..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

If any actor’s future was bright enough to require wearing shades, it would be that of Cillian Murphy. Unfortunately, sunglasses would obscure the 30-year-old Cork native’s most remarkable physical asset: baby blues so piercing they could cut glass.

Indeed, viewers coming to Murphy’s work by way of The Wind That Shakes the Barley might be sufficiently distracted to momentarily lose track of Ken Loach and Paul Laverty’s intense re-enactment of events that led to Ireland’s bitter civil war.

When asked if any director had attempted to neutralize the effect, by asking him to wear tinted contact lenses, Murphy said with a laugh, "No, not yet. I’ve suggested that on occasion, but, I guess it hasn’t been appropriate.

"As an actor, I can’t become too aware of my looks. Blue eyes worked pretty well for Paul Newman, though."

Frank Sinatra, too, if memory serves.

In the half-dozen years since he turned heads in Kirsten Sheridan’s adaptation of Enda Walsh’s disturbing teen drama, Disco Pigs, Murphy has been directed by Goran Paskaljevic (How Harry Became a Tree), Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, the upcoming Sunshine), Anthony Minghella (Cold Mountain), Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins), Wes Craven (Red Eye) and Neil Jordan (Breakfast on Pluto), as well as Loach. And, yes, Sheridan is the daughter of Irish director Jim Sheridan, with whom she shared a co-writer credit on the Oscar-nominated, In America.

Murphy has also held key roles in Girl With a Pearl Earring, Intermission and the BBC mini-series The Way We Live Now. Before arriving in Los Angeles to promote The Wind That Shakes the Barley, he starred in John Crowley’s production of Love Songs --alongside Kristen Johnston, Michael McKean and Neve Campbell -- in London’s West End.

There’s nothing like starting out one’s career in high-profile films, directed by several of the acknowledged giants of the international cinema. While denying he’s been spoiled by such good fortune, Murphy does admit to enjoying certain fringe benefits.

"When you work with directors who are as talented as those guys are, and have been doing it for as long, you just hope to learn something from them and improve as an actor," said Murphy, who briefly considered a career in law. "I never dreamed I’d work with directors of that quality so quickly. Conversely, it sets the bar so high, you become very choosey … less willing to work with just anyone.

"I’m very proud of the work I’ve done with them."

Neither does he seem concerned about booking movie assignments back-to-back, simply to keep busy … or maintain appearances of inaccessibility.

"If there’s nothing floating around in the film world, then, the ability to do a play is brilliant," he observes. "You’re exercising that muscle eight times a week, in front of a live audience. That’s better than doing a shitty movie, just to be working.

"It benefits your longevity as an actor to perform in a wide range of roles. The people I admire -- like Helen Mirren -- pop up in all sorts of roles, and sometimes aren’t recognizable. That, to me, is what it means to be actor."

The Wind That Shakes the Barley is set in 1920 Cork, with Irish republicans still reeling from the executions of 16 leaders of the failed Easter Uprising. British forces had executed three mayors affiliated with the fledgling IRA, declared martial law through much of the country, destroyed property, interned and tortured rebels and employed mercenary police and vigilante forces, including the Auxiliaries and dreaded Black and Tans.

Although vastly outgunned, Irish guerrillas took on the Brits in "flying columns." Their support among the mostly rural population grew in direct proportion to the viciousness of the Black and Tans, and the increasing success of rebels to perpetrate deadly ambushes and prison breaks.

Murphy plays a young medical student, Damien, who calls off his return to school in London after witnessing atrocities committed by the Black and Tans. Damien decides to join his brother, Teddy (Padraic Delaney), a leader of a flying column.

The rebellion proves to be more vexing than the British expected -- after centuries of iron-fist dominance and quelled uprisings -- and they exit Ireland, leaving behind a treaty that divided the country physically and politically. In the ensuing civil war, Damien finds himself pitted against Teddy over their different strategies to govern the emerging nation. Such tragic situations as this have produced fodder for storytellers, playwrights and filmmakers from the beginning of recorded time, and Teddy and Damien’s is no less a tear-jerker.

"You don’t have to go into this movie armed with an in-depth knowledge of Irish history … it engages at a human level, as well as a political level," Murphy argues. "In America, the IRA has a certain reputation, but it’s pretty much that of the Provisional wing, which was active from the early ’70s, until just recently. This movie describes the IRA’s genesis, which was by a mandate in the wake of the general elections, which they won.

