Cillian Murphy Reveals The Text He Sent To Bag His Role In ‘Peaky Blinders’
deadline.comCillian Murphy may be the hot favourite to win Best Actor at next month’s Oscars, but he has revealed he wasn’t the first choice for his breakthrough TV role.
Murphy played family patriarch Tommy Shelby in global hit period drama Peaky Blinders, but he revealed this week he wasn’t writer Stephen Knight’s first choice for the lead role.
He told the BBC’s Desert Island Discs radio interview show: “I wasn’t the obvious choice physically. I don’t know if I convinced Stephen in the meeting, but apparently afterwards I sent him a text that said: ‘Remember, I am an actor.’ And I do believe that.
I do think it is our duty as actors to transform to whatever the part demands.” Shelby and his Birmingham gangster family bowed out after six seasons in 2022, but Murphy revealed that he remains open to playing the role again: “If there is more story to tell, and if Stephen Knight delivers a script like I know he can, then I will be there,” Murphy said. “I mean, if we want to watch 50-year-old Tommy Shelby, I will be there.
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