keeping up with the joneses
Highlights MOVIES
MOVIES
CILLIAN MURPHY
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES
Bridget Jones paved the way for modern single women, but how would the original Bridget have fared in today’s world?
THEN
Cork-born Murphy has captivated audiences in everything from Brummy gangland drama Peaky Blinders to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and Inception. He talks to Katie Gatens about his role in WWII thriller Anthropoid
NOW
What is Anthropoid about? It’s the true story of the assassination in 1942 of Hitler’s third-in-command, Reinhard Heydrich, by Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, two Czechoslovakian resistance soldiers. It’s an old-fashioned film in that for the first half an hour you’re getting to know the characters and understanding the situation and then it just explodes, and you see the true horror of the war and the aftermath. What drew you to the project? Sean Ellis, who wrote, shot and directed Anthropoid, had lived with the story and tried to get it made for 15 years. I had watched Sean’s first film called Metro Manila, which, if you haven’t already, you absolutely should see. As soon as I read the Anthropoid script it was a no-brainer.
DIARY
that the film would be an authentic retelling of the story. We visited St Cyril and St Methodius Cathedral, where the resistance fighters hid and fought the Nazis. The resistance spent six hours in the church holding off Nazi troops. You can still see the bullet holes in the walls and where the grenades went off. We couldn’t film there because we had to blow up the place, so instead we built a full-size replica of the church in a studio outside of Prague.
How did you prepare for the role of Jozef Gabčík? The story is a huge part of Czech history – Kubiš and Gabčík are national heroes. At some point as an actor you have to abandon the facts and focus on the character you’re playing. It’s not a documentary – you’re making the film for entertainment, so you’re allowed a bit of artistic licence. I’m not interested the idea of ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ – I’m interested in human behaviour. Humans are neither good or bad. I wanted to show the full depth of the human character.
3
CAREER MILESTONES
DISCO PIGS (2002) Murphy found his first role at his local theatre in Cork. The play went on to tour around the world and the actor gave up his law degree and rock band.
BATMAN BEGINS (2005) Christopher Nolan asked Murphy to audition for the role of Batman but offered him the part of The Scarecrow, with Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader.
PEAKY BLINDERS (2013) The BBC series about the rise of a Birmingham gang shortly after WWI was a critical success and has been commissioned for a fourth and fifth series.
Portrait: Rick Guest. Additional words: Ellenor Blakeman; Mark Eccleston
What was it like on set? We shot most of the film in locations in Prague, where the incidents actually happened. The director was very keen
“I’M NOT INTERESTED IN THE IDEA OF HEROES AND VILLAINS”
like being in a fairy-tale city.
Was that your first visit to the Czech Republic? I’ve been to Prague once before, on a lads’ drinking holiday in my 20s, so not a lot of cultural activities went on then! But it was brilliant to go back there to work. The people are so friendly. The city is still intact because Czechoslovakia was occupied during WWII. Just walking around – it’s
What’s next for you? I've finished filming Dunkirk directed by Christopher Nolan with Tom Hardy and Mark Rylance. The fourth season of Peaky Blinders starts shooting in the spring.
Watch Anthropoid on board now
Bridget recorded her deepest thoughts and fears in a leatherbound book, which, aside from when she accidently left it open, was for her eyes only.
Bridget is Snapchatting and tweeting her way through her life and loves like a whirling dervish. Naturally, she has her own hashtag: #wantonsexgoddess
HOME
1990s Bridget lived alone in a sizeable flat near London Bridge within staggering distance from Borough Market. She also took black cabs to get there.
On a PR assistant’s salary, it’s all about a flatshare in zone 9. Black cabs home have been replaced by night Tubes and splashing out on the occasional Uber. MEN
Flirting with the boss or being stuck with the last single man standing at her parents’ parties were a necessary reality of being unmarried back in the 1990s, as available men were few and far between. Rejection came in the form of an answering machine that wouldn’t blink.
Today’s Bridget has developed a clear case of RSI from trying to find a suitable date among the tiger pictures on Tinder, Happn, Bumble, et al. Rejection comes copiously from being ‘left-swiped’ or ‘ghosted’, when a potential partner simply disappears off the radar.
FOOD
Calorie-counting was Bridget’s special talent, despite knowing the many conflicting rules of the major fad diets – Atkins, Hay, South Beach (she tried them all). And it was never quite enough to achieve that super-skinny look she craved.
Today it’s all about the Instagram health queens. Bridget spends hours making an egg-white frittata by Deliciously Ella before breaking into the Häagen-Dazs at midnight. She’s still in giant Spanx, though. Some things never change.
