Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#229
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Cillian Murphy represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 25 years in, and Cillian is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Cillian Murphy appears in 38 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Cillian. Stillness used as pressure — a face that lets an audience do the worrying for him. The Dark Knight is the clearest case: a film rated 9.5 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for science fiction, horror, thriller. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with John Krasinski, Nia DaCosta, Tom Harper and others, Cillian Murphy helped set a standard other performers now audition against. 1 Academy Award confirm what the films already argue.
The Dark Knight (2008) as Scarecrow · Inception (2010) as Robert Fischer, Jr. · Oppenheimer (2023) as J. Robert Oppenheimer
Career snapshot
Ranked #229 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
38
2002–2027
Career length
30 yrs
Active since 1996
Academy Awards
1
Competitive wins
Oscar nominations
1
Career total
Highest Nutevio score
9.5
The Dark Knight
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
9.0
The Dark Knight
Most frequent director
Christopher Nolan
9 films together
Longest collaboration
9×
With Christopher Nolan
Most common genre
Drama
21 titles
Average runtime
1h 55m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
1
Career total
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.4
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.8
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2000s
7.2 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight, The Edge of Love — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.2
Across 13 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2000s
7.1
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2020s
7 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. A Quiet Place Part III, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
Most productive era
2010s
16 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.37 films | 6.78 films | 7.56 films |
| Action | 8.83 films | 7.49 films | — |
| Thriller | 7.44 films | 6.910 films | 5.94 films |
| Comedy | 6.63 films | 6.31 film | — |
| Sci-Fi | — | 9.31 film | — |
| Crime | 8.14 films | 7.22 films | 7.21 film |
| Romance | 6.54 films | — | — |
| Horror | 7.12 films | 5.61 film | 4.83 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
Career begins
1996Working from 1996
The start of the professional record — years before the catalogue picks the story up.
First film in Nutevio
200228 Days Later
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Jim.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance
2008The Dark Knight
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
2023Oppenheimer
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
First Academy Award nomination
2024Oppenheimer
Best Actor — the moment the industry started writing the same sentences our editors had been writing.
First Academy Award
2024Oppenheimer
Best Actor. Confirmation rather than revelation, which is how the best of these usually arrive.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Emmett.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
38 of 38 films
as J. Robert Oppenheimer
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Scarecrow
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Robert Fischer, Jr.
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as J. Robert Oppenheimer
Directed by Christopher Nolan
as Robert Fischer, Jr.
Directed by Christopher Nolan
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 37 titles · 42 total credits · active 2002–2027
A Quiet Place Part III
2027 · Emmett
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2026 · Jim (uncredited) · Executive Producer
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
2026 · Tommy Shelby · Producer
Steve
2025 · Steve · Producer
28 Years Later
2025 · Executive Producer
Small Things Like These
2024 · Bill Furlong · Producer
Kensuke's Kingdom
2024 · Dad (voice)
Oppenheimer
2023 · J. Robert Oppenheimer
A Quiet Place Part II
2021 · Emmett
Anna
2019 · Lenny Miller
Free Fire
2017 · Chris
Dunkirk
2017 · Shivering Soldier
The Party
2017 · Tom
Anthropoid
2016 · Josef Gabčík
In the Heart of the Sea
2015 · Matthew Joy
Transcendence
2014 · Agent Donald Buchanan
Peaky Blinders
2013 · TV · Thomas Shelby · Executive Producer
The Dark Knight Rises
2012 · Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow
Red Lights
2012 · Tom Buckley
Broken
2012 · Mike Kiernan
In Time
2011 · Raymond Leon
Retreat
2011 · Martin
Inception
2010 · Robert Fischer, Jr.
Peacock
2010 · John Skillpa / Emma Skillpa
The defining work
#1
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer (2023)
Performance score9.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. J. Robert Oppenheimer gives Cillian Murphy a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Scarecrow
The Dark Knight (2008)
Performance score9.1
The Dark Knight asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Scarecrow is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Robert Fischer, Jr.
