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Cillian Murphy Takes to The Water
IFC.com
8 April 2009
By Brandon Kim
Cillian Murphy is the kind of guy who can call himself Kitten, put on a dress, make you believe he's a girl, then make you forget everything else. His repertoire's impressive and he is, like his characters, unquestionably memorable. Maybe it's the eyes, maybe it's the voice, but even his sinister roles are strangely comforting—something very genuine always comes through Mr. Murphy, a welcome exception in an era of green screens and Ponzi schemes.
His latest role is an unusual one, in a semi-experimental short film called The Water, inspired by the Feist song of the same name. It was directed by Kevin Drew, best known for his band/collective Broken Social Scene (of which Feist is also a member). The Water's a beautiful, nearly wordless piece that weaves a fixation on a wintry landscape with Feist's song and a sad sort of fairytale. I called Murphy in Ireland to talk about the film and learned his family was mourning the loss of a loved one. Still, he set aside time to talk about the project, about conveying emotion through silence, and the ineffable mysteries of the human mind.
I read that you're tight with Kevin Drew and Leslie Feist—is that how you became involved in the film, or were you approached before, and the friendship grew out of it?
Basically, I've been a fan of both Broken Social Scene and Feist's music for a number of years now. I went to see Broken Social Scene play in London three years ago, maybe a bit longer, and met Kevin afterwards, briefly, and we kind of got on. A year or so later, he interviewed me for Under The Radar magazine, and we just stayed on the line after the interview. He said "Listen, I'd love to send you this thing I've been thinking about." It was just before [Feist's solo album] The Reminder had come out, I still hadn't heard the record, and when I did, I thought it was just incredible. He told me about that song and said he had this idea. With the producer, Jannie [McInnes], they managed to pull the whole thing together very quickly, and all of the sudden it was "We're gonna do it, can you come to Toronto in two weeks?" And I was like, sure, let's do it. We shot it in like two days. There was never a script [laughs]. It just came about and I'm really proud of it.
Your character is interesting, clearly troubled by the goings on, stepping out for smokes, reluctant, anxious. Tell me about him.
I don't really want to talk too much about it because I think it's nicer when people take what they want from the piece. Without sounding too artsy fartsy, it's a musical poem and you can take from it what you want, so I'm loathe to kind of give away my interpretation of it. But I think he's very close to his dad, and his dad has had this loss in his life and so he's trying to facilitate his dad reconciling himself to that loss, and unusual things happen! The way Kevin spoke about it—everything is very musical, the way he talks about it—and it was all about emotion. And I love that. It wasn't at all intellectual, it was just about feelings.
Yeah, the union of the music with the film is interesting to me ... so you were highly aware of the song, stepping into the mood of the performance?
What appealed to me most about it when he told me about the idea [was that he said] this is going to be for all intents and purposes a silent movie. I think there are like four words of dialogue in the film, and I love that, the fact that you've got to act or convey emotion, just silently. It's the hardest test of any actor, I think. Obviously, music then combined with that—that's why music works so effectively in film when it's done right. It can really just magnify emotions, and people feel or can identify more clearly [with] what's happening with the characters.
Speaking of this and given the title, The Water, it's interesting you actually see no water in the piece.
[laughs] No, it's all frozen.
It's often called ice. [laughter] What's your take on the notion that water is often used to represent life, and ice its absence?
There are lots of things you can draw from it, because life [has been] suspended, shall we say, in my mother's character [played by Feist]. When stuff is frozen, it's suspended and frozen in time and all that. But again, I think people can take from it what they will, they may take nothing or they may take innumerable things. You've got to be very careful with something like this because it's so delicate really.
It really plays out like an odd dream about loss. I think I’ve had a sad, mystical dream, not unlike this after losing someone before.
Yeah, that’s a lovely way of describing it really, and I think Kevin and Leslie would be very happy with that. And also then you have the lyrics of the song, which are something completely separate as well. They’re beautiful. The mountain, and the water, and the comparison between, it’s really poetic. You put that layer on top of the music and the environment that they’re in, it’s great. And I like the way it takes time. The first time I saw it, even though the film is something like 12 minutes long, nothing really happens for like the first four. And I really like that in film. You just have to sit, and observe, and just wait for things to unfold.
Yeah, there’s a sort of magical evolution that takes place. Do you believe in magic yourself?
[laughs] Do I believe in magic? Ah, I don’t know. That’s kind of a broad question. I guess not in the kind of “pick a card, any card” type of magic. But I believe the mind is a powerful entity and I think that when the mind is affected in such a way through loss, or through love, or through fear, that something close to magic can occur.
I agree. It seems like even with this role, whether you’re playing a masked sociopath or a lovable transsexual, you have an innate calm about you, even in the diversity of the roles you play.
I’ve always been attracted to, and I’ve said this many times, people under pressure, and people in situations of pressure. And they may be normal people or they may be extraordinary people, but it’s an interesting study of what happens to a person in that situation. Or it’s interesting trying to portray that. In regards to the calm thing, I don’t know. [laughs] I’d say that people close to me wouldn’t use that to describe me.
You don’t think you’re bringing yourself into these roles?
I don’t know. I don’t want to go to far into it because you don’t want to talk it away, but you’re always bringing elements of yourself. You can’t but help do that. I think when you express yourself through music or acting, you always bring parts of yourself to greater or lesser degrees with each role, but I don’t know about the calm thing. I’ve never really dwelt or thought about [that] much really. But I’m secretly taking it as a compliment.
Good, it’s meant to be! Do you have anything on the horizon with Kevin or Feist?
We’re going to keep in touch, and I know Kevin has a couple of movie ideas. I think those guys are making a record in the meantime, but I think he’s got lots of movie ideas and he was an unbelievably natural director. I know he’d done a couple of Broken Social Scene videos, but this was something different, this is a little short film and he just got it. And from talking to him and Leslie, it’s like he’s been making and writing films in his head for years. I was so amazed by his ability to understand the way it all works. It took me a long time to grasp the nature or the language of film and he seemed to have it just naturally and that’s a real gift I think, particularly for a director, so I’d love to work with him again.
His energy is very infectious and he obviously enjoys the collective nature of music, and film also is a very collaborative form. He totally embraced that—everybody’s opinion was welcome and taken very seriously and you have to have a lot of confidence to be able to do that, I think. As for Leslie, I just can’t wait to hear her next [project], whatever she decides to do. A supremely talented lady. And I thought the performance she gave in that little film was brilliant. As I said earlier on, to be able to convey emotion without words, that’s quite something. If somebody writes you a beautiful monologue, or you have a beautiful scene and you do the words justice, you should be okay. But she had to do the whole thing completely without any verbalization and that’s something.
Yeah, it was gorgeous. I think we can leave it there, except I have to mention it’s St. Patrick’s Day. You have any plans?
No, I generally hide away on St. Patrick’s Day. The only thing I’m looking forward to is “The Simpsons” St. Patrick’s Day episode where they go to Ireland and Homer and Grandpa Simpson buy a pub that they can’t afford apparently. [It’s the first episode of the animated series to air in the U.K. and Ireland before the U.S.] So I’m looking forward to that. [laughs]
