Cork's Cillian Murphy to grace cover of GQ

CORK actor Cillian Murphy will grace the cover of GQ magazine’s March issue and discuss his experience working with Christopher Nolan.

The interview will also see the Oscar-nominated actor delve into why he does not watch his own films and has stopped taking photos with fans.

Murphy, 47, said that Nolan once had his mother deliver a script for an upcoming film to him.

“Every previous Nolan script had been dropped off by Nolan or one of his family members,” he said.

“So, like, it’s been his mum who’s delivered the script to me before. Or his brother, he’ll go away and come back in three hours.

“Part of it has to do with keeping the story secret before it goes out. But part of it has to do with tradition.

“They’ve always done it this way, so why stop now? It does add a ritual to it, which I really appreciate.”

Murphy said that working on a Christopher Nolan set feels like a “private, intimate laboratory”.

He said: “Even though [Nolan] works at a tremendous pace, there’s always room for curiosity and finding things out, and that’s what making art should be about, you know?

“There’s no phones but also no announcement, everybody just knows. And there’s no chairs because he doesn’t sit down.

“Sometimes a film set can be like a picnic. Everyone’s got their chairs and their snacks and everyone’s texting and showing each other f******, you know, emojis or whatever.”

Murphy says his life changed for the better after he stopped taking photos with fans.

“I don’t do photos,” he said. “Once I started doing that, it changed my life. I just think it’s better to say hello and have a little conversation.

“I tell that to a lot of people, you know, actor friends of mine and they’re just like, I feel so bad. But you don’t need a photo record of everywhere you’ve been in a day.” 

Murphy gained worldwide acclaim for his portrayal of J Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist known as the father of the atomic bomb, in Christopher Nolan’s 2023 epic biopic.

He will feature in the March issue of British GQ, which will be available on February 27.