Free Fire star Cillian Murphy reckons he still has lots to learn

CILLIAN MURPHY has more than 30 films under his belt.

Not a bad tally for a man who apparently doesn’t think he’s really an actor yet.

As Cillian himself explains: “A director told me that it takes 30 years to make an actor. And I believe that.

“You have to learn your craft, learn your trade — and also you have to live a life and experience things.

“I have been doing this for 20 years now so, hopefully, in another 10 years I will be an actor.”

Persuasive, but nonsense.

Just ask any of the millions of fans who love the Cork-born actor as the cold-eyed — and unbelievably blue-eyed — Brummie gangster Tommy Shelby in BBC2’s Peaky Blinders.

“Honestly,” he admits, “if you stick around long enough, don’t make an idiot of yourself and aspire to make good work, people go: ‘All right. He is here to stay.’

“Having just turned 40, I hope I’ve achieved some sort of wisdom or patience.”

Murphy is now well enough established that, after 14 years in London, he’s been able to relocate to Dublin with his wife and children Malachy and Aran, 11 and nine.

But did his boys rebel when they were told they’d be leaving their schoolfriends behind?

“We promised them a dog so that was just fine. A black Labrador duly arrived, though I am the only one that walks it, of course,” he laughs.

“Initially, I was the reluctant one when it came to moving back but I was quite quickly convinced. Irish people are brilliant and you have to go away and come back to realise it.”

Murphy plays an Irishman in his latest film, Free Fire, who is bidding to conclude an arms deal in a Massachusetts warehouse during the late 1970s.

Murphy’s character, it is implied, is a member of the IRA.

“Obviously, that was the political backdrop,” he says. “That was the context — that’s why Irish fellows were out in America buying guns. But it is not a political film in any way.”

When shots are fired, tension explodes into violence and a feature-length shootout ensues.

“The film is unique,” says Cillian. “The director spoke about it to me at our very first meeting all those years ago and I was very taken with the idea of making a film that is one long gunfight.

“What we tried to do was something relatively unusual, shoot a film in one location, set it in real time and hopefully make something compelling.

“When you set something in the 70s, you add something to it with the clothes, the soundtrack and all that, it’s pretty funny.

“It was also great fun — we were just hanging out, dressing up and shooting guns all day.”

When he’s not starring on the big or small screen, Cillian can usually be found on stage.

He says of acting: “I have not been interested in anything else.

“I know I am old-fashioned but I don’t want to bring out a fashion line, I don’t want to bring out an album.

“I just want to do the work as best as I can and if that effects change for somebody, then that is great.

“I don’t want to change the world.”

Free Fire is in cinemas now.