Do we like Cillian Murphy?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up, he has backed survivors' stories and a local arts project, and the record is quiet rather than loud.
Cork lad, eldest of four, with two teacher parents. He was studying law at University College Cork and not exactly shining, until the drama society and a stage role in Disco Pigs at 20 pulled him sideways. That play led to 28 Days Later, then six Christopher Nolan films and a decade as Tommy Shelby.
The peak came on 10 March 2024, when he won Best Actor for Oppenheimer, the first Irish-born winner of the award. He has since co-founded the production company Big Things Films. Even now he says ambition was never the driver and that “Curiosity was more the thing.”
Scandals are thin on the ground. No court cases or lawsuits against him turned up in the reporting we found, which is itself a result. The closest brush was in 2019, when he said he first heard of allegations against Anna director Luc Besson a year after filming ended, and said he fully supported women in that situation. French prosecutors had dropped the charges against Besson for lack of evidence.
On the harm check, nothing nasty from him on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet turned up, and we found no statements either way on Gaza. In 2023 a DeSantis campaign video used Tommy Shelby footage and critics called it homophobic. Murphy and the Peaky Blinders partners said it was used without permission and that they “do not support nor endorse the video's narrative.”
The good stuff leans toward people history ignored. He narrated a podcast of Tuam Mother and Baby Home survivors' stories and is a patron of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre in Galway. Promoting Small Things Like These, he called the Magdalene laundries a “collective trauma” for Ireland and said art can be a balm.
The recent run has been a victory lap. Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man hit Netflix in March 2026, and he told CBS he is drawn to complicated characters because “That's where good art exists, generally.” He admits promo interviews are hard going and says his fame is “just embarrassing”, which is a very Murphy thing to say.