{"id":322008,"date":"2026-02-28T15:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T15:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/322008\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T15:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T15:29:16","slug":"cork-star-on-peaky-blinders-irish-oscar-hopes-and-turning-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/322008\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork star on Peaky Blinders, Irish Oscar hopes, and turning 50"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a big year for Cillian Murphy. Yes, he has a busy schedule ahead in terms of new projects such as the upcoming movie, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man<\/a>. But there\u2019s also a key personal date popping up on the calendar in late spring. On May 25, the Cork actor turns 50.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d imagine such a milestone inevitably brings some reflection. And when Murphy gets around to totting up what he\u2019s achieved in that first half-century, he\u2019ll probably realise he has quite a few boxes ticked. Obviously, he\u2019s reached the elite level of his chosen profession. Quality work on stage and screen since he first broke through on stage in Disco Pigs in 1996 eventually led to a Best Actor Oscar in 2024 for Oppenheimer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"CillianCillian Murphy accepts his award for Oppenheimer. Picture: Chris Pizzello<\/p>\n

Away from the acting world, the Ballintemple native has also hit a few marks.<\/p>\n

He still comes across as fairly grounded, seems well-liked by his peers, and has been married to his wife, artist Yvonne McGuinness, since 2004, after meeting her in Cork in the 1990s during their student days. The couple have two sons, Malachy, 20, and 18-year-old Aran.<\/p>\n

Not a bad list for a mortal man. But has he been dwelling on the upcoming milestone?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be lying if you said it like you didn\u2019t think about it, because it\u2019s the first time that you\u2019ve got less years left than you have lived. But I\u2019m not hung up about it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s just coincidence or whether there\u2019s a faint drumbeat in the back of his subconscious, Murphy has been squaring a few circles in recent times. He\u2019s back involved in the world of 28 Days Later, reprising his role for the latest sequels to the dystopian horror film that announced him on the world stage in 2002 at the age of 26.<\/p>\n

More pertinently for now, he\u2019s also returned to the character of Thomas Shelby, the Peaky Blinders boss whose distinctive cap he first donned in 2013. Across six seasons, he turned the Birmingham gang leader into one of the most iconic British TV characters of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

\n Yeah, I worked out that it\u2019s been a quarter of my life that I\u2019ve given to that bastard\n <\/p>\n

So why go back? For Murphy, there was a sense of unfinished business when the sixth instalment was broadcast in 2022. They had hoped to shoot a seventh season, but the covid epidemic scuppered that plan. We saw Tommy ride off into the countryside on his white horse, and everyone involved got somewhat sidetracked with other projects.<\/p>\n

A film script continued to be developed, however, and eventually the stars aligned in terms of timings and logistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always available if they felt like there was more story to tell,\u201d says Murphy of a film that he\u2019s also a producer on. \u201cAnd it was exciting to see if we could move from telling a story in six hours to two hours. And could we keep the same elements that the fans love and the people associate with Peaky, but make it into a feature film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CillianCillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. Picture: Netflix\/Robert Viglasky<\/p>\n

Without giving too much away about the film\u2019s plot, we get reacquainted with Tommy Shelby far away from the mean streets of Birmingham. It\u2019s 1940 \u2014 six years on from the series six finale \u2014 and the world is at war again.<\/p>\n

Tommy is also a man who\u2019s been reckoning with his life\u2019s tally. He\u2019s been passing time by writing some sort of memoir and doing a fair bit of self-medicating, but has generally been keeping his head down. Inevitably, trouble is never too far away. Just like one of his OG counterparts across the Atlantic, he thought he was out, but they pull him back in.<\/p>\n

Murphy was conscious that his character needed to be slightly different than the man we left in 1934. \u201cAs happens to us all, that vitality was wearing off,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

For those outside the business, it\u2019s tempting to imagine that an actor can quickly jump back into a character that they\u2019ve spent so long playing. Easily nail the look, the gait, that tricky Brummie accent. Apparently not.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time, it always takes a number of months. It\u2019s not just putting the cap on and like, lighting a cigarette,\u201d says Murphy. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in it, it feels very, very familiar. But it\u2019s not instant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CillianCillian Murphy and Steven Knight are reunited on set as production officially starts on the upcoming Netflix film. Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man<\/p>\n

\n Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has regularly spoken of how his parents\u2019 tales of the Birmingham suburb of Small Heath in the wake of the First World War provided the original inspiration for the show. Their home city had lost over 12,000 men in the trenches, and even the tens of thousands of others who made it back to the English midlands were left with deep physical and mental scars. Murphy is keenly aware of the historical context that spawned the troubled minds and vicious violence of the gang members.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Tommy and his brothers and all the men of that age are products of that. They thought it was impossible that it could ever happen again. And then it does,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The BSA (Birmingham Small Arms Company) is depicted in the very first series in 2013, and the real-life factory is revisited in the new film as the Luftwaffe bombs the city during the Blitz. Tommy\u2019s own wartime service also comes into play as those two awful conflicts provide perfect bookends.<\/p>\n

