Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy has mixed and matched his roles over the years to move from small independent movies, to horror and onto the big budget blockbuster, making him one of the most versatile actors around.

And he is back on the big screen this week with his latest movie Perrier's Bounty, which sees him team up with Brendan Gleeson, Jim Broadbent and Jodie Whittaker.

Murphy career almost took a very different path in the nineties when he was a musician rather than an actor.

But he turned down the chance of a record deal to pursue an acting career, making his debut in 1996 with theatre production Disco Pigs.

The show took off an Murphy found himself touring Europe and Canada with the production for two years, and while he always intended to return to music an agent caught his performance in Disco Pigs and he has never looked back.

The actor juggled independent movie role TV and theatre in the last nineties moving between On The Edge to The Way We Live Now to Much Ado About Nothing.

But his breakthrough role came in 2002 when he was cast in the central role of Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later.

The post-apocalyptic horror movie introduced Murphy to a mass audience for the first time as the film was a critical and commercial success.

A string of awards came his way, including Best Newcomer at the 2003 Empire Awards, but the actor continued to mix and match his work as he went on to star in The Wind That Shakes The Barley.

Directed by Ken Loach the movie was set during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.

The movie won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival before going on to become the highest grossing Irish made-independent movie ever at the Irish box office.

That same year the actor moved into Hollywood movies for the very first time with roles in both Girl With A Pearl Earring, which starred Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth and Cold Mountain with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law.

Up next was the blockbuster as he landed the roles of Dr Jonathan Crane, and alter ego villain Scarecrow, in Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins

The movie, which had Christian Bale in the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, was a re-boot to the comic book franchise and once again brought Murphy critical and box office success.

Since then the actor hasn't just remained in one genre of film as he took on horror in Red Eye before reuniting with Danny Boyle for science fiction movie Sunshine.

Perrier's Bounty is the actor's first venture onto the big screen since The Edge of Love back in 2008.

The movie follows three fugitives on the run from a big-time gangster out for revenge following the accidental death of one of his gang members.

The actor also has a very busy few months ahead of him with a string of projects on the horizon.

First up is Hippie Hippie Shake, which will also star Sienna Miller, and follows Richard Neville, editor of Australian magazine Oz, and a London edition is launched.

He will also reunite with Christopher Nolan for his new movie Inception, which also stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard.

Perrier's Bounty is released 26th March.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw


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