{"id":650458,"date":"2026-10-18T21:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T21:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/650458\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T21:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T21:08:11","slug":"aran-murphy-on-youth-war-and-cillian-murphys-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/650458\/","title":{"rendered":"Aran Murphy on ‘Youth,’ ‘War’ and Cillian Murphy’s Influence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAran Murphy<\/a> is having quite a month, as he co-stars on not one, but two HBO shows \u2014 \u201cYouth<\/a>\u201d and \u201cWar\u201d \u2014 and plays one of the leads of Taika Waititi\u2019s dystopian film \u201cKlara and the Sun<\/a>,\u201d set to be released on Oct. 23. But if you think you\u2019ve seen the 19-year-old actor before, it could be because of his strong resemblance to his Oscar-winning father, Cillian Murphy. \u201cI don\u2019t even think we look that much alike, but people seem to think otherwise,\u201d the younger Murphy tells Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn both \u201cWar\u201d and \u201cYouth,\u201d Murphy plays a troubled teenager negotiating complex relationships with his parents as they navigate divorce. \u201cYouth\u201d follows Sharon Horgan as a rambunctious 50-year-old divorc\u00e9e dipping back into the dating pool. As her son Rauri, Murphy plays a creepy, brooding university dropout whom audiences also can\u2019t help sympathize with. After only a few days at school, he returns home because a rumor has been spread about him and a drunken hookup that suggests he may be a predator. Did Murphy decide for himself whether Rauri is to be believed about his innocence during the incident? \u201cYeah!\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, I\u2019d like to think so. It\u2019s up to the audience; I don\u2019t decide that. But I want to back my character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMurphy\u2019s and Rauri\u2019s life trajectories are very different, but their timelines aren\u2019t, which helped him get into character. \u201cContextually, we both just left school and were 18 \u2014 it was really about making decisions and whether college is the right thing, that kind of entrance into adult life, so that was a nice thing to draw on to relate to him,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe adds that Hogan\u2019s strong scripts and professionalism helped Murphy find his footing on set.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe was so awesome and charismatic and open to ideas that it was easy to just work and create that bond over shooting,\u201d Murphy says. \u201cThe words were already so good, we were able to springboard off that and find the chemistry on the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tIn \u201cWar,\u201d Murphy has a raucous introduction in the Oct. 15 episode as Gabriel, who\u2019s torn between his mother (Sienna Miller as Carla) and stepfather (Dominic West as Morgan) during their ugly, high-profile divorce. Caught between Carla, a past-her-prime actress, and Morgan, a billionaire social media entrepreneur, Gabriel finds himself in the crossfire, used as an asset to negotiate between them. Like Rauri in \u201cYouth,\u201d Murphy similarly credits his character\u2019s duality and relatability to creator George Kay.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was all in the script \u2014 his frustration with what\u2019s going on and nowhere to put it,\u201d Murphy says. \u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s a pretty universal kind of thing: People just want to take their anger out in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne manifestation of Gabriel\u2019s anger is physical, meaning that Murphy needed to throw a punch while the character is drunk at a party after his friend makes a rude remark about his parents\u2019 divorce.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019d never had to do something like that \u2014 that was new,\u201d Murphy says. \u201cThat was a bit nerve-racking, because you don\u2019t want to accidentally punch someone in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tActing professionally is all pretty new to Murphy. Despite growing up with artistic parents (his mother, Yvonne McGuinness, is an Irish visual artist), Murphy originally saw himself on the football field.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat faded pretty quickly,\u201d Murphy says. \u201cI did a play when I was 11, and that was a really big deal for me. That was kind of the thing that showed me I wanted to [perform] for real when I became of age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMurphy, of course, grew up watching his father act. \u201cSeeing my dad onscreen in dramatic situations as an 8-year-old was pretty full-on,\u201d he says, mentioning Ken Loach war drama \u201cThe Wind That Shakes the Barley,\u201d which won the Palme D\u2019Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. \u201cI think I need to revisit it as a 19-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s seen most, but \u201cdefinitely not all,\u201d of his father\u2019s filmography, and is \u201cforever grateful\u201d for informing his film education at a young age, and having insightful conversations with him about acting. But Cillian\u2019s biggest role for Murphy has been as a supportive father, rather than a public figure or acting influence. \u201cI think living with someone who\u2019s in the public eye, the novelty of that wears off pretty quick,\u201d Murphy says.<\/p>\n

\n\tMurphy was more starstruck by working with Waititi on \u201cKlara and the Sun\u201d starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams. Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, the film follows Ortega as a robot girl experiencing the grandeur of human life for the first time. Though the movie is coming out this month, it was shot in early 2024 when Murphy was 16.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was incredibly surreal. One minute I was in school, and then the next I was flying out to New Zealand and shooting a Taika Waititi film at 16, so it was just absolutely nuts,\u201d Murphy says. \u201c[Ortega and Adams] are so great, just being in their presence and being able to learn so much. They\u2019re also so kind and accommodating. It\u2019s just a massive learning experience, and I\u2019m really grateful for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite his pride in the project, he says he\u2019s \u201cnot a fan\u201d of AI, adding \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a net positive for the industry.\u201d For Murphy, this film is important for \u201copening those discussions\u201d about AI and \u201ctalking about the importance of human life and especially friendship and love and human qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith this momentum behind him, Murphy says he\u2019s eager to keep learning: \u201cI\u2019m just auditioning and crossing my fingers. Basically, I\u2019m just open to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aran Murphy is having quite a month, as he co-stars on not one, but two HBO shows \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[291346,146,85,46,232578,10155],"class_list":["post-650458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-aran-murphy","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-klara-and-the-sun","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}