Emmanuel Itier: This is not your typical Hollywood movie. Sure, it has great special effects and is an amazing ride, but it’s more, it seems. Why this movie for you, and what did you see in it?

Cillian Murphy: When I read the script, I figured out it was not going to be your usual Hollywood movie and it was a very intelligent script. There were lots of questions. Also, this was a character I had not played before, and I was very intrigued by the idea of Danny Boyle directing this big science fiction film because he loves these movies, but he had never done one. It was his chance to put his stamp on that genre.

EI: How is it to work with Danny Boyle, and what do you get from him as an actor?

CM: It’s a very fulfilling experience. He is so committed and full of passion and energy. Everyone will tell you these are his qualities. His visuals are also amazing. You tend to go to great physical lengths and emotional lengths for Danny. He has that effect on people–to work harder than usual. This was a tough shoot, for the crew as much as the cast. At the end, it was very physically demanding with all of the action parts–lots of stunts and fights, and also the suit was exhausting to wear.

EI: Did you do some research about the sun, the universe; and if so, what surprised you the most about your studies?

CM: Well, I really don’t know anything, and I still don’t know very much after doing this film. Even Brian Cox, who is a scientist and who was our advisor, was telling us that there are still so many unanswered questions. Also, I found out that this film was not beyond the realm of possibility. The premise that the sun will die is possible, except that we have many more years in front of us compared to what is experienced in this film. Still, it’s based on reality and it opened my mind about many things.

EI: Neil Armstrong, when he walked on the moon, said that he felt God. Did you feel God while shooting this film? What does God means to you?

CM: I’m not sure I know what this means to me. Working on a movie is not a very holy experience. There is a conflict between science and religion, and it is explored toward the end of the movie. My character is very much on the science side, and for me, I would tend to be on the science side as well.

EI: Where on earth would you still like to travel?

CM: I don’t know. There are so many places I haven’t seen. I’d like to go to one of the poles. That would be quite interesting. I’d just like to see it.
You wouldn’t get that many tourists there either.

EI: What lessons did you learn on this movie?

CM: I think I learned a lot. It got me thinking about life and religion, and science versus religion and all that sort of stuff. I was verging being an agnostic, and I think this film confirmed any sort of atheistic beliefs I would have had, or lack of belief of whatever it is. It just also reinforces the fragility of our planet.

EI: Global warming?

CM: I don’t think it’s about global warming per se, but if it gets people thinking about it, then that’s a good thing.

EI: Were you interested in science before?

CM: No, I was always very poor at that in school. Math and science were always my weak subjects. It took me a long time to get a grasp of the whole thing. And Brian Cox, who is the science advisor on this film, I spent a long time asking him questions and trying to piece this together. It’s a hard thing to hold onto because it’s counter-intuitive. It runs against everything that we see as logical, because 95% of the universe we don’t know what it is. Only 5% we have any explanation for. So it’s hard to fathom that.

EI: What kind of questions did you ask?

CM: I can’t really remember. He was trying to explain matter and then dark matter, and protons and neutrons and particles and all that stuff, and the big bang and all these things. As I say, they are counter-intuitive. They are hard to grasp, but he would try to explain it in as much layman’s terms as possible. But then I’d forget and I wouldn’t understand and I’d have to ask him again.

EI: How did those questions help you build the character?

CM: If you assume this character is thinking about these things all the time, what does that do to your perception of the world, and what does that do to your personality, and how you view other people, and how you view your life and your importance in the universe and all that stuff? It’s pretty heavy stuff.

EI: Were you surprised you were offered this role?

CM: No, it’s obviously because of how intelligent I am.

EI: Your character is so restrained!

CM: I love that about the character–that he’s so outside of the group and quite introverted and removed, and I think that was a choice that we made early on–that he’s kind of unlikely. He’s a scientist and they are all from a military background, so that separates him. And then, through circumstances, we see his resourcefulness and determination come through–and that was nice to play.

EI: Would you really like to have all that knowledge?

CM: I think that level of intelligence can actually be a burden. When your brain is going that fast, you aren’t thinking about getting another bottle of water–you are thinking “Why the hell are we here?” So I think that can be a burden.

