One of Cillian Murphy ‘favorite scenes of my career’ is in ‘Small Things Like These’

Call it the luck of the Irish.

Cillian Murphy found it “unbelievable” that the rights were still available for Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan’s 2021 novel that he wanted to make into a movie. “It’s such a beloved novel, not just in Ireland, but in America and in Europe,” he tells Entertainment Weekly. “So we knew we had a responsibility to tell the story as best we could, so we just went at it.”

It’s the first project from his new production company with producer Alan Moloney, Big Things Films. You’re not wrong to think they were inspired by the title of their first movie for their company name. “We thought if we called it Small Things Films, it might hint at a lack of ambition,” the Oppenheimer star — and recent Oscar winner — says. “So we changed it up.”

Set in winter 1985, the story centers on Murphy’s Bill Furlong, a father of five and hardworking coal merchant in New Ross, Ireland, who witnesses abuse at a local convent that operates as one of the so-called “Magdalene laundries,” which housed sex workers, and young unmarried women who got pregnant. While everyone knows what goes on at the convents, no one speaks of the abuses — as Bill is advised even as he finds it harder to ignore what’s happening. While making a coal delivery to the convent, he finds one girl who’s been locked outside in a cold shed, only to encounter her again later in the film…this time taking matters into his own hands — inspired by memories of his own childhood and unmarried mother to take action.

Directed by Tim Mielants, who directed all six episodes of Peaky Blinders season 3, the movie also stars Emily Watson as the covenant’s Mother Superior, Sister Mary, who has a quietly intense face-off with Bill, but not before trying to buy his silence with a cash gift.

Below, Murphy discusses his brooding, internalized character, why a scene with Watson is one of his all-time favorites, the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: As you dug into this book and then were figuring out the script, what compelled you most about Bill’s story that made you want to play him? And I’m curious if it had anything to do with the fact that he feels like a guy you’ve never played before. Was there a specific emotional path that you had never explored before as an actor?

CILLIAN MURPHY: I definitely did feel that I hadn’t played somebody like him in the past — that really quiet, sort of hard-to-reach character. It’s rare these days that you have a genuinely good protagonist. Do you know what I mean? Obviously, he’s very complex — and we see from all the pain and memory that he’s struggling with grief and all of that stuff, that he’s really going through something. But he has very good impulses. He’s a good father, he is a good husband, he’s a good member of society. But then he does this radical thing, which I don’t believe is a premeditated act of heroism. I think it’s because of all the other stuff that he’s going through and because of what historically happened with his mother, that is why he rescues the girl. But yeah, it was very interesting to try and also play a character that doesn’t really say that much.

I did want to ask you about him being such a quiet guy. I really enjoyed watching him internalize and process these things, but I think it is also fair to say that it is, in many ways, the antithesis of what is expected of actors; we usually want to hear characters speak and share and tell these stories. So I’m curious what you found most enjoyable about just being quiet and what you found to be the most challenging part of it with a character like Bill.

Well, I’m one of those actors that always tries to cut my own lines. I really feel that the medium we’re working with is the one that should see into your soul and see your intentions, and see the pain. The parts of films that I love is what characters are just thinking or in repose or on their own or silent or working sh– out. That, to me, is the best, most interesting part of filmmaking. And with Bill, we have to sort of play a lot of the interiority of his life — we had to play that on his face, but [screenwriter Enda Walsh] is a genius at writing scenes where people talk, but they’re not talking about what they’re feeling, so it’s all subtextual. I just love that. And Tim, our director, is just so gifted mining for those performances.

Even though no one spoke about these Magdalene laundries, what was most important in conveying how the existence of these asylums impacted the people who lived near and around them?

I suppose it was to try and show that sometimes the system of oppression is actually run by the people that are oppressed. [Bill’s wife] Eileen is probably an example of that. And probably Mrs. Kehoe, who works in the bar; she’s an example of that. Bill, up until this point, is an upstanding member of society. He’s the coal man; he’s well-trusted, but you do not step out of your lane. So we wanted to show that sense of claustrophobia and that sense of pressure that they’re all living under. And it’s obviously magnified five times for him; he has five daughters, and there’s the convent here where his kids go to school, and then the next wall over is the Magdalene laundry. So it’s right there in a physical sense — it’s right there in front of them every single day.

We see that Bill’s mom could have been one of those so-called “fallen women” sent away for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. I’m curious how those bits of information informed you about his own emotional maturity and capabilities.

It’s the whole engine of the story, that backstory of him and his mother. That’s what is driving him, his coming to terms with these realizations. It’s all about memory and childhood, really, and that a life is really made when you’re a child. Somebody said, “What happens in childhood happens forever,” and I think that’s a wonderful quote and is very apt for this. So that’s why it was so important to get those flashbacks right. We never caption those “30 years earlier.” We just step into the past. And it takes a moment, I think, for the audience to catch up, but then they get it, and then they understand the vernacular of it.

Louis Kirwan is really fantastic as young Bill. Were you on set for Bill’s childhood scenes? What was it like watching him at work?

He’s a great kid, and there is a resemblance, which is amazing because it’s hard to get that. It was the 11th hour when we got him. I think it was two days before we started shooting, and the brilliant casting director, Maureen Hughes, was casting something else. Louis came in — I think it was for a musical or something — and she went, “Ah, you look a little bit like somebody I know.” And then he turned out also to be a brilliant actor. So we just got lucky.

Let’s talk about Emily Watson and that face-off, that showdown. Was that one of those scenes you were excited to get into?

Oh, yeah. It was one of my favorite scenes of my career, and I’ve adored her work for a long time. Breaking the Waves is a stunning piece of work, and Punch-Drunk Love might be one of my favorite films ever. We’ve just done another film together, so we have actually worked twice together now. But yeah, she’s amazing — she’s so bloody chilling in this film. It just chills your blood.

Aside from getting to work with her, what makes that one of your favorite scenes you’ve ever done?

It’s all about the subtext, right? It’s all about what the characters are thinking, and the space in the scene. The way Tim directed it, it’s so heightened — tone and atmosphere are the hardest things to get right in films. In this film, he’s achieved it so wonderfully that the tone is consistent throughout, but then the atmosphere and the pressure in that scene, the air seems to be vibrating with everything that’s unsaid and all the leverage that she’s trying to put on him. They’re talking in mundanities and banalities, but yet what’s actually at stake is huge. It’s massive. It’s human agency and freedom and life and human rights — but they’re talking about tea.

I want to ask about Peaky Blinders and the upcoming movie. Given how the series ended, what excites you most about where Steven Knight is picking up and taking this story from here?

The question I get asked most, even through all the Oppenheimer junket stuff was like, “When are you doing more Peaky Blinders? Are you doing a Peaky Blinders movie?” [Laughs] And I always said that if there was more story to tell, I’d be there. I felt like we ended the TV show very elegantly. I thought it was an excellent kind of ambiguous but clever ending. So it took us a long time to really figure out the story, and figure out what the next chapter would be and how to tell it cinematically and not episodically. I think we’ve managed to do it, and we’ve got a killer script, so I’m really excited to do it now.

You made the final season during the pandemic. There were the strikes last year. Did there come a time when you felt it has to be now or never? Is it something you would’ve wanted to come back to in 10 years, or did it matter?

I mean, I’m getting older, so we got to do it at some point. [Laughs] You just have to be patient, though. You can’t just make the film for the sake of making the film. I really want to make a film that satisfies the fans. You don’t want to make something [that’s not good], and people go, “Eh, just watch the TV show.” It has to take it up another notch. And I think this one will.