Cillian Murphy talks playing ‘very complex’ role in ‘Small Things Like These’

Cillian Murphy, who plays Bill Furlong in Small Things Like These, candidly spoke about what he loves most about the filmmaking process. 

The Peaky Blinders star went on to describe the challenges he faced as an actor to portray the "very complex" and "really quiet, sort of hard-to-reach" character in the movie.

“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,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

The Oppenheimer star explained that he "loves" the parts where the characters are "just thinking or in repose or on their own or silent or working sh-- out.”

He shared that it is "the best“ and "most interesting part of filmmaking” which he experienced with this project.

“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,” he explained.

“I just love that. And Tim, our director, is just so gifted mining for those performances.”

Murphy, other than playing the lead role, also serves as a producer. The film follows the tale of a quiet and soft-spoken coal miner, Bill Furlong, comes across a hidden facility that abuses girls and decides to help them.

The movie, Small Things Like These, is adapted from Claire Keegan’s 2021 novel of the same name, which was released on November 1st, 2024.