Murphy began studying law at University College Cork (UCC) in 1996, but failed his first-year exams because he "had no ambitions to do it".[7] Not only was he busy with his band, but he knew within days after starting at UCC that law was not what he wanted to do.[6] After seeing Corcadorca's stage production of A Clockwork Orange, directed by Kiernan, acting began to garner his interest.[7] His first major role was in the UCC Drama Society's amateur production of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, which starred Irish-American comedian Des Bishop. Murphy also played the lead in their production of Little Shop of Horrors, which was performed in the Cork Opera House. He later admitted that his primary motivation at the time was not to pursue an acting career, but to go to parties and meet women.[6]
In 2003, he played the role of Konstantine in a stage production of Chekhov's The Seagull at the Edinburgh International Festival. Murphy said he wanted to play Kontastine because the character "goes on this amazing journey through the play [...] he comes to realise there's no point being an iconoclastic writer just for the sake of it, and that the search for new forms has to have something behind it."[29]
25 Days Of Gays: Role Play (2010)
Murphy starred as Patrick/"Kitten" Braden, a transgender Irish woman in search of her mother, in Neil Jordan's comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto (2005), based on the novel of the same title by Patrick McCabe. Seen against the film's kaleidoscopic backdrop of 1970s glitter rock fashion, magic shows, red-light districts and IRA violence, Murphy transforms from androgynous teen to high drag blond bombshell. He had auditioned for the role in 2001 and, though Jordan liked him for the part, the director of The Crying Game was hesitant to revisit transgender and IRA issues. The actor lobbied Jordan for several years in a bid to get the film made before Murphy became too old to play the part; in 2004, he prepared for the role by meeting a transvestite who dressed him and took him clubbing with other transvestites.[8] The role required "serious primping" with eyebrow plucking and chest and leg hair removal,[42] and Roger Ebert noted the way that Murphy played the character with a "bemused and hopeful voice".[43][44] While lukewarm reviews of Breakfast on Pluto tended to praise Murphy's performance highly,[45] a few critics dissented: The Village Voice, which panned the film, found him "unconvincing" and overly cute.[46] Murphy was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Breakfast on Pluto[47] and won the fourth Irish Film and Television Academy Best Actor Award.[48] Premiere magazine cited his performance as Kitten in their "The 24 Finest Performances of 2005" feature.[5]
Murphy returned to the stage starring opposite Neve Campbell at the New Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End from November 2006 to February 2007, playing the lead role of John Kolvenbach's play Love Song. Theatre Record described his character of Beane as a "winsomely cranky" mentally unstable "sentimentalised lonely hero", noting how he magnetically, with "all blue eyes and twitching hands", moves "comically from painfully shy "wallpaper" to garrulous, amorous male."[54] Variety magazine considered his performance to be "as magnetic onstage as onscreen", remarking that his "unhurried puzzlement pulls the slight preciousness in the character's idiot-savant naivete back from the brink".[55]
In 2010, he made a return to theatre in From Galway to Broadway and back again, which was a stage show that celebrated the Druid Theatre Company's 35th birthday.[65] The direct-to-video psychological thriller Peacock (2010), co-starring Elliot Page, Susan Sarandon and Bill Pullman, starred Murphy as a man with a split personality who fools people into believing he is also his own wife. Christian Toto of The Washington Times referred to the film as "a handsomely mounted psychological drama with an arresting lead turn by Cillian Murphy", and noted that although Murphy wasn't a stranger to playing in drag, his work in the film set a "new standard for gender-bending performances".[66] Murphy next starred in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), playing entrepreneur Robert Fischer, whose mind is infiltrated by DiCaprio's character Cobb to convince him to dissolve his business.[67] That year, Murphy also made an uncredited cameo as programmer Edward Dillinger Jr., son of original Tron antagonist Ed Dillinger (David Warner) in Tron: Legacy.[68]
Murphy starred in Red Lights (2012) with Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver. He played Tom Buckley, the assistant to Weaver's character who is a paranormal investigator. Murphy considered working with De Niro to have been one of the most intimidating moments in his career. He remarked: "My first scene when I come to visit him my character is supposed to be terrified and intimidated. There was no acting involved. The man has presence. You can't act presence. I'll never have that. Watching him use it... when you put a camera on it, it just becomes something else."[72] The film was panned by critics and under-performed at the box office.[73][74] Murphy went on to reprise his role as the Scarecrow for the third time in The Dark Knight Rises (2012),[75] and had a supporting role as Mike in the British independent film Broken (2012). His performance earned him a British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination.[76]
Hathaway went on to star in several commercially successful films, including the comedy Get Smart (2008), the romances Bride Wars (2009), Valentine's Day (2010), and Love & Other Drugs (2010), and the fantasy film Alice in Wonderland (2010). In 2012, she starred as Catwoman in her highest-grossing film, The Dark Knight Rises, and played Fantine, a prostitute dying of tuberculosis, in the musical Les Misérables, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has since played a scientist in the science fiction film Interstellar (2014), the owner of an online fashion site in the comedy The Intern (2015), a haughty actress in the heist film Ocean's 8 (2018), a con artist in the comedy The Hustle (2019), and Rebekah Neumann in the miniseries WeCrashed (2022).
