In a film career that has spanned more than 20 years, Cillian Murphy just scored his first ever Oscar nomination, for playing the titular role in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster epic Oppenheimer.
Murphy, who was at his parents’ house in Ireland when his name was called out today and was “sitting around having tea” before “the phone started popping,” spoke to Deadline just after the nominations announcement.
He told us, “I feel really privileged and I feel really lucky to be in a film that’s connected with people in a way that it has critically and commercially.
To be in a film that people have seen three and four and five times and they come up to you and tell you that…” When I ask if he’s grasped the enormity of an Oscar nomination and what he might have thought when he was starting out, he says, “I don’t think you would have believed it or seen it as a possibility or anything like that; I just wanted to make theater and make good theater, and then you do a small part in a short film and then a small part in a film — we’ve talked about this really gradual process and I think that’s why I’m able to deal with it and able to enjoy it.
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