Cillian Murphy: The Dark Blaze

One can see very few blazes of color in Cillian Murphy’s most important film characters.

The brightest one is the transvestite in Breakfast on Pluto (2005), one who basks in his (or her) pink bubbles of imagery all along. Whether it’s his mother’s abandonment, reprimands from his teachers for his sexual orientation, the loss of his friend in terrorist attacks or being forced into prostitution in poverty-stricken alleys, he remains unchanged. There seems to be no trace of negativity in him, only a childlike innocence which he sticks to. However, upon closer examination, you can see the endless darkness and melancholy hidden beneath the near-psychopathic optimism. The world is too cruel for the sensitive man to bear so that he has to substitute the whole real world with an illusionary one in his mind. This way, through the norms and rules he creates, he is able to summon the courage to face the world which has been too unfriendly to him..

Cillian’s other important film roles are all shrouded in true, sheer gloom. In On the Edge (2001), he is a suicide lover, careening towards the edge of a cliff in a car without so much as a glance backward, calmly as if it’s no different from driving to work in the morning. He is a desperate boy tortured by his father’s death, drinking and taking drugs in order to deny any chance of confronting his inner world, where nothing’s left but remnants.

In 28 Days Later (2002), he awakens from a coma to discover that the UK has been stricken by an incurable virus. Walking on an empty street in London, he can’t just believe all of humanity has been erased, feeling lost and unsure of where to go. In the two more traditional and serious works The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) directed by Ken Loach and Peaky Blinders directed by Tom Harper and Otto Bathurst, he struggles under the dual burdens of family and historical background.

His roles in Chistopher Nolan works, however, epitomize true evil. Whether in The Dark Knight Series or in Dunkirk (2017), he embodies the dark side of humanity. In Oppenheimer (2023), though (the filmwhich earned him the Best Actor at the Academy Awards), he has to pass through an unprecedented trial of saving the whole world by destroying its future. The world is in essence nothingness, yet the looming threat of tangible, foreseeable danger leaves him in a dilemma. In the end, he manages to save the world, but has to bear the heaviest moral burden imaginable.

In fact, Cillian Murphy is not suitable to play ‘normal’ characters.

In some way he is similar to Johnny Depp. They are both endowed with Gothic faces, characterized by steep facial lines that give them an air of being alienated from sunlight. Purely from their looks, they appear more suited to inhabit shadowy ancient castles, nurtured by loneliness therefore having a closed yet rich inner world. They look like they will never pander to the world, armored by their willfulness and waywardness; these are also the sources of their charm.

But unlike Depp, Cillian Murphy has a pair of different eyes. The light blue eyes lend his gaze an empty and icy quality. If in Depp's eyes you can discern a certain vulnerability, in Murphy's eyes, you see more of a distance, a kind of unfamiliar mystery, a conviction of detachment from the world.

They are what make Murphy stand out when playing insane characters. Many actors are adept at playing craziness, such as Joaquin Phoenix, or more mainstream ones like Al Pacino and Mel Gibson. These actors’ craziness is masculine, a kind of danger that breaks sanity with overflowing passion. They are all good at portraying the state of teetering on the brink between sanity and madness, the intense power dynamic between justice and evil in one’s mind, and the timeless battle between restrained instinct and true desire.

Yet Murphy’s depiction of insanity is feminine, devoid of cathartic release brought about by the outburst of masculine hormones. His madness is akin to gusts of coldness seeping through your heart from deep down the earth, so inadvertently yet certainly that they make you shiver. Unlike the actors mentioned above, whose portrayal of insanity is more of classical moral struggles, Murphy’s madness looks more like a mirror of our fear when an alien being descends down to the world, and yet we are unable to find the way to read his mind.

Similar to Murphy in this aspect is Gary Oldman. His role as the mad policeman in Léon : The Professional( 1994), shares the same quality as Murphy’s Scarecrow in The Dark Knight trilogy. Both seem to be driven mad by something beyond our understanding, and both harbor an utterly icy chilliness in their hysteria.

This inscribed chilliness, when not applied to depict craziness, becomes some form of special elegance that distinguishes British actors/actresses from the American counterparts by temperament. Generally, the latter exude unreserved openness, while the former radiate a sense of self-restraint and pride that distance themselves subtly.

Murphy’s unique charm stems from a subtle blend of the nuanced vibe, insanity and elegance. It’s a quality exclusive to the privileged. It has nothing to do with simple and raw desires like food or sex, resonating more with the tipsy vibe evoked by post rock music. Reactively distancing itself from the mainstream, it takes an uncompromising stance with quiet confidence. It has an arty quality, but not overwhelming so, with an air of cold mystery. Within it, one can feel both calmness as well as the underlying madness.

To put it simply, in Murphy, we can see at the same time an intellectual, a rocker, a psychopath, and a weirdo child. All the qualities behind these roles find fitting correspondences in his recent characters as Oppenheimer, making Oppenheimer the most richly portrayed character in Murphy's film career. Thanks to Nolan, he discovered the similarities between Murphy's temperament and what he wanted to portray in Oppenheimer.

Cillian Murphy always manages to embody complex, multi-layered qualities effortlessly, without any hint of contrivance. That's what makes him a great performer. A good actor iswell-aware that they can’t manufacture traits that doesn’t exist in them; Rather, they stay true to themselves, drawing from the rich treasury of complexities within them and finetuning the characters to portraying their roles. In other words, a good performance does mean reaching outwards to be a role, but inwards to find what oneself echoes with the role from deep within. Once an actor/actress recognize his true essence, they instinctively know what a particular character should be like. That’s why Murphy’s acting never feel forced.

Thus, in the role of Oppenheimer, we see a born rocker against the system, an intellectual lost in the maze of meanings, and a solitary being seeking warmth from various women’s bodies and souls.

He succeeds but at the same time loses. He becomes a figure of admiration but also crumbles into remnants. Driven by icy and overwhelmingly powerful impulses, he heads all the way down to the destruction of both the world and himself, occasionally interrupted by the quivering moments of instinctual morality.