Cillian Murphy / A Quiet Place: Part II
Cillian Murphy is happily enjoying the recognition he has gained from starring as Tommy Shelby one of the most popular series on TV, the BBC/Netflix gangster drama Peaky Blinders. The success of the show over the course of five critically acclaimed seasons has turned the Irish heartthrob into a major player after a distinguished and varied film career that tended to feature him in supporting roles. Best known for his work with director Christopher Nolan in Inception and various Batman movies as well as early screen triumphs in Cold Mountain and 28 Days, Murphy is now waiting to see where his newfound status as a leading man will take him. Not that he ever tries to map out his acting destiny.
“My whole career path has been random and has had more to do with chance,” Murphy says. “I have never followed any strategy – I’ve only been interested in finding good stories. This is such a crazy business that you never know what project is waiting for you around the corner. You don’t know who is going to call you or which actors or directors you’re going to work with. Early on, I decided I would not try to map out my career because that is not the way art works. I look at my work as an actor as being an artistic adventure rather than a business, and I see my job as doing the best work I can.”
Interestingly, Cillian’s new film is A QUIET PLACE II, the highly anticipated sequel to the 2018 sci-fi thriller that turned out to be a massive sleeper hit, earning $350 million worldwide on a shoestring budget of $17 million and becoming a cult favourite in the process. Cillian joins the franchise as a mysterious new presence who joins Emily Blunt’s Evelyn Abbott and her two children in their ongoing quest to evade the mysterious, ravenous aliens who rely on their heightened sense of hearing to track down their human prey. Having seen her husband Lee (John Krasinski) sacrifice his life to save his family in the terrifying finale to the original, Evelyn must see whether Cillian’s character will be a source of hope or possible danger in yet another battle with the alien menace….