WATCH: Previously unseen footage shows Cillian Murphy rehearsing for his first professional role 

Previously unseen footage showing Cillian Murphy rehearsing for his first professional role has been released. 

The footage shows the Cork man rehearsing in the Granary Theatre at University College Cork (UCC) for his role in Enda Walsh’s Disco Pigs. 

It shows Cillian Murphy and Eileen Walsh rehearse their roles as a “Pig” and “Runt” respectively and was filmed by Eddie Noonan, Frameworks Films, in the late 1990s.

In 1996, Murphy made his professional debut as a Cork teenager in Corcadorca’s production of Enda Walsh’s Disco Pigs. 

At the time, Cillian was a law student at University College Cork, a member of UCC Dramat and in a band called The Sons of Mr Green Genes.

Originally set for a short run, Disco Pigs toured the world to great acclaim and was turned into a film, also starring Murphy.

The Cork man previously said of the production: “Everybody knows Disco Pigs changed everything for me. It was the first thing I ever did, and it formed me totally.” 

“Just out of curiosity, I auditioned for it. It had a success in the theatre world and we toured. I realised there was there was another option….Theatre was a new hope for me,” he had told The Irish Times.

Cillian is currently in Los Angeles ahead of this year's Academy Awards. 

He is nominated for the best actor prize for his role as J Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist described as the father of the atomic bomb, in Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic.

The Cork-born star is among the favourites to take the prize, having already picked up the best actor gong during the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and Bafta awards.