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From a very young age I had an ambition to be a musician, and to do that professionally. That’s what I pursued until I was about 20, playing in bands that were taken pretty seriously at that stage.

Cillian Murphy

I always think it’s a sign of a truly gifted director when they can move seamlessly between genres.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Director Gift Myself Thinking True
The best roles you have to fight for. You have to really want to do it and you have to go after it.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Best Fight Role Yourself
I think you fall out of love with theater while you’re doing your eighth show of your eighteenth week and your body is saying, “Please make this end.”
CILLIAN MURPHY

Body End Fall Love Movie Play Thinking Yourself
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

Action Cleaning Experience Open Slate Yourself
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

Afraid Capacity Dangerous Death Violence Yourself
I think if you play characters, it’s very important not to ever tag them with any sort of disorder, or diagnose them, or whatever. You have to normalize the behavior to get inside the character.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Character Myself Normal Play Thinking
I started off in theater; I did exclusively theater for four or five years. In the last few years, television has come along but I can still make film. I feel very privileged that I can move between them.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Myself Privilege Start Time
You’re an actor who’s Irish, not an Irish actor. And you shouldn’t be limited by your extraction.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Extraction Limitation Yourself
I think audiences are a lot more intelligent than what we give them credit for and understand that an actor is playing a role and that doesn’t mean he can’t play different types of roles.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Audience Different Himself Intelligence Thinking
I’m not interested in a good man’s life. I’m interested in contradiction.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Goodness Interest Life Man Myself
I come from a long line of teachers. Not only did I not go into the family business; I had an aborted law career and I played in bands. ‘Disco Pigs’ was my first professional acting experience.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Act Business Career Experience Family Law Play Professional Teaching
My only two constants are to challenge myself and to try not to repeat myself.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Challenge Myself Repeat
I personally think if something’s not a challenge there’s no point doing it because you’re not gonna learn much.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Challenge Learning Personal Point Thinking Yourself
It’s always nice to be challenged.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Challenge Myself
It’s obvious that if you’re going to play a character you need to amass information about that person and about their environment or their era that they’re in and use as little or as much as necessary
CILLIAN MURPHY

Character Information Necessary Need Play Yourself
I’ve had the pleasure and the great luck to work with some incredible actors over the years and you have to observe and learn and take something from it and try and become better yourself.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Better Greatness Happiness Luck Observation Work Yourself
I think it’s necessary to keep moving forward. I’ve always said that nostalgia is death, really for anyone creative.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Creative Death Forward Move Myself Necessary Nostalgia Thinking
I don’t think they’d ever make a movie about Chuck Baker but I’d love to play Chuck Baker
CILLIAN MURPHY

Love Movie Myself Thinking
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

Darkness Love Movie Myself Romance Story Stranger Watch
I suppose I’ve always been attracted to this sort of outsider in general – in literature, in music, politics, whatever – and to the person that is able to be relentlessly themselves. I don’t think that I have that quality, that strength of mind.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Attraction Literature Mindset Music Myself Person Politics Quality Strength
I think any actor that says ‘I never watch my films’ is a liar because you have to watch it at least once and also you’re going to watch it when you’re doing your ADR.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Lying Thinking Yourself
I really feel actors should try and do as much diverse work as possible to try and keep it interesting.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Feeling Interest Myself Possible Work
I’d probably have been wealthier if I had stayed with law, but pretty miserable doing it.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Law Misery Myself Stay Wealth
I like the little bit of distance that London affords me and I like living in a world capital. I like having the culture at my fingertips.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Culture Distance Live Myself World
I don’t care if people perceive me as always selling out because I’m doing a studio picture. For me, the whole thing is you should be diverse in your choices; that’s the beauty of being an actor, you should be able to do that.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Care Choice People Photograph Studio Yourself
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

Artist Flag Important Kind Pieces Thinking Try
I loved The Fall; I was kind of obsessed with that show.
CILLIAN MURPHY

Fall Love Myself Obsession

From a very young age I had an ambition to be a musician, and to do that professionally. That’s what I pursued until I was about 20, playing in bands that were taken pretty seriously at that stage.

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From a very young age I had an ambition to be a musician, and to do that professionally. That’s what I pursued until I was about 20, playing in bands that were taken pretty seriously at that stage.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Cillian Murphy Quotes