Interview With "Small Things Like These" Star Cillian Murphy

Hi Killian, welcome back and thank you so much for taking time to talk with me about your role, or should I say roles, for the new film Small Things Like These. Thanks man, nice to see you. Nice seeing you as well. Congratulations are in order. Last time I saw you, you were an Academy Award nominee, now Academy Award winner, so congratulations on that sir. Thank you very much. I can imagine that following the success of Oppenheimer last year, there's now this interest in Small Things Like These. It premiered, of course, at Berlin, right in the thick of the tail end of that year's awards season. So if Oppenheimer hadn't happened, I don't know if the movie would have happened. But for me, I don't really think about scale or budget when I'm making a film, it's really just about the story and the filmmakers. So this one happened to be the one that caught my interest. In fact, I read it during lockdown, so the idea was there for a long time. Yeah. Now, I was looking at your credits history, and I said roles at the top here because you're not just the star of this film, but you're also accredited as a producer, which I believe is your first feature film producing credit. Yeah, I learned a lot on Peaky. There were three seasons of that that I was a producer on and I really learned fast on that, you know what I mean? Yeah. But this was different. The thing that I really enjoyed most about it was putting people together. A lot of the people that I'm working with on this film are old friends, old collaborators, like Timmy, and so I worked with on Peaky Blinders, and then Enda, who I've worked with since I first started. I gave him my first ever job in the theater, and Eileen as well, and then Alan Maloney who produced it with me. We've worked together for like 25 years, so that was really, really exciting, putting all these talented people together. I love being involved in finding locations, the score, the auditioning, the post-production, all of that stuff. The grading, I find it all very stimulating, and you see how all these things contribute to making a film successful or hopefully successful. So yeah, it's been fascinating and very rewarding. Nice. Is it something that you would be interested in exploring on future projects again? We just did another movie with the company, also with Tim Ealons. So yeah, we've done one more and there's more to come. Awesome. Curious to know, because in real life you were, I believe, 10 years old or so at the time when this film takes place. And I'm curious, from the standpoint of Lewis Kirwan, who plays a young version of your character in this movie, was there any sort of personal connection from how you remember any of these events from that time, or was it something you learned about later in life? Everybody knew that these institutions existed. It was part of the fabric of our society. It's impossible to talk about Ireland without talking about the church and about the history of Ireland. Thankfully, it didn't affect me or my immediate family in any way. But if you talk to people in Ireland, everybody knows somebody who was affected by it. Everyone has a cousin or an aunt, particularly my parents' generation. The crazy and scary thing is that they only closed in 1996. They were still operational until then. So yeah, it's pretty hard to fathom. But it is a kind of a reckoning for the country. We're still dealing with it. I think it can be confronted in a more gentle way through art, through books, through film. So hopefully people will be able to look at this and it's less overwhelming than a government-commissioned report or something. You can look at it and see it through the eyes of real people or ordinary people. Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm curious to know, anytime that there's a story that's being told about our history, sometimes people feel that the justification for telling that story is that it's holding a mirror up to today and can teach us something about, say, in this particular film's case, the institutions of today, whether it be the Catholic Church or something else. Do you feel that films like this have to do that? Or can they just simply function as, for lack of a better word, a history book, if you will? No, I think the first function they have to have is to be entertaining. I think that's the primary function. Otherwise, it would be go and read a history book. And you have to believe in the characters. You have to be invested in the characters for it to work as a piece of art or a piece of film. I do like or enjoy films that also are thought-provoking and do ask questions of the audience and does provoke conversation and discussion. And I certainly think the ending of this movie, because we deny the audience the next part of the story, it does mean that people have very different opinions. They interpret it in many different ways. And I like it when a film does that. Yeah, absolutely. I like it, too, because ever since I saw the film, it's one of those ones where it's just lingering with me and it's haunting me. And it's something I just can't quite shake since I saw it. I think it's going to be lingering for quite some time for people because it achieves what you said. It's a thought-provoking piece of cinema. And I'm of the belief that that's what we should all be striving for in today's day and age of storytelling. Great. Well, we're of the same mind. Good, good. As I come to the end here, I would be remiss if I did not ask you about the development of 28 years later. So, so long. We've been waiting and dying impatiently for it. I know it's coming. Just can you tease us in any way about what that experience was like? I know it just recently wrapped shooting. All I can tell you is that I am involved. I'm sorry to be so cryptic. But listen, man, I was also one of those people who was like, every time I would meet Danny or Alex, I would say, come on, guys, like, yeah, we should do one. Because I watched the film about five years ago with my with my boys. And it really stands up. You know, it really does. Yeah, totally. And and Danny is such a bloody brilliant filmmaker, as is Alex Garland. And I was really happy when they said they were going to do it. Finally. Good. Well, we're all happy as well. I know that we all cannot wait for it. But I would urge everyone that's listening to this to also check out small things like these. It's a small film that definitely needs support. And I think your performance in it is as mesmerizing as what you were obviously just lauded for with Oppenheimer. And it does have some really thought provoking and important issues to discuss here. Just definitely check it out. Absolutely, man. Hey, it's great seeing you again. I would say, you know, that I hope I see you again soon, but I don't know. But in any event, best of luck to you as always. And bless you. Thanks, man. Take care.