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Biography, Part 7:
Looking for That Next Prize Role (2009 to the Present)
by The CillianSite Collective
As Richard Neville in Hippie Hippie Shake
In September 2007, Cillian tackled another biopic role: writer Richard Neville, in Hippie Hippie Shake, Beeban Kidron's screen adaptation of Neville's memoirs. Neville and his counterculture magazine Oz were charged with obscenity, resulting in Britain's longest (at that time) trial on public morality. Cillian plays Neville in this "bed-hopping, drug-addled" journey through the '60s. Again he stars alongside Sienna Miller, who plays his girlfriend, Louise Ferrier, and again the shoot was dogged by paparazzi. This film is slated for a 2009 release.
In May 2008, Cillian shot Peacock alongside Oscar nominee Ellen Page and Oscar winner Susan Sarandon. In this psychological thriller set in the mid-60s, Cillian stars as John Skillpa, a humble Nebraskan bank teller suffering from multiple personality disorder, whose secret alter ego, Emma, is revealed when a train derails in his backyard. Page's character, Maggie, has a link to his past and sets his two personalities against each other. Cillian has also been slated to star in a film opposite one of his long-time idols: Al Pacino. Another biopic, Dalí and I: the Surreal Story will star Pacino as famed artist Salvador Dalí and Cillian as the writer Stan Lauryssens, who became Dalí's protégé near the end of the eccentric painter's life. The film, which seems to have been delayed, was adapted for the screen and will be directed by Andrew Niccol. Most recently, Cillian signed on for a role in White Male Heart as a rural Scotsman stuck in a symbiotic relationship with his best friend that's threatened when a beautiful Londoner arrives on holiday. White Male Heart began filming in spring 2009.
Cillian has a long wish list of directors and roles he'd like to take on in the future. Although he no longer offers names, in the past he's mentioned projects ranging from a Coen Brothers film to a Chet Baker biopic to an honest-to-God Western ("I'd love to learn how to reload on a saddle"). Despite a C.V. that boasts projects with some of the finest directors and actors in the industry today, Cillian is level-headed and humble about his prospects: "I've been very lucky to be able to create some great characters and work with the superb directors attached to them. If you have patience and accept that you are in this business for the long run and not take anything that comes along, you'll be okay."