EI: So ignorance is bliss?

CM: Well, a lot of us live in that, don’t we? A lot of us subscribe to that, really.

EI: Why are humans so curious?

CM: You always ask these questions that, even if I was the world’s greatest philosopher, I could not answer that question. I am curious, I guess. It’s an innate curiosity. And some people are more curious than others, and some people are willing to just go, “Right,” and that’s that. And other people wonder, why is that that? And I think it’s healthier to be curious.

EI: Were you reserved in the dorm as well?

CM: It was really good fun. Everyone had fun. We all got on. I’m not really a reserved person, generally. I like to be with people. Luckily, everyone got on very well. Danny casts very cleverly. They cast films because they get good actors, but also they are people they want to work with, who are fun to be around, who are willing to engage in the process and are not self-obsessed or demanding actors.

EI: Would you have been fired if the chemistry wasn’t good?

CM: I don’t know. You’d have to ask Danny that question.

EI: How was working with Danny?

CM: It’s brilliant. I think Danny is one of the best directors around, at the moment—one of the best directors working these days.

EI: Was there something new working with him this time?

CM: Yeah, it’s a different film. This is the first time Danny is dealing with a big special effects-heavy movie, and it’s a big, big budget movie and that was different. But he’s the same energetic, passionate, wonderfully gifted director he was on “28 Days Later”, except that we had a little budget and that was a different type of movie. And I hope that I came with more experience and more confidence and more maturity to this role.

EI: Were you asked to do the “28 Days” sequel?

CM: No, I wouldn’t have done it. For me, the movie was a full stop and then needed new characters. I don’t think it would have been interesting to have the same characters. I think it’s going to be a very good film, but it wouldn’t have been right for me to be in it.

EI: Most challenging thing about this film for you?

CM: I think the last third of the movie–the action sequences and all the fighting and all the suit stuff–that was the most challenging because it was very, very exhausting. It was very long and very technical. There was a long time waiting between set-ups, and when you are on set, you have to instantly be at that pitch of intensity. It’s quite hard to get to that level, so that was a challenge.

EI: How do you do it then?

CM: That’s something I learned from Danny. You need to really pump yourself up and get to that position. You can’t just come out of your trailer doing a crossword. You can do it through music or do it through working out or whatever. You get to that place.

EI: How was London?

CM: I live in London.

EI: What was it like watching the finished movie?

CM: It was amazing because, obviously, so much of the movie is computer generated that it was just amazing to see and I was blown away by it. And because we’re in a world where CGI is everywhere and it’s very hard to impress people with CGI anymore, I think they’ve succeeded in this movie with doing something unusual and doing something very different with the effects in it. I found it quite emotional–obviously I did because I’m involved. I think it’s a very intelligent film and a very, very visceral film. It’s the sort of movie I like.

EI: How does your brain work while acting?

CM: For me, acting is about instinct. The primary thing is instinct. And it’s less intellectual and more instinctual for me.

EI: How could you improve your instinct?

CM: Just by acting more, I suppose–by experience, really.

EI: How do you usually prepare for the part?

CM: Every part requires different preparation. In this case, I spent a lot of time with Brian Cox and I read a lot of books. I spent a lot of time with physicists in Geneva, and that was primarily it.

EI: How did you like Geneva?

CM: It was cool. We had some good meals. Brian brought me to some very nice restaurants. We stayed at the Holiday Inn. It was super fancy. We sat up at the Holiday Inn bar talking about the meaning of life, so it was interesting.

EI: Did you get to see the new big electronic accelerator?

CM: Yeah, it was there. I was right down at the bottom of it and it was fascinating. I took a lot of pictures and talked to a lot of the engineers and physicists working on that. It’s quite amazing, what’s going on there.

EI: Did you understand everything?

CM: No–a lot of it I didn’t understand, but what I was looking for more was for what the essence of it is–what having all this knowledge or what being a physicist could do. So I tried to steal mannerisms or idiosyncrasies off these guys and just try and get a sense of how they function as human beings and less as scientists.

EI: Are there a lot of young geniuses in the science business?

