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There's No Place Like Home on the Range for Star Cillian
The Evening Herald
13 March 2007
By Jane Last
Irish actor Cillian Murphy has revealed his ultimate film fantasy—to star in a western like childhood hero John Wayne.
The Wind That Shakes the Barley star appears to be eager to diversify his roles—and Clint Eastwood might want to look out after Cillian revealed his dream would be to star in a western film.
The 30-year-old Irish man used to watch idol John Wayne in countless westerns along with his dad as a young child.
"There's nothing cooler than a cowboy in jeans and a 10-gallon hat," he said. "To someone in Ireland, it looked pretty cool."
The Corkman was speaking in Los Angeles ahead of the US premier of the Palme D'Or winning film The Wind That Shakes the Barley—Ireland's highest grossing independent film.
The film was directed by the renowned Ken Loach and walked away with the biggest prize in last year's Cannes Film Festival.
Not surprisingly, Cillian took a lot away from his experience with Loach.
While he researched his character intensely, neither he nor the other actors were allowed to read the script in its entirety. Unlike most film directors, Loach shoots the action sequentially, so "I experienced events like my character did," Murphy explained.
Cillian shot to international fame thanks to his roles in Barley, 28 Days Later…, and Batman Begins.
However his upcoming film role alongside the U.K.'s Keira Knightley is sure to propel him to superstardom.
The film, The Best Time of Our Lives, is a dramatic biography of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, a tale of three-in-a-bed romps, boozing, a grenade attack, and lesbian love scenes.