Watch Bridget Jones’s Baby on board now
ba.com
MOVIES
CILLIAN MURPHY
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES
Bridget Jones paved the way for modern single women, but how would the original Bridget have fared in today’s world?
THEN
Cork-born Murphy has captivated audiences in everything from Brummy gangland drama Peaky Blinders to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and Inception. He talks to Katie Gatens about his role in WWII thriller Anthropoid
NOW
What is Anthropoid about? It’s the true story of the assassination in 1942 of Hitler’s third-in-command, Reinhard Heydrich, by Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, two Czechoslovakian resistance soldiers. It’s an old-fashioned film in that for the first half an hour you’re getting to know the characters and understanding the situation and then it just explodes, and you see the true horror of the war and the aftermath. What drew you to the project? Sean Ellis, who wrote, shot and directed Anthropoid, had lived with the story and tried to get it made for 15 years. I had watched Sean’s first film called Metro Manila, which, if you haven’t already, you absolutely should see. As soon as I read the Anthropoid script it was a no-brainer.
DIARY
that the film would be an authentic retelling of the story. We visited St Cyril and St Methodius Cathedral, where the resistance fighters hid and fought the Nazis. The resistance spent six hours in the church holding off Nazi troops. You can still see the bullet holes in the walls and where the grenades went off. We couldn’t film there because we had to blow up the place, so instead we built a full-size replica of the church in a studio outside of Prague.
How did you prepare for the role of Jozef Gabčík? The story is a huge part of Czech history – Kubiš and Gabčík are national heroes. At some point as an actor you have to abandon the facts and focus on the character you’re playing. It’s not a documentary – you’re making the film for entertainment, so you’re allowed a bit of artistic licence. I’m not interested the idea of ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ – I’m interested in human behaviour. Humans are neither good or bad. I wanted to show the full depth of the human character.
3
CAREER MILESTONES
DISCO PIGS (2002) Murphy found his first role at his local theatre in Cork. The play went on to tour around the world and the actor gave up his law degree and rock band.
BATMAN BEGINS (2005) Christopher Nolan asked Murphy to audition for the role of Batman but offered him the part of The Scarecrow, with Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader.
PEAKY BLINDERS (2013) The BBC series about the rise of a Birmingham gang shortly after WWI was a critical success and has been commissioned for a fourth and fifth series.
Portrait: Rick Guest. Additional words: Ellenor Blakeman; Mark Eccleston
What was it like on set? We shot most of the film in locations in Prague, where the incidents actually happened. The director was very keen
“I’M NOT INTERESTED IN THE IDEA OF HEROES AND VILLAINS”
like being in a fairy-tale city.
Was that your first visit to the Czech Republic? I’ve been to Prague once before, on a lads’ drinking holiday in my 20s, so not a lot of cultural activities went on then! But it was brilliant to go back there to work. The people are so friendly. The city is still intact because Czechoslovakia was occupied during WWII. Just walking around – it’s
What’s next for you? I've finished filming Dunkirk directed by Christopher Nolan with Tom Hardy and Mark Rylance. The fourth season of Peaky Blinders starts shooting in the spring.
Watch Anthropoid on board now
Bridget recorded her deepest thoughts and fears in a leatherbound book, which, aside from when she accidently left it open, was for her eyes only.
Bridget is Snapchatting and tweeting her way through her life and loves like a whirling dervish. Naturally, she has her own hashtag: #wantonsexgoddess
HOME
1990s Bridget lived alone in a sizeable flat near London Bridge within staggering distance from Borough Market. She also took black cabs to get there.
On a PR assistant’s salary, it’s all about a flatshare in zone 9. Black cabs home have been replaced by night Tubes and splashing out on the occasional Uber. MEN
Flirting with the boss or being stuck with the last single man standing at her parents’ parties were a necessary reality of being unmarried back in the 1990s, as available men were few and far between. Rejection came in the form of an answering machine that wouldn’t blink.
Today’s Bridget has developed a clear case of RSI from trying to find a suitable date among the tiger pictures on Tinder, Happn, Bumble, et al. Rejection comes copiously from being ‘left-swiped’ or ‘ghosted’, when a potential partner simply disappears off the radar.
FOOD
Calorie-counting was Bridget’s special talent, despite knowing the many conflicting rules of the major fad diets – Atkins, Hay, South Beach (she tried them all). And it was never quite enough to achieve that super-skinny look she craved.
Today it’s all about the Instagram health queens. Bridget spends hours making an egg-white frittata by Deliciously Ella before breaking into the Häagen-Dazs at midnight. She’s still in giant Spanx, though. Some things never change.
Watch Bridget Jones’s Baby on board now
ba.com