"That should be as revelatory to American audiences, as it was to young people in my generation and younger students. It’s not a period that’s dealt with in any great detail in our history books and curriculum, so it’s very heartening that the movie was taken to heart by the people in Ireland."

This, despite the fact that neither the movie, nor history books, whitewash the tactics used by the flying columns in their confrontations with the Black and Tans, and harshness reserved by rebels for Brit sympathizers and informers. IRA militia leaders openly declare that the same violence meted out by the Brits will be employed by the rebels, if only because it‘s the only language the occupiers seem to understand.

"The violence against the citizens by the British isn’t well known, nor that the guerrilla tactics would provide a template for liberation movements around the world," the London-based actor said. "These freedom fighters -- revolutionaries, whatever you want to call them -- were ordinary men. My character was a medical student, but there also were farm laborers … normal people, who got the British out of Cork, and, then, forced them to the negotiating table.

"Then came the civil war, which wasn’t a very glorious time in our history, and, because it was so painful, hasn’t been dealt with in any great detail."

As such, the decision to open The Wind That Shakes the Barley on the same weekend as mugs of green beer will be hoisted -- and subsequently heaved -- in honor of St. Patrick, feels a tad ill-considered. ("It’s really an American thing," Murphy suggests.)

Murphy cautions against taking history lessons from movies, but adds, "Maybe it will encourage more people to examine what happened during this time, and what is happening today."

Although Loach isn’t one to use a sledgehammer to drive home political points in his socially realistic movies, it won’t be difficult for audiences to draw parallels between the guerrilla resistance to British occupation of Ireland and what’s currently happening in Iraq. Few observers outside the White House and 10 Downing Street believe civil war can be averted within minutes of the departure of British and American forces, which itself was hastened by an increasingly bloody insurgency.

"Ken’s a proletarian guy, and he definitely has an agenda with his films," Murphy allows. "But, in what I thought it was a very wise decision, we never talked about how it would resonate, or what people would draw from it. We were making a film about a very specific time in Irish history, but it was a turning point in British history, as well, in that it signaled the demise of the Empire.

"Paul and Ken could see the parallels very clearly, but they never discussed them with us. I think that would have confused things for the artists, who primarily want to be true to the characters they portray."

After being awarded the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme D’Or, Loach said, "We live in extraordinary times, and that has made people political in a way they maybe weren't in the previous four, five, six years. The wars that we have seen, the occupations that we see throughout the world … people finally cannot turn away from that.

"It's very exciting to be able to deal with this in films, and not just be a complement to the popcorn."

British lawmakers saw the portrayal of its troops and their mission in Ireland quite differently, however. Editorial writers in the Tory press saw the film as being rabidly "anti-British."

"I'm sure Sinn Fein will love it, but to say that it is somehow anti-British is just plain wrong," Murphy responded, as well, at the time. "There was an occupying force and all the atrocities they committed were well-documented by Labor party commissions. It's a complex situation, but I think Ken and Paul addressed the historical complexities."

Neither have all the wounds healed back home.

"We had to be very sensitive," he said, during our interview at the Beverly Wilshire. "I’m from Cork, and it’s in my DNA. I had a cousin who was killed by the Black and Tans, just as almost everyone in Cork has some direct or indirect connection to it.

"Ken’s biggest strength is his humanity. All of his films, time and time again, show people in times of adversity … and he’s always for the underdog."

Working with Loach and Boyle also gave Murphy a lesson in just how different two directors can be.

"Ken shoots his films chronologically," said the actor, whose versatility is revealed in nominations for Golden Globe, BAFTA, British Independent, MTV and Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror awards. "You don’t get the scripts well ahead of time, and he doesn’t say ‘action’ or ‘cut.’ There’s none of the paraphernalia of normal films.

"He works within the community wherever he’s shooting the movie. It’s a very unique experience."

Jordan, he adds, "has a unique voice and is totally fearless. It was a huge challenge for me personally, and the experience more than lived up to my expectations.

"Neil’s a visionary and a true artist. It can appear to be organized chaos, but he’s got this vision in his head, and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever considered.

"They’re both very different sorts of visionaries."

It may require a trip to the Netflix, Amazon or Facets websites to witness Murphy and Elaine Cassidy‘s breakthrough performances in Disco Pigs. Adventurous adults and teens with a passion for dramas about growing-up different will find the effort especially rewarding.

March 16, 2007

- Gary Dretzka

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