did not improve.
Acknowledging the public inconvenience, Memon said the authorities were aware of the hardships faced by commuters due to the ongoing construction.
However, he emphasised that infrastructure work in urban centres like Karachi presented unique challenges.
Work in cities is far more complicated, he said, explaining that authorities cannot immediately shut down gas, electricity and water lines.
The minister said that efforts were underway to reopen mixed traffic lanes by the end of July to ease congestion.
When Sting comes back to his hometown these days, it’s not to the same place he left more than five decades ago. The city of Newcastle, tucked up in the northeast corner of England, now presents a tranquil vista where modern architecture spans calm waters. But for centuries, Newcastle was a hard-scrabble, noisy, industrial powerhouse. It built ships.
And Sting, a boy from a working-class family, was given some fatherly advice he didn’t want to hear: “He’d say, ‘Son, go to sea. See the world, make something of yourself.’ Of course, I disappointed him!”
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All Sting did was become one of the most successful songwriters and pop performers of his generation, starting with his 1970s band The Police, and through many variations since. His most popular songs – “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne,” “Message In A Bottle,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Fields of Gold,” “Shape of My Heart” – have streamed in the billions.
Asked if he keeps score of awards won and albums sold, Sting replied, “The answer is, enough. I have had more than enough success and affirmation. I don’t actually need any more. It’s lovely, but it’s not something I particularly think about. I don’t think of myself as a celebrity. I don’t like to. I like to think of myself as a working musician with a story to tell” – a story about his hometown.
“I just wanted a bigger life than the one I was being offered,” he said, “and it was only later that I realized that where I’d been brought up was actually a gift.”
How so? “Because of these very profound symbols to wake up to every morning: A gigantic ship hanging over the street; an army of men walking to work; the ship being built, launched into the river, out to sea. Those are very powerful images for an artist. I wanted to honor where I came from, because what they gave me was a sense of identity, a work ethic. So, I wanted to repay that.”
Sting’s musical (which he’s been working on for more than a decade) is called “The Last Ship,” and it recounts the demise of Newcastle’s shipyards. Now he’s taking it on tour, with the advantage of added star power – namely, Sting, and his good friend, Mr. “Bombastic” himself, Shaggy.
“The Last Ship” 
The reggae star told us he’s never done anything quite as bombastic as “The Last Ship”: “Not quite on this scale,” he said. “I’m still sitting here and I’m saying, what have I gotten myself into?“
Why Shaggy? Working together has paid off before, when he and Sting won a Grammy for best reggae album in 2019, for “44/876.”
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“I immediately knew Shaggy was the perfect man for the job,” said Sting. “He has a great sense of mischief, a great sense of joy, but he’s also a natural actor.”
“He knows me better than me!” Shaggy said. “I was like, ‘I can’t really,’ and he was like, ‘No, you can do that.’ And then I’m doing it and I was like, I hate admitting that he was right!“
The show has already played to sold-out halls in Europe and Australia, and is set for a run at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. An earlier incarnation of “The Last Ship” played on Broadway in 2014. The show has had its book revised.
Asked why the project has meant to much to him, that he has stubbornly pursued it for more than a decade, Sting replied, “I’m tenacious. If I believe in something, I will stick at it. And I do not conflate commercial success with excellence or quality at all. I think this play, even though it’s set in the 1980s, has something to say to people now. All of us are in danger of losing our work to AI. All of us. “
Asked if he wants to be taken “seriously” as a theatre composer, as distinct from his pop career, he said, “I’m very grateful for the pop career, and it was a certain time in my life when I was of a certain age and looked a certain way and made a certain kind of music. But it can’t be my entire life. I don’t want to be just defined from how I was at the age of 25. I’m 74 now.”
Sting, born Gordon Sumner, was given his stage name because of the striped yellow-and-black top he used to wear that someone said made him look like a wasp. And there’s been plenty of buzz about his career ever since, including about the real meaning of his biggest hit, “Every Breath You Take.”
“Some people interpret that song as being a very romantic love song, or it’s about a stalker – this obsessive watching, I’ll be watching you,” said Sting. “I don’t contradict people in their individual interpretation of the song. I think it enriches the song. I think gives it its power. It’s about both things.
“Some people get married to that, so God bless them!”
Sting’s life has been about many things. Now it’s about coming home – spiritually at least – as when he came with our cameras to a Newcastle pub. “They have come to bring me home, to shoot some local color, which would be you,” he told the crowd. “So, please be as colorful as you are!”
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If ever there was a “local boy makes good” story, this is it. And everybody here seems to know the words to “Message In a Bottle.”
We asked Sting if he ever thinks of taking a vacation. “Explain that concept to me,” was his response.
But why is he still doing this? “Because I like to work,” he replied. “Could I retire? I’m not sure I could do it. I haven’t developed that skill to just sit and do nothing. Perhaps I’m afraid of it. I haven’t prepared myself for it. But while I’m still fit enough to do my work, I will continue. At some point, I hope I have the objectivity to say, OK, you’ve done enough. Go and sit on the farm.“
Could he do that? “I’m not sure!” he laughed.
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Sting (Video)
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Story produced by Mikaela Bufano. Editor: Carol Ross.
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“Sunday Morning” remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week, including songwriter David Allan Coe, famous for his country hit “Take This Job and Shove It.”
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Israel approves deal to buy fighter jets from US
Karachi’s Shahrah-e-Bhutto to open before Eid ul Adha, announces CM Murad
Sting embarks on “The Last Ship”
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