CM: CERN has the cream of the world’s scientists work there. Young people come out of college, and the best universities in all of the world come to this place. Then if you think about that, you think about this movie, you think Capa is the best physicist in the world. If they are going to send him up, he’s got to be the best, so therefore again it’s about that burden of intelligence in this guy’s brain and that must make him behave as a human being in a slightly different way. And that’s why I felt his people skills would be less-honed than others.

EI: Did you invent a back-story for your character?

CM: No, Alex wrote each of us a back-story, which nobody else saw. Each character had his own back-story. It helps. I don’t know how much of it you see on screen, but it helps for us, so I knew very clearly where Capa came from and what influenced his choices.

EI: What is the back-story?

CM: I couldn’t tell you.

***SPOILER ALERT!!!***

EI: Is it an illuminating experience at the end for Capa?

CM: Yeah, obviously, when he sees the sun at the end, I don’t know, a communion with a star–it’s like an epiphany, but ultimately it’s optimistic because he dies, obviously, but we see the sun and the world, so it’s optimistic.

EI: Which approach do you like best between Danny and Ken Loach?

CM: I don’t have a preference. They are both incredible directors with very different styles, but they both make wonderful films. Ken is a political filmmaker first and foremost, but he also makes highly entertaining films with a political message within them, whereas Danny’s movies are very smart, entertaining, mainstream movies.

EI: You are at ease with both?

CM: Yeah, absolutely. I’d love to work with Ken again. I hope I get to work with Danny again. I think Danny is a big Ken Loach fan also. Most filmmakers are.

EI: Directors you are willing to work with?

CM: I’m willing to work with a lot of them. I don’t name names anymore because I just think it’s pointless. If it happens, it happens. I have a wish list of directors I’d love to work with, but if they come and I meet them and there’s a script, then it happens.

EI: What’s next?

CM: I’m in negotiations for a film that’s going to be happening in May, but I can’t really say at the moment.

EI: Do you like the traveling part of your job?

CM: Yeah, the traveling part is nice when you get to go. What’s nice is promotion stuff when you get to go to places like Japan and they put you in nice hotels, and it’s very nice. But since my son has been born, most of my work has been in London, which is very good for me and for him and for my wife, and that makes it easier.

EI: Do you try to do tourist stuff?

CM: We were in Japan in October and we went to Tokyo and Kyoto. You try to take in as much as you can, but it’s hard. Most of the time you are stuck in a hotel room.

EI: What do you need from a director?

CM: I think you have to have complete confidence in them and their vision, and you have to have a trust in them so you are willing to take that little bit more out of you. That’s the special director, and Danny is that.

EI: How can you trust someone you don’t know?

CM: I don’t know. I guess you look at their other films. But working with
Danny for the first time, he cast me in “28 Days Later” when I had done very little and had very little experience. That was courageous to do that–to give me that big leading role. That opened up so many doors for me, so I really respect him so much for doing that originally, and I hope that I can repay it by coming back as a better actor in the next movie.

EI: Are you open to working more in Hollywood?

CM: Sure, I don’t have a preference. There are good and bad films within both systems. There are good films in the Hollywood system, and there are really bad films in the Hollywood system. Then there are really bad independent films, and really good ones. So it’s about the story and the character and whichever. I like the actors that can work within both systems.

EI: How hard was the accent?

CM: I’ve done it a few times. I was raised on a diet of American television when I was a kid, and I think also the Irish, just as the Australian–they are easier to change than the English to American.

EI: Did you genuinely bond with the other actors on this?

CM: Yes, I see people occasionally, which is nice. But everyone is busy all the time. When you get to the level of actors like these guys, they are very successful and always working. Cliff lives in New Zealand, Troy and Chris live in LA, so you occasionally see people, but I think the friends you make from films you generally make them earlier in your career. And later on it becomes more professional.

EI: What did you learn living in the dorm?

CM: I’m a good people person. I like being with people, but I’m a reasonable cook–no great shakes.

EI: Were the duties equal between men and women?

CM: I think it was pretty democratic and pretty equitable.

EI: Would you like to go through it again?

CM: No. You do a thing once and you don’t need to do it again.

EI: If you had the possibility to take a real shuttle, what would be your destination of choice?

CM: Ireland…I would fly back home via space, straight to Ireland.