Irishman Cillian Murphy won the Best Actor award at the 2024 Oscar ceremony for his leading role in Oppenheimer, the epic biographical film about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, considered the father of the atomic bomb. Murphy—who had never before been nominated for an Academy Award—was competing in the same category as Bradley Cooper (Teacher), Colman Domingo (Rustin), Paul Giamatti (Those who stay) and Jeffrey Wright (American fiction).
After going on stage and receiving his award, the actor admitted to being “a little overwhelmed.” He thanked his wife and two children, who were part of the audience, and described himself as “a proud Irishman.”
«We made a movie about the man who created the atomic bomb. And for better or worse, we all live in Oppenheimer's world, so I would really like to dedicate this to peacemakers around the world,” he said into the microphone.
The 47-year-old actor's triumph at the 96th Academy Award ceremony was practically a foregone conclusion from the beginning. We must not forget that during the awards season, Murphy also won the Best Actor award at the SAG Awards, the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes (in the category of dramatic film). The one who, if anything, was most likely to snatch the Oscar from him was Giamatti. Ultimately, the latter won at the Critics' Choice Awards and also won at the Golden Globes; in his case, within the comic branch.
Meet Cillian Murphy and his career
Born in the Irish city of Cork, Cillian Murphy launched his acting career in the late 1990s. He started in theater, and participated in a handful of independent short films and feature films. It didn't take him long to gain global recognition, thanks to director Danny Boyle, who chose to make him the star of his post-apocalyptic film. Extermination (2002), which is credited with giving a second wind to the zombie film subgenre. The following year, she had small participations in The young woman with the pearl earring (2003), alongside Scarlett Johansson, and Return to Cold Mountain (2003), alongside Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renée Zellweger.
Immediately after came his great leap into the superhero genre. The film responsible was Batman starts (2005), where Murphy played the deranged psychiatrist Jonathan Crane, alias “Scarecrow.” He reprized that role in the two subsequent films of this reinvention of Bat-Man, i.e. The dark knight (2008) and The Dark Knight rises (2012).
In terms of awards, Murphy received his first Golden Globe nomination for his lead role in Breakfast on Pluto (2005). There she played a transgender woman searching for her absent mother throughout London. The following year, on the occasion of her impersonation of a resigned combatant in the Irish War of Independence in winds of freedom (2006), nominated for the BAFTA Award for Rising Star.
In 2023, he was nominated for Best Leading Actor at the BAFTA TV Awards for his acclaimed portrayal of Thomas Shelby, a criminal leader from the first half of the 20th century, in the acclaimed series Peaky Blinders from the BBC. For more than twenty years, this has been the only television role (camera) of her career.
Collaborations with Christopher Nolan
For almost twenty years, Cillian Murphy has been one of Christopher Nolan's favorite actors; that is, one of the actors with whom the British filmmaker has collaborated the most. The joint work of both adds a total of six films, including the trilogy of The dark knight. Curiously, he is not yet the star who has worked the most with Nolan, but he is in second place, only behind the veteran Michael Caine (who has credits in eight of the director's films).
“It's been the craziest, most exhilarating, most creatively satisfying journey I've been taken on in the last 20 years,” Murphy said in his Oscar reception speech, referencing both Nolan and producer Emma Thomas. “I owe them more than I can express.”
Outside of the Batman universe, Nolan also directed Murphy in the action film The origin (2010) and in the war film Dunkirk (2017). Then, after only playing supporting roles, the Irishman got his first “Nolanesque” leading role in Oppenheimer (2023). “I had always secretly wanted to play a lead role for Chris,” she said in an interview with deadline. “I think any actor in the world would want to be in a Chris Nolan movie, let alone play a lead role for him.”
Nolan, who has referred to Murphy as “one of the best actors of his generation,” had no reservations in directly offering him the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer, in a film where relationships, political conflicts and, above all, would be explored. all, the fundamental role of this physicist in the manufacture of the first nuclear weapon.
Cillian Murphy has received around twenty awards thanks to his stellar performance in Oppenheimernow including the Best Actor statuette at the 2024 Oscars. Congratulations!
Antonio G. Spindola I have very bad memory. Out of solidarity with my memories, I choose to get lost too. Preferably, in a movie theater.