Some actors love watching themselves. Samuel L. Jackson, for instance, is a huge fan of Samuel L. Jackson. Others can’t stand it. And then there are those who are a little picky about which films of theirs they give their time to. Cillian Murphy? He’s one of the third kind. In a new GQ profile (in a bit caught by Variety), the Oppenheimer star singles out one of the films he did watch, one that was a decent hit and has endured over the years. And guess what? He thinks it’s just kind of okay.
That film is Red Eye. Directed by Wes Craven, it was released in 2005 and it was one of Murphy’s first Hollywood movies after breaking out with 28 Days Later. He plays a charming rogue that Rachel McAdams’ heroine meets-cute on a plane. Turns out he’s a terrorist out to kill her dad, played by Brian Cox. Whoops! Murphy is delightfully evil in it, which may be one reason it’s still watched nearly two decades later. That blows Murphy’s mind.
“Oh, I know, it’s crazy!” Murphy said of its cult status. He proceeded to write it off a bit. “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.”
Murphy did weigh in on what attracted him to the role. “I think it’s the duality of it. It’s why I wanted to play it,” he said of the handsome psycho he plays. “That two thing. The nice guy and the bad guy in one. The only reason it appealed to me is you could do that…that turn, you know?”
At least Murphy’s watched it! It’s not the first time Murphy has been publicly underwhelmed by Red Eye. He spoke to Uproxx about it back in 2021, while promoting A Quiet Place Part II. Here’s a snippet of what he told Mike Ryan:
Red Eye is a good movie.
Everyone keeps f*cking saying that.
You know why? Because it’s on cable nonstop.
Really?
It’s one of those movies people will be scrolling through and wind up watching…
My point being is, Jesus, can I stop talking about that movie?
Anyway. The same isn’t true for all of his work. He told GQ that “many of my films I haven’t seen. I know that Johnny Depp would always say that, but it’s actually true. Generally the ones I haven’t seen are the ones I hear are not good.”
Elsewhere in the profile, Murphy weighs in on an unfortunate aspect of his job: going on those press tours, where you have to jet around the globe, sometimes doing five-minute sit-downs with people being nosy, fielding the same questions again and again.
“I think it’s a broken model,” he said. “The model is—everybody is so bored.” He added he was somewhat relieved that the SAG-AFTRA strike kicked off soon before Oppenheimer’s release, meaning he didn’t have to do them.
Still, it sounds like he enjoyed Red Eye more than he enjoys press tours. As of this writing, one can stream that picture on Paramount+.
Source: https://uproxx.com/movies/cillian-murphy-not-sure-why-red-eye-so-popular/
