Cillian Murphy drops bombshell about his career path

Cillian Murphy, the man who brought TV’s most stylish gangster to life, almost swapped film sets for stadium stages before finding fame in Hollywood.

The 49-year-old actor, best known as Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders, could easily have become a rock star instead of an Oscar-winning screen icon.

Long before Oppenheimer shot him into global superstardom, Murphy was a teenager in Cork with a fierce love of music.

According to Mark O’Leary, the local musician who taught him guitar in the ’90s, his early band had serious potential.

“He had a presence about him straight away,” O’Leary told Echo Live. 

“Even in a noisy class, people noticed he was gifted.”

Once paired with a promising young bassist, the actor’s first band managed a few local shows but never hit the big time.

“That band was hovering somewhere between Fontaines D.C. and U2. He absolutely had it,” he said.

Murphy also later fronted funk-rock outfit Sons of Mr Green Genes and even landed a five-album offer from Acid Jazz Records.

But in a career-defining twist, he turned it down ditching music for acting and landing his breakthrough in Disco Pigs.

“The timing was perfect,” O’Leary added. “He was determined and knew exactly where he was going.”

Who is Cillian Murphy’s partner?

Cilian Murphy has been married to Irish visual artist Yvonne McGuinness since 2004, and they share two sons together.

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