Cillian Murphy was ‘genuinely terrified’ while filming his latest film as it marked a bit of a career first.
The star has been in the biz for nearly three decades now but decided his role in Netflix’s Steve needed to be approached in a way totally different to his usual method.
With the movie’s titular character written specifically for Murphy by one of his long-time collaborators, Max Porter, it follows a day in the life of the headteacher at a last-chance reform school in the 90s.
Also starring Simbi Ajikawo (AKA Little Simz to music fans), Tracey Ullman and Jay Lycurgo, Steve is directed by Tim Mielants to create a film that’s chaotic, intense, full of passion and utterly moving. Championing Murphy’s ‘almost limitless capacity for deeper investigation’ in his performances, Porter wanted Steve to challenge the actor.
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“I really wanted to see what it would be like to write film dialogue for someone knowing that it was in their own accent, and [with] no costume, nowhere to hide, no haircut, nothing,” the writer explains to LADbible.
“So I was really interested in the kind of challenge for him as an actor, having pushed him in that direction a little bit before.”
Murphy did have some personal influences that could help him with the role though, as he notes a ‘shared interest’ in those doing ‘exceptionally difficult, important work’ that we ‘don’t really hear about’.
“Both my parents are retired teachers, and my grandfather was a headmaster,” he adds, “my aunties and uncles – all of them, are educators.”
And yet, the Irishman decided not to tap right into his own influences and dig into research for the role of Steve.
“I didn’t, genuinely, I had a slightly different approach,” Murphy explains. “I normally go deep into that stuff – that’s my MO normally.”
However, in playing Steve, the actor wanted to ‘try and make it like he’s just been thrown into this world and he’s just desperately trying to stay afloat’.
“So I was kind of like that a little bit as a performer, just being buffeted by everything all of the time by new information, new challengers,” Murphy says as he shot everything just trying to ‘be responsive’.
“I really didn’t plan anything in how I would play it and I was really, genuinely, terrified by it because I’ve never done that before.
“And there was no accent, there was no physical transformation, it was none of that stuff. It was just: be in the vortex of it and see what happens.”
Well, LADs, what happened? A f**king brilliant performance of a headteacher that’s caring, non stop and brilliant but that’s also battling his own struggles and addiction.
Warning: The below content contains strong language
“It turned out to be really emotional work,” Porter adds. “I think his portrayal of someone struggling with addiction issues is astonishing. And I’m hearing responses to the movie from addicts and recovering addicts that is the case – it’s the best depiction they’ve seen on screen of that game they are playing with themselves and the visibility of it to others. And that extraordinary darkness but also high-functioning, brilliant people who are struggling with this.”
For other members of the cast, such as Lycurgo, research played more of a role. Ahead of his performance as struggling teen Shy, he was able to get ‘first person communication’ with the boys his dad works with in an alternative education unit.
And for Ajikawo (who plays newer teacher Shola), it was a bit of ‘time travelling’ to channel the personalities of her youth workers and how they made her feel as a young person: “Being in that space, and how I felt like I could communicate with them and how I felt like they just received me with open arms.”
STEVE will release in select cinemas 19 September and globally on Netflix 3 October.
Topics: Cillian Murphy, Netflix, Film, TV and Film
Jess Battison