The first movie Cillian Murphy became obsessed with

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Sun 30 March 2025 18:45, UK

When he was a teenager, future Oscar winner Cillian Murphy was always certain what he wanted to be when he grew up. Instead of dreaming of becoming a Hollywood leading man or treading the boards on-stage, though, he had ambitions of plying his trade on a very different stage. You see, until he was 20 years old, Murphy wanted to be a musician. This means he didn’t become fanatical about movies until slightly later than other actors, although there was one 1970s classic that obsessed him just like it did an entire generation of kids.

Over the years, the Oppenheimer star has spoken about several movies he would count as favourites. Jerry Schatzberg’s Scarecrow and Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets were two of his most formative films from the period when he truly began to realise the possibilities of cinema. Murphy even told Rotten Tomatoes that Scarecrow was the film that inspired him to pursue acting. He revealed, “I rented this film by mistake when I was 15 with my brother. They told us it was a scary movie. It pretty much made me want to be an actor. Al Pacino will break your heart. And Gene Hackman will break your other heart.”

As a proud Irishman, Murphy next named Neil Jordan’s The Butcher Boy as a favourite, arguing that it is both the best Irish film and Irish novel of the past several decades. “Twisted and funny and dark,” Murphy mused. “Pat McCabe and Neil Jordan are masters.”

Naturally, though, Murphy wasn’t watching these mature cinematic visions as a child. Instead, as a five-year-old, he was taken to the cinema by his parents to see the re-release of a seminal 1977 sci-fi classic that blew the minds of an entire generation. “I did at least grow up absolutely loving Star Wars,” Murphy confirmed, to the surprise of absolutely no one. “I was never into the Star Trek movies or the series, really.”

“I am that age,” Murphy later told Deadline as part of its ‘Films That Lit My Fuse’ series. “I’m that generation. I remember being completely transfixed by it, having all the figurines and the spaceships and everything.”

Even when he was a kid, though, Murphy claims he knew that he didn’t imprint upon Star Wars so strongly because of its thrilling plot or groundbreaking special effects – though those things undoubtedly helped. Instead, he insisted, “It was the characters. It’s always been the characters, for me. I care less about plot; I care more about character. I just fell in love with Han Solo, like I think all kids my age did. I would dress up like him going to birthday parties and stuff like that.”

Overall, Murphy felt George Lucas’ genre-defining classic was “so alluring, and it looked incredible, and it sounded incredible. It was unlike anything that I had ever seen, and I still have a real affection for those movies. It’s been a great joy showing them to my kids because I have two boys.”

These days, Murphy’s Star Wars fandom isn’t anywhere near as strong as it was when he was young. In fact, it’s fairly unlikely that he’s an avid watcher of the new movies, and he probably doesn’t even know what Andor or The Mandalorian is. Indeed, when it comes to sci-fi, Murphy has admitted that his adult tastes lean more toward the likes of Alien, 2001: A Spacey Odyssey, and Solaris. His childhood self will always have that love of the galaxy far, far away, though.

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