In terms of trying to improve as an actor, for me it's always important to return to the stage. After doing a piece of theater for a prolonged period, I can think I must have surely improved in some way as an actor - you must be fitter than you were prior to doing it. For me, theater is very, very important in keeping things fresh and dangerous.

Cillian Murphy

Categorized in : Thinking Trying Important

I don't know if anyone will ever sit beside me on a plane again.

Cillian Murphy

planes ifs knows

My only two constants are to challenge myself and to try not to repeat myself.

Cillian Murphy

challenges trying two

I personally think if something's not a challenge there's no point doing it because you're not gonna learn much.

Cillian Murphy

no-point challenges thinking

I suppose I tend to like slightly darker things - people have levelled that on me before and I accept that because in my opinion, if I mention the best movies or the best books, there's always something that's involving slightly darker element of out psyche. I like seeing people under pressure. I like seeing what happens to people when they're under pressure.

Cillian Murphy

elements book people

I like being at home with my music and my books. I’ve done all the partying, I’ve done enough partying for four or five people as a young fella. But now I like the quiet life.

Cillian Murphy

party home book

I'm terrible. I'm the wrong person to talk to, I really don't know a thing.

Cillian Murphy

wrong-person terrible persons

I take my hat off to the ladies. The amount of grooming-plucking and shaving and all the other things men never have to do. I went down and spent time with transvestites in London in the clubs and all that. Got an insight to that world, and it's a mad world, but they are very warm and very open people. It was a great experience.

Cillian Murphy

mad men people

Sociopath is a word that has sort of become shorthand for psychopath and there's a distinct difference, it's interesting if you look it up. Sociopath if you look at the medical definition, the profile of a sociopath is that they are supremely intelligent people that are also pathological liars, they have no moral structure and there is one more, they have no compassion or empathy for other people.

Cillian Murphy

intelligent compassion liars

I will always love film, the romance of film, sitting in the darkened room with strangers and watching a story for two hours - that will always remain and never be eroded by television.

Cillian Murphy

romance sitting two

You know, I'm a skinny Irish guy.

Cillian Murphy

skinny guy knows

I try not to think retrospectively. It's important, as an artist, to look forward, always. I do try to take work that involves some challenge. If you approach a piece of work and you're going, "Yeah, yeah, I can do that," then that's kind of a red flag.

Cillian Murphy

red-flags artist thinking

You're an actor who's Irish, not an Irish actor. And you shouldn't be limited by your extraction.

Cillian Murphy

extraction actors

I hope that I have gained some wisdom, but I don't know. I have kids, and that certainly puts things into perspective. I think I'm a more patient person. I hope I'm a more patient person. I'm a little more relaxed about the peripheral side of this business, which I used to find very confusing and alarming.

Cillian Murphy

patient-person kids thinking

You need to be as clean of a slate as you can be, as an actor. You have to try to be open to every experience.

Cillian Murphy

actors trying needs

I'd probably have been wealthier if I had stayed with law, but pretty miserable doing it.

Cillian Murphy

has-beens miserable law

We were able to shoot in a lot of the locations where the mission actually happened and these guys existed, so that was kind of very affecting. We had a Czech crew and a lot of Czech actors. There's a great deal of authenticity to the project [Anthropoid], and Sean [Ellis] was very anxious that that was the case from the beginning.

Cillian Murphy

location able guy

For me it's always been about the stories, not what medium. The medium is secondary to the stories.

Cillian Murphy

mediums stories

Every Irish person of my generation and earlier, we were raised Catholic and we'd have to learn it in school, we'd to learn the catechism by rote.

Cillian Murphy

generations catholic school

I was obsessed with Batman as a kid. I did the film in part just to be near the Batmobile. But I also think [director] Christopher Nolan made a very fine, intelligent film.

Cillian Murphy

intelligent kids thinking

And once you're unafraid with death, I think your capacity for violence is immediately increased. Once you're unafraid of death, you are a very, very dangerous adversary

Cillian Murphy

violence capacity thinking