To illustrate quite how low-key the person I’m going to be writing about is, let me start by telling you about someone else. Let me tell you about Martin. Martin is the taxi driver the fates assign me at Dublin Airport when I arrive in Ireland the day before the interview with the person I’m going to be writing about. Once the car doors are closed, Martin wastes no time in indicating to me that he, like the person I’m going to be writing about, is a little bit famous. Unlike that person, Martin is not low-key.
“Google ‘Dublin taxi-driver same-sex marriage’, ” he instructs me, as we careen southwards into the city. But I don’t need to, because Martin’s already telling me about the time in 2015 when he was asked by an Australian news channel for his views on the imminent referendum in Ireland, deciding whether to permit same-sex marriage. His response, described by the reporter as “trademark Irish humour”, was this: “I’m in favour of same-sex marriage because I’ve been having the same sex with the wife for the last 30 years.” It got “millions of views on YouTube”, Martin says, but apparently his wife wasn’t too happy. “It was actually 35 years, ” he admits. Classic Martin.
And what brings me to Dublin, Martin wants to know? Well, Martin, I’m interviewing an actor. Irish. Lives here.
“I’m a film buff, ” Martin says.
Okay, then! Have a guess.
“Gabriel Byrne.”
No.
“Brendan Gleeson.”
No.
“Liam Neeson?” Still no, but he’s been in films with all thr—
“GOBSHIIIIITE!!” Martin yells out of the window at a woman crossing the road in front of his taxi, who scrambles back to the curb.
He’s been in films with all three.
“Jonathan Rhys Meyers.”
Nope.
“No, no! I’ve got it. Colin Farrell.” Nuh-uh.
“James McAvoy.”
For god’s sake, Martin, he’s not even Irish.
A lightbulb above Martin’s head flickers into life. “Aah, Peaky Blinders! Cillian Murphy!”
Bingo, Martin. That’s your man.
It may not seem like it, but it is a testament to how discreetly Cillian Murphy goes about his business that he is the seventh name on Martin’s list of Irish (and one Scottish) actors. This despite having been in some of the most memorable films of the last two decades, including Danny Boyle’s zombie apocalypse classic and Christopher Nolan’s trilogy; turning in multiple acclaimed and gut-wrenching performances on stage; and starring in one of the most fanatically adored British TV shows of the current era, . Murphy is not an actor who seeks attention outside of his work—in fact, he responds to it like the jaywalking woman to Martin’s front bumper—and his quiet resistance to the showiness of show business has enabled him to lie low. Thus far, at least: in February, Murphy started filming Nolan’s new biopic, , which might well be the biggest role of his career.