"In terms of the princess role, there is only so long that you can play those as a young lady before you start feeling really ridiculous. They are so much fun to do, I figure I might as well get the most out of them while I can. Then [I'll] go off and play all the drug addicts and the prostitutes, and all the good ones you win Oscars for a little bit later on."
Hathaway portrayed princesses and appeared in family-oriented films over the next three years, subsequently becoming known in mainstream media as a children's role model.[30] After voicing Haru Yoshioka for the English version of The Cat Returns (2002),[34] she starred in Douglas McGrath's comedy-drama Nicholas Nickleby (2002), which opened to positive reviews. However, the film did not enter wide release and failed at the North American box office, totaling less than $4 million in ticket sales.[35] The fantasy romantic comedy film Ella Enchanted (2004), in which Hathaway played the titular character, also performed poorly at the box office.[36] She had first read the book on which the film is based when she was 16, and stated that the script was originally much closer to the book but did not work as a film, and therefore prefers the film the way it became.[19] The film opened to mostly mixed reviews.[37] Hathaway sang three songs on the film's soundtrack, including a duet with singer Jesse McCartney.[38]
Hathaway starred opposite Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Ang Lee's drama Brokeback Mountain (2005). The film depicts the emotional and sexual relationship between two men married to women, Ennis (Ledger) and Jack (Gyllenhaal); she played Jack's wife, Lureen. Hathaway was originally sent the script with the role of Alma, Ennis' wife, but decided to audition for Lureen once she read the screenplay.[45] During her audition, she lied to Lee about her knowledge of horseback riding so he would cast her, but she did subsequently take lessons.[46] The film received critical acclaim and several Academy Award nominations.[47] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone believed that Hathaway "excels at showing Lureen's journey from cutie-pie to hard case", and Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote that she "provides an entertaining contrast in wifely disappointment".[48][49] Hathaway later stated that the content of the film was more important than its award count, and that making it made her more aware of the kind of stories she wanted to tell as an actor.[50] At this point, she realized that she wanted to play roles to move audiences or otherwise entertain them so much that they forget about their own lives.[5]
In 2006, Hathaway starred in David Frankel's comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada, based on the novel of the same name by Lauren Weisberger. The film featured her as a college graduate who lands a job as co-assistant to the powerful fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly (played by Meryl Streep).[8] Hathaway was "the ninth choice" for the role, citing this later as an inspiration for people to never give up.[51] To prepare for the part, she volunteered for a few weeks as an assistant at an auction house.[52] She said working on the film made her respect the fashion industry a great deal more than she did previously, though she admitted that her personal style was something she "still can't get right".[16] She and co-star Emily Blunt got so hungry on their weight-loss regimen for the film it made them cry.[53] The Devil Wears Prada received positive reviews; Roger Ebert called Hathaway "a great beauty [...] who makes a convincing career girl" and Rotten Tomatoes found "Streep in top form and Anne Hathaway more than holding her own".[54][55] The film became her biggest commercial success to that point, grossing more than $326.5 million worldwide.[56] 2ff7e9595c
Comments