As well as the man playing the lead, there\u2019s always been a strong Irish presence in the show, and that tradition continues in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. Fontaines DC dominate the soundtrack, and Barry Keoghan is most prominent among the newcomers to the cast.<\/p>\n

\"BarryBarry Keoghan and Cillian Murphy on set during the filming of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix\/Robert Viglasky \u00a9 2025<\/p>\n

Murphy had previously worked with the Dubliner on Dunkirk (2017), and they\u2019ve remained in occasional contact since. \u201cHe\u2019s gone from strength to strength,\u201d Murphy says of Keoghan, who plays Tommy Shelby\u2019s son Duke in the film. \u201cHe has that thing where you just put a camera on him, and he\u2019s instantly interesting. And he has a sort-of dangerous quality to him on camera, but he also has this vulnerability. hey are sort-of contradictory traits, but he has them all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another young Irish actor whose career Murphy is closely following is that of his youngest son, Aran. He has a role in Taika Waititi\u2019s forthcoming sci-fi film Klara and the Sun<\/a>, and will also pop up later this year in War, a legal drama series on Sky and HBO. \u201cHe\u2019s just a massive fan of film and television and theatre,\u201d says his father.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s not really a surprise that he would find his way into it. I\u2019m just happy to support him and let him off, find his own way in it.\n <\/p>\n

\"AranAran Murphy, son of Cillian Murphy will hit the big screen with the movie adaptation of Klara and The Sun <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the elder Murphy is off next month to begin shooting on a prison-set drama with Daniel Craig and director Damien Chazelle ( Whiplash, La La Land).<\/p>\n

He reckons work will probably curtail plans to mark that upcoming birthday. As to the future, he mentions he\u2019d like to take life a \u201cbit slower\u201d but, as well as various acting projects, Murphy has been enjoying his role as producer, both on The Immortal Man and other recent films he\u2019s been involved in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started producing on the third season of Peaky, so I kind of cut my teeth on it there,\u201d he says. \u201cI love it because it\u2019s actually very creative for me. And I think it helps for the other producers, to have somebody that\u2019s on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also learned so much, and I love being involved in the post-production, being in the edit, working on the score.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And remaining ambitions?<\/p>\n

\u201cAmbition was never really the driving force. Curiosity was more the thing,\u201d he corrects.<\/p>\n

One event he won\u2019t be involved in is the Academy Awards on March 15, though he is delighted to see Jessie Buckley and the strong Irish representation again this year.<\/p>\n

He also singles out John Kelly and his Retirement Plan, nominated for Best Animated Short. \u201cI think the film industry in Ireland is brilliant. It\u2019s going from strength to strength,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And will Murphy be staying up to watch the ceremony? \u201cI go to bed at half past nine, so it\u2019s unlikely,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

Spoken like a man who really is approaching 50.<\/p>\n

THE MUSIC OF PEAKY BLINDERS<\/p>\n

\"CarlosCarlos O’Connell, Tom Coll, Conor Deegan III and Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before he was an actor, Cillian Murphy was a musician. As a teenager, he sang and played guitar in Cork band Sons Of Mr Green Genes<\/a> (whose members still occasionally jam together), and his love of music has remained undimmed through the decades. The Corkman has been hands-on in organising gigs for the Sounds From A Safe Harbour Festival in his native city, and he has even hosted his radio own show on BBC 6 Music.<\/p>\n

With Peaky Blinders, those two artistic worlds collide. From the very first series in 2013 right up to new film, The Immortal Man, music has been front-and-centre in the Birmingham-set drama.<\/p>\n

Murphy tips his cap to Antony Genn and Martin Slattery, the talented duo who composed the score for The Immortal Man. But the actor \u2013 who also worked as a producer on the film and some of the TV series \u2013 has been involved in putting together an impressive soundtrack for the film. It includes tunes from Nick Cave, Lankum, and Amy Taylor (Amyl & the Sniffers), as well as a particularly strong showing from Grian Chatten and his band Fontaines DC.<\/p>\n

Around the time that The Immortal Man was starting its shoot, the Fontaines’ most recent album, Romance, had a launch event in London. Murphy went along with composer Genn (an early member of Pulp) and film director Tom Harper.<\/p>\n

At the launch, the band played the album\u2019s title track, and the Peaky people had a lightbulb moment when they heard a lyric that was perfect for one of the key scenes in the film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey play that song Romance, and there’s this lyric in it where he says, \u2018In with the pigs in the pen\u2019. It was like he had written it for this film,\u201d enthuses Murphy. \u201cSo then we chatted to him about composing more music.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As well as several original tunes, Chatten can be heard with fellow-Irish musicians Lankum on Hunting the Wren, and he also sings on a version of Massive Attack\u2019s Angel (one of two covers of songs by the Bristol band on the soundtrack).<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m really proud of the music on this,\u201d says Murphy.<\/p>\n

\u2018Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man\u2019 is on Netflix from Friday, March 20. The official soundtrack will be released on March 6, the same day the film arrives in selected cinemas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a big year for Cillian Murphy. Yes, he has a busy schedule ahead in terms of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2920,79,93,61,1693,60],"class_list":["post-322008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cillian-murphy","tag-cork-news","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-insight","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}