Featured Image Credit: Dreamworks Pictures
Topics: Cillian Murphy, Netflix, Film
Mia Williams
A thriller featuring Cillian Murphy is back on Netflix, but the actor himself isn’t a fan of it.
After winning Best Actor at the 2024 Academy Awards for his role in Oppenheimer, it’s hard to imagine we would be talking about any other film that features the Irish star for a long time.
Right now, he's one of the biggest actors on the planet and became best known for playing the infamous Tommy Shelby in the hit TV series, Peaky Blinders.
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That being said, some of his earlier roles are less-known, and one that Murphy himself isn’t too happy about has resurfaced on Netflix.
We are, of course, talking about his appearance as a terrorist in Wes Craven’s 2005 flick Red Eye.
Murphy plays Jackson Rippner, a handsome smooth-talker who is also a domestic terrorist.
It’s taking ‘bad boy’ to a whole new level.
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In the plot, he has kidnapped the father of a woman he is sitting next to on a plane in the hopes he can coerce her into his plan to assassinate the head of US Homeland Security.
Rachel McAdams played the female passenger, and Brian Cox portrayed her dad.
It has a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which begs the question why Murphy has such a dislike of the film?
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In an interview with GQ, it was surprising to him that it was the movie that most Americans know him for.
He said: “I think it’s the duality of it. It’s why I wanted to play it. That two thing, the nice guy and the bad guy in one.
“The only reason it appealed to me is you could do that [snaps his fingers] turn, you know?
“I love Rachel McAdams and we had fun making it. But I don’t think it’s a good movie. It’s a good B movie.”
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And it’s clear that McAdams reciprocates the love Murphy has for her, as she said in the interview: “They say the nicest people sometimes make the best villains.”
Recalling her time on set with the star, she added: “We’d listen to music and gab away while doing the crossword puzzle, which he brought every day and would graciously let me chime in on.
“I think the number one question I got about Cillian way back then was whether or not he wore contact lenses.”
In case you do want to take a trip down memory lane and watch it, it’s out there on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.