Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy is an Irish film and theatre actor. He is often noted by critics for his chameleonic performances in diverse roles and distinctive blue eyes. A native of Cork, Murphy began his performing career as a rock musician. After turning down a record deal, he made his professional acting debut in the play Disco Pigs in 1996. He went on to star in Irish and UK film and stage productions throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, first coming to international attention in 2003 as the hero in the post-apocalyptic film 28 Days Later.

Murphy is best known for his work with director Christopher Nolan, where he appeared as the villain Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow in all three films in the Dark Knight trilogy. Murphy has also worked with Nolan on Inception and Dunkirk. In 2013, Murphy started working on a TV show for BBC titled “Peaky Blinders” as the show’s lead role, Thomas Shelby. The show is still airing as of 2020 with five highly critically acclaimed seasons under its belt A resident of London since 2001, Murphy often works in or near the city and has expressed no desire to move to Hollywood. Uncomfortable on the celebrity circuit, he customarily gives interviews about his work, but does not appear on television talk shows or discuss details of his private life with the press.

Born in Douglas and raised in Ballintemple, two suburbs of Cork, Cillian Murphy is the eldest of four children. His father, Brendan, works for the Irish Department of Education and his mother is a French teacher. Not only are his parents educators, but his aunts and uncles are also teachers, as was his grandfather. Musicianship also runs in the family, and Murphy started playing music and writing songs at age ten. In mid-2004, Murphy married his long-time live-in girlfriend, Yvonne McGuinness, an artist whom he met in 1996 at one of his rock band's shows. The couple live in northwest London with their two sons Malachy (born in 2005) and Aaron (born in 2007).

Murphy is known for being reluctant to speak about his personal life. He frequently gives interviews about his work but did not appear on a single live TV chat show, where actors customarily share information about their private lives, until 2010, when he was a guest on The Late Late Show on Ireland's RTÉ to promote Perrier's Bounty. He does not have a stylist or a personal publicist, travels without an entourage, and often attends premieres alone. Shy and private, Murphy professes a lack of interest in the celebrity scene, finding the red carpet experience "a challenge... and not one I want to overcome." He intentionally practices a lifestyle that will not interest the tabloids: "I haven't created any controversy, I don't sleep around, I don't go and fall down drunk." Murphy is friends with fellow Irish actors Colin Farrell and Liam Neeson, looking up to the latter like a "surrogate movie dad". But primarily, Murphy's close friendships are those he made before becoming a star.

Imaginative, quick and creative INTJ personality types are intellectually curious who can grasp complex problems and data, analyse them quickly and come up with solutions. They are the strategic problem solvers preferring the big picture to the mundane and set high standards for themselves and others. Getting close to the INTJ will take some time, and they may not always involve others in the decision-making process. This can make them seem slightly detached, but it is simply that the processing which takes place, (and a great deal of processing takes place), goes on inside their heads and this can make others feel a little left out.

INTJs are the deep, quick-thinking, imaginative, far sighted individuals, who have a crystal-clear view of the future, exactly how it ought to be, and they will then work logically and relentlessly to make it happen. Although quite deep and mistrustful until they have the measure of people, the INTJ loves an intellectual challenge and will be stimulated by the conceptual, the abstract and the complex. They love the complex, the new, the untried and untested. Facts and figures bore them, unless they clearly relate to something much bigger, and they will be looking to see the 'big picture,' planning for the future that they create.

Unlike an ENTJ who will happily engage in verbal jousts and so happily process their thoughts through speaking, the INTJ will be private and keep thought processes inside until they pop out perfectly formed with 'the plan of action.' This may be the first opportunity for others to even realise that so much was going on 'inside.'

INTJs make decisions based on rational logic, rather than emotion and they will be quite measured and dispassionate in their approach to other people. They generally have strong opinions, are independent thinkers, but they rarely feel the need to verbalise their thoughts, other than to come up with ‘the plan’ or ‘the answer.’ The INTJ’s dislike of the basic facts or anything that doesn’t have a wider meaning or context to them at times will work against them as they can make decisions based on their theories and concepts and they may overlook 'the obvious,' preferring to focus on the complex solution, which is where they thrive and are happiest.

Creative, complex and analytical, INTJs have intellectually curious, active minds, directed internally and their ‘N’ trait enables them to see very quickly and very clearly the interconnections between things and the longer-term implications of trends, current actions and events. They have a unique talent for analysing complex problems and issues and determining how they can be improved or solved, whether it be a small project, a simple problem or a whole organisation. However, they are strategic, as opposed to day-to-day, problem solvers preferring the innovative to anything they would see as tedious or pointless or routine. They set high standards for themselves and will be constantly looking to stretch, improve and learn, and will immerse themselves in a subject that takes their interest, so that they will quickly develop real expertise.

Being introverts, they internalise their thought processes and so are often viewed as slightly disconnected or impenetrable and difficult to understand. This is because they often leave a ‘void’ and when a void is left other people often fill the void with their own assumptions and predilections, rarely positive ones. So, one person may say “he’s not interested,” another may say “she doesn't like me,” and yet another “she is so full of herself,” all missing the point about the difficult to read INTJ who is primarily interested in intellectual issues rather than the more mundane aspects of everyday life.

Yet although introverted, when on their chosen subject, or explaining the most complex of theories, the INTJ can be like a wave of enthusiasm, lucid, passionate and engaging; but when it’s over, it’s over, they will disappear back to their intellectual pursuits, alone. The INTJ will get their thrill from proving they were right in their hypothesis, proving this to themselves, not anyone else as they are, of all the types (along with INTP), the most independent of thought and action.