Cillian Murphy Can't Compare Oppenheimer To Peaky Blinders (But Christopher Nolan Can)

It's part of the job description for pop culture writers and critics to read way too much into things, drawing parallels between otherwise unrelated projects or roles that others (read: normal, well-adjusted people) might not even think about. Sometimes, filmmakers and artists will actually end up agreeing with such tenuous connections. Other times, well, you have an encounter where an actor like Cillian Murphy all but laughs off the idea of comparing his performance as crime lord Tommy Shelby in "Peaky Blinders" to J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster. (I would know, since Murphy did pretty much exactly that — with extreme grace and humor, I may add — when I interviewed him for /Film prior to the film's release and asked a question about his two most famous characters.)

On the surface, at least, there does seem to be something to it. Shelby, a veteran of World War I and subsequently suffering from profound PTSD, channels all his rage and violence throughout the BBC series into regaining a sense of control that he lost forever while in the trenches. Meanwhile, Murphy and Nolan's interpretation of Oppenheimer features the brilliant scientist plagued by visions of the microscopic world and the power that he has the ability to unleash someday — an act that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

But in an interview with BBC Radio, Murphy answered a tongue-in-cheek comment comparing "Peaky Blinders" with "Oppenheimer" with a startling revelation: we can safely consider Christopher Nolan as one of us weirdos who sees the similarities between the two.

Cillian Murphy has heard it all. You can count on him to deftly deflect any comparisons drawn between Oppenheimer and Tommy Shelby with humor ("They both smoked a lot of cigarettes," he told me with perfectly deadpan delivery) or by shifting perspectives entirely, as he once did in an interview with BBC Radio. When asked which character has had more experience staring straight through the camera with one of his patented thousand-mile stares, Murphy chuckled and used the opportunity to defer to director Christopher Nolan:

"I don't know. It's funny, I don't draw any line between those characters, but someone asked me and Chris that question, and Chris said, 'No, but he's a leader, you know, he's a leader of men, like Oppenheimer was.' But it's very dangerous as the performer to ever see any overlap or similarities between characters."

One can fully understand where the actor is coming from, as their livelihood depends entirely on interpreting each and every role they accept through a unique lens. If Murphy allowed himself to start equating two individuals as vastly different as J. Robert Oppenheimer and Tommy Shelby, it's fair to say his performance would've inevitably suffered as a result. But it is interesting to hear that, first and foremost, Nolan is apparently a fan of "Peaky Blinders" and, secondly, that he doesn't mind analyzing them both as leaders — albeit with very different methods.

As "Oppenheimer" continues to take the world by storm, there will hopefully be another strong parallel between Tommy Shelby and Oppenheimer to come. Last we heard, "Peaky Blinders" is planned to end with one final adventure on the big screen. We continue to wait for more updates ... but maybe don't ask Murphy about it.