Cillian Murphy breaks down his most iconic roles

From 'Disco Pigs' to 'Peaky Blinders'

Cillian Murphy is undoubtedly one of this island's greatest acting talents. These days you can see him lighting up the screen as gangster Thomas Shelby in 'Peaky Blinders' while he's recently just wrapped filming on the sequel to 'A Quiet Place'.

43-year-old Murphy has had a rake of great roles over the years, beginning his path to stardom with the adaptation of Enda Walsh's play 'Disco Pigs' in 2001. Speaking about that role, he said, "It was a beautifully observed piece of writing in the theatre by Enda Walsh and I think we made a good stab of it as a film."

The role led to Danny Boyle auditioning and ultimately casting him in his breakout movie '28 Days Later' where he played one of the sole survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Numerous roles followed in the likes of 'Intermission' and 'Cold Mountain' but Murphy's career was propelled further when he was screen-tested by Christopher Nolan for the role of Batman.

"About ten of us went up for Batman, and I was aware I was clearly not the right material for Batman. I did a screen test in the whole suit and everything but Chris [Nolan] said there might be another part. So we met and we chatted, and I ended up playing Scarecrow in the end."

Christopher Nolan went on to cast Murphy in his movies 'Inception' and 2017's 'Dunkirk', while Cork man Cillian also starred in iconic Irish movies like 'Breakfast at Pluto', 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley' and 'Perriers Bounty'.

In 2013, Murphy was cast as Thomas Shelby in the hugely popular BBC series 'Peaky Blinders', which has just finished its fifth season.  Speaking about the show he said, "I think everyone that read it at the beginning realised it was a different level of television scriptwriting, but none of us could have predicted that it would connect with people in such a strong way. The fans are really loyal, and we are all really, really proud."

In the video, filmed at the Fitzpatrick Castle Hotel in Killiney, Co. Dublin for GQ magazine, Cillian Murphy breaks down his most iconic roles over the years.