The Irishman Cillian Murphy was the great favorite to win the Oscar for best actor for his excellent performance as the American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, known as the father of the atomic bomb, in the acclaimed and box-office biopic directed by Christopher Nolan. Only the great work of Paul Giamatti pointed out as the main rival, but the truth is that the charismatic actor with the most intense blue eyes in current cinema had an unstoppable career and everything pointed to him getting his first Oscar tonight after winning the Globe. of Gold, the Bafta and the actor's union award.
The protagonist of the Peaky Blinders series accepted the role before even reading the script and his "interpretation is masterful", Ben Kingsley announced when presenting it. With the audience on their feet, he went on stage at the Dolby Theater and said he felt "overwhelmed" and acknowledged that "it has been the wildest and most exciting ride," thanking Nolan and producer Emma Thomas and her family for the award. "I am a proud Irishman," he said emotionally and dedicated the Oscar "to all those who fight for peace around the world."
Shy and reserved, Murphy is one of those actors who does not go unnoticed, despite the fact that he flees fame and feels uncomfortable in front of the flashes of the red carpet. His acting ability has led him to give life to the most diverse characters and he has been credible both as the villain of the show and in dramatic stories. His resume has not stopped accumulating relevant titles since he broke into the film industry in 1998 with The Tale of Sweety Barrett. Murphy was going for a rock musician. In fact, he started composing songs at the age of ten. His obsession with The Beatles and Frank Zappa led him to go through several bands with his brother, but in the end his parents objected and he had to look for another professional outlet.
He enrolled in Law, although he soon saw that law was not his thing. A play about A Clockwork Orange caught his attention. The acting bug bit him more and more and he went on to star in several plays. And from the stage he then jumped to independent cinema, where he moved comfortably between 1997 and 2003. Danny Boyle noticed him after seeing him in Disco Pigs, where he played an unstable teenager, and offered him the leading role in 28 Days Later, a film horror set in an apocalyptic London that performed very well at the box office and had good reviews. It was the consolidation of him as an actor.
Since then the successes have been happening, always with discretion. In 2003 she shared the bill with Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and René Zellwegger in Cold Mountain and starred in the comedy Intermission with Colin Farrell. In Girl with a Pearl Earring she demonstrated her dramatic skills alongside a very young Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth as the painter Vermeer. He went to the casting of Bruce Wayne for Nolan in his Batman trilogy, although the British chose him to play the antagonist, the Scarecrow. He would later sign him for Origen and Dunkirk. Until he saw in him his Oppenheimer protagonist.
Murphy has become so involved in the character that he isolated himself during filming and lost weight by smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey, practically the physicist's own diet. Last February he presented Small Things Like These, based on the novel by Claire Keegan, at the Berlinale. His name sounds like the new James Bond lately, but at 47 years old, he confesses that he looks "quite old" to play agent 007.
