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Scene Stealer
Premiere
July/August 2005
By Jason Matloff
Cillian Murphy flies the not-so-friendly skies in August’s Red Eye.
Irish actor Cillian Murphy's success on this side of the pond has prompted some to compare him to friend, fellow countryman, and hard-living skirt-chaser, Colin Farrell. "I can't be the next Colin Farrell because we're all individuals," says Murphy. "It's just journalism. But we've had a laugh about it." After his breakout in 28 Days Later, the 29-year-old Cork native went on to appear in Cold Mountain and Intermission. In August, he stars as an assassin terrorizing a woman (Rachel McAdams) on a plane in Wes Craven’s Red Eye.
28 Days Later... (2003)
In this postapocalyptic zombie fest, Murphy tries to outrun the infected.
"[Screenwriter] Alex Garland had the brilliant idea to make the zombies fast. In all those movies, you look back and they are kind of ambling sort of amiably toward you. But in 28 Days, the infected people are like 100-meter sprinters, which added hugely to the adrenaline for both the audience and us actors, when we were trying to get the hell out of there."
Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003)
Murphy's butcher romances the muse (Scarlett Johansson) of master painter Jan Vermeer.
"We went to see the original Vermeers in The Hague. It was pretty cool to see Scarlett when she was right up against the painting, because at the time she looked remarkably like the picture."
Batman Begins (2005)
Before landing the part of the villainous Scarecrow, Murphy auditioned to play the winged one himself.
"For my money, Christian Bale was always the obvious choice. But I was just delighted to get to dress up. Some Batsuit handlers told us that it was [Val Kilmer's Batman Forever] suit. All I remember was it was very sweaty. But it was better than the one I had when I was six years old."
