And at the center of the story were these men who were damaged by the First World War but survived it and were kind of stuck back into society, and then the question becomes, “Can they integrate?” Steve Knight was the one who recognized that it might be worth investigating. There’s obviously been a lot done about those two conflicts, but the period in between, not as much.
Mainly the fact that it was a family saga that takes place between the wars in Britain, which is a period that isn’t that glamorous in the history books. What about Peaky Blinders convinced you to make an open-ended commitment that has continued for five seasons?
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But he became an international star on Steven Knight’s hit series Peaky Blinders, playing the volatile Tommy Shelby, the leader of a gang that terrorizes Birmingham, England, between the World Wars.Īhead of the October 4 Netflix debut of Peaky Blinders’ fifth season, which launched on BBC One on August 25, Murphy spoke to Vulture about what goes into playing a character as brutal as Tommy, as well as a few other characters throughout his varied filmography. He’s equally convincing as a subtle, introverted lead (particularly in Ken Loach’s IRA drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley) and a lit-fuse villain who can turbocharge modest B-pictures like Wes Craven’s Red Eye.
He’s played a dazzling array of parts, including roles in 28 Days Later, Breakfast on Pluto, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy (as Scarecrow), and Dunkirk (as an anonymous infantryman billed only as “Shivering Soldier”). But his alertness, intelligence, and endless capacity for surprise have helped him defy potential typecasting. With his deep-set eyes and slight build, Irish actor Cillian Murphy is a chameleon who would’ve been a natural second lead in Old Hollywood, perhaps playing the police informant who gets whacked at the end of Act Two or the suitor who doesn’t get the girl.