Inception (2010)
Performance score8.9
Inception asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Robert Fischer, Jr. is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer (2023)
Performance score8.7
Oppenheimer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. J. Robert Oppenheimer is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as J. Robert Oppenheimer
Start here. Oppenheimer is the clearest statement of what Cillian Murphy does — accessible, 180 minutes, and rated 9.1 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Cillian at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Same director as Oppenheimer, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Inception (2010)
Same director as The Dark Knight, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Inception (2010)
Same director as Inception, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Same director as Inception, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Christopher Nolan
Director
9 films together
Notably The Dark Knight
Danny Boyle
Director
2 films together
Notably 28 Days Later
Tim Mielants
Director
2 films together
Notably Small Things Like These
John Krasinski
Director
2 films together
Notably A Quiet Place Part II
Michael Caine
Actor
2 films together
Notably The Dark Knight
John Crowley
Director
1 film together
Notably Intermission
Peter Webber
Director
1 film together
Notably Girl with a Pearl Earring
Anthony Minghella
Director
1 film together
Notably Cold Mountain
Neil Jordan
Director
1 film together
Notably Breakfast on Pluto
Wes Craven
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Eye
Ken Loach
Director
1 film together
Notably The Wind That Shakes the Barley
John Maybury
Director
1 film together
Notably The Edge of Love
Joseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together
Notably TRON: Legacy
Carl Tibbetts
Director
1 film together
Notably Retreat
Andrew Niccol
Director
1 film together
Notably In Time
Rodrigo Cortés
Director
1 film together
Notably Red Lights
Wally Pfister
Director
1 film together
Notably Transcendence
Ron Howard
Director
1 film together
Notably In the Heart of the Sea
Ben Wheatley
Director
1 film together
Notably Free Fire
Luc Besson
Director
1 film together
Notably Anna
Tom Harper
Director
1 film together
Notably Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
Nia DaCosta
Director
1 film together
Notably 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Morgan Freeman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Christian Bale
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Aaron Eckhart
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Gary Oldman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Monique Gabriela Curnen
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Ron Dean
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Chin Han
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Nestor Carbonell
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Eric Roberts
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Dark Knight
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Christopher Nolan
Director
9 films together · 8.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 9 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Dark KnightDanny Boyle
Director
2 films together · 7.1 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
28 Days LaterTim Mielants
Director
2 films together · 6.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Small Things Like TheseJohn Krasinski
Director
2 films together · 3.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
A Quiet Place Part IIKen Loach
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Wind That Shakes the BarleyTom Harper
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal ManNeil Jordan
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Breakfast on PlutoNia DaCosta
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
28 Years Later: The Bone TempleAndrew Niccol
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In TimeAnthony Minghella
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cold MountainRon Howard
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
In the Heart of the SeaLuc Besson
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AnnaJoseph Kosinski
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TRON: LegacyPeter Webber
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Girl with a Pearl EarringWes Craven
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red EyeBen Wheatley
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Free FireRodrigo Cortés
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Red LightsJohn Maybury
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Edge of LoveJohn Crowley
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
IntermissionWally Pfister
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TranscendenceCarl Tibbetts
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RetreatSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Performer
Cillian Murphy
Where this journey starts
Director
Christopher Nolan
9 collaborations, averaging 8.6
Film
The Dark Knight
Their highest-rated film together (2008)
Performer
Michael Caine
Shares the frame in The Dark Knight
Film
Interstellar
Where Michael goes next, and where you can too
Performer
Matt Damon
Three steps from where you began
Recognition
10 wins
4 wins · latest 2024
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer · as Actor
Inception
The Dark Knight
2 wins · latest 2024
Oppenheimer · as Actor
Oppenheimer · as Actor
2 wins · latest 2024
Oppenheimer · as Actor
Oppenheimer · as Actor
2 wins · latest 2024
Oppenheimer · as Actor
Oppenheimer · as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Dark Knight
as Scarecrow
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Oppenheimer
as J. Robert Oppenheimer
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Oppenheimer
as J. Robert Oppenheimer
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
The Dark Knight Rises
as Dr. Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Oppenheimer
as J. Robert Oppenheimer
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Cillian Murphy has known it for a long time.”
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
“They won't fear it until they understand it. And they won't understand it until they've used it.”
“You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”
“An idea is like a virus. Resilient. Highly contagious.”
“Why so serious?”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.7 | 8.9 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #6 of 681 | #2 of 681 |
| Awards on file | 4 recorded | 4 recorded |
| Oscar wins | 1 | 2 |
| Oscar nominations | 1 | 6 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.3 | 9.3 |
| Genres | Drama, History, Thriller, Sci-Fi | Sci-Fi, Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
| Directors | Christopher Nolan | Christopher Nolan |
| Performance DNA | Screen presence, Transformation, Charisma | Transformation, Screen presence, Rewatchability |
| Career timeline | 2008–2023 | 2006–2014 |
| Most iconic role | J. Robert Oppenheimer — Oppenheimer | Professor Brand — Interstellar |
| Most rewatchable film | The Dark Knight | The Dark Knight |
| Filmography | 3 catalogue films | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Inception, The Dark Knight
Shared directors
Christopher Nolan
Shared collections
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked, Thriller Movies, Drama Movies, Top 100 Mind-Bending Movies, Best Heist Movies, Action Movies
Collaborators in common
Christopher Nolan · Morgan Freeman · Christian Bale · Heath Ledger · Aaron Eckhart · Maggie Gyllenhaal · Gary Oldman · Monique Gabriela Curnen
Michael Caine edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
25 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Editor's Icon
Awarded
Named by our desk for a body of work we return to when we need to explain what screen acting is for.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
21 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Inception
as Robert Fischer, Jr.
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Dark Knight
as Scarecrow
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Kensuke's Kingdom
as Dad (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Inception
as Robert Fischer, Jr.
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Dark Knight
as Scarecrow
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Anna
as Lenny Miller
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Kensuke's Kingdom
as Dad (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Oppenheimer
as J. Robert Oppenheimer
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 10 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
director
Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked
Includes Oppenheimer, Inception, The Dark Knight
Read the collectiongenre
Action Movies
Includes Inception, The Dark Knight
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Includes Oppenheimer, Inception
Read the collectiontheme
Best Heist Movies
Includes Inception, The Dark Knight
Read the collectiongenre
Drama Movies
Includes Oppenheimer, The Dark Knight
Read the collectiongenre
Best Action Movies
Includes Inception, The Dark Knight
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Michael Caine
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
David Krumholtz
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Florence Pugh
Works with the same directors — Christopher Nolan
Have your say
Community
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