A Model for Actors to Follow

Cillian Murphy’s new movie Steve has finally arrived on Netflix, and it continues a very encouraging trend for the Academy Award-winning actor. The film centers around the struggling headteacher of a reform school in England who struggles to balance his own mental health issues with the well-being of his students. Steve has opened to strong reviews so far.

Steve marks Murphy’s second collaboration with Tim Mielants, the Belgian director with whom he worked on Small Things Like These last year. These are the only two movies Cillian Murphy has starred in since winning the Best Actor Oscar for Oppenheimer, and there’s something very admirable about the way his filmography continues to unfold.

Cillian Murphy Continues To Only Make Films He Cares About

The Academy Awards can be both a blessing and a curse. While it’s many actors’ dream to receive this ultimate recognition in the form of an Oscar, the huge amount of fame that comes with the award can often shift people’s career trajectories in underwhelming ways. Thankfully, this hasn’t been the case with Cillian Murphy at all.

By working consistently with Tim Mielants and making mature, independent dramas with important messages at their core, Murphy has proven that he’s not letting his Oscar dictate the rest of his career. He continues to make movies that he genuinely cares about, and this proves that the Oscar was never his end goal, but rather a supplementary accomplishment.

Instead of capitalizing on his newfound success to land major blockbuster projects and chase the highest-paying roles, Murphy is leveraging his Oscar win to bring awareness to films that may have otherwise slipped under the radar. It’s hard to imagine as many people would have seen Small Things Like These or Steve if they hadn’t starred a recent Oscar winner.

Murphy has recently talked about his lack of blockbuster roles following Oppenheimer, confirming that he was more interested in completing these two films than opening himself up to broader opportunities. It would have been easy for Murphy to step back from Mielants’ films, or at least delay them, but he clearly viewed them as the more important undertakings.

Speaking with Variety, Murphy said: “I just wasn’t available, so it didn’t happen. Maybe some day it will.” This is a very admirable approach towards Murphy’s newfound fame, and it’s something that many other Oscar-winners should be inspired by. Murphy has proven that an Oscar doesn’t just give you publicity; it shines a light on projects that need it more.

This is reminiscent of Murphy’s recent comments about not starring in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, despite working with him in the past – he joked about having “relief of missing out“, confessing that he was happy to step back from the spotlight for a while. The Odyssey already has a huge cast, and Murphy’s talents have clearly been more effective elsewhere.

And even though Murphy has some more high-profile films lined up for the future, he’s still sticking with projects that he clearly enjoys and has a long history with.

His appearance in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple will be a return to the franchise that kick-started his career back in 2002, and his starring role in The Immortal Man is a tribute to the show that made him an international star. He’s not just choosing the biggest projects, but rather the ones he clearly enjoys getting involved with.

Murphy Has Leveraged His Oscar Success Into A Producing Career

Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby looking calm in Peaky Blinders

Perhaps the biggest shift in Murphy’s career since his Oscar-winning role in Oppenheimer is that he’s no longer just an actor, but also a producer. He was credited as such on both Small Things Like These and Steve, and he was also named as an executive producer on Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later.

These producing credits will continue on The Bone Temple and The Immortal Man, and it’s also been confirmed that Murphy will serve as a producer on the upcoming Peaky Blinders revival. This proves that Murphy isn’t just taking roles for the sake of them – he genuinely wants to get involved with the projects and cares just as much about them.

For example, Murphy has frequently spoken about his own relationship with Steve‘s story, as both of his parents are retired teachers. These clearly aren’t just roles to him, and his status as producer is a tangible, legitimate way of proving this. He’s taken the success of his Oscars victory to forge a more hands-on approach to his filmography.

Murphy’s career is going to be a fascinating one to watch unfold over the next few years, as he clearly has an appetite to work on major Hollywood productions again but seemingly feels a responsibility to use his success as a tool to bring light to smaller, independent pictures. But as a producer, it seems Murphy can do both.