Quotes

I'd probably have been wealthier if I had stayed with law, but pretty miserable doing it.

It's basically lazy journalism if they say I'm the new Colin Farrell. This thing about heat, it's all just hot air.

[on breaking the Irish typecast] You're an actor who's Irish, not an Irish actor. And you shouldn't be limited by your extraction.

[on auditioning for Batman Begins (2005)] Well, the first part of the question, I think if you ask any male if you really want to get into a real suit, that was a dream come true, obviously, and then just to get to work with Chris, even for that little test, was amazing as well; and then, I don't know, he saw something in it that he thought maybe he could use for the other characters.

[on accepting the role of the Scarecrow in Batman Begins (2005)] I can have a bit of fun with it, too, because my only motivation really is being bad. I love doing proper dramatic character studies, but it's also good to have a bit of fun, dress up and stuff.

Well, we are doppelgangers. - On that Howard Stern nearly played the Scarecrow, Cillian's role in Batman Begins (2005), in an early attempted adaptation.

If there's an opportunity to work with Ken Loach, you can't really turn that down. He's made some of the finest films of the past 25 years. Whether you like or dislike his movies, there's never a bad performance in them, ever. There's none of the bullshit. There's no trailers, no nonsense, no pampering. It's a breath of fresh air.

It's easy to take the check, you know, but if you want to have any longevity, just take things that have artistic merit in them. I want to do quality. If it's good telly, I'll do it. If it's good theater, I'll do it.

I've a very, very close-knit group of friends from Ireland. They and my family are the most important things to me.

[on his role as a terrorist in Red Eye (2005)] I don't know if anyone will ever sit beside me on a plane again.

Journalists have a myopic view of your versatility. They're like "You only play the creep".

If you behave like a celebrity, then people will treat you like a celebrity, and if you don't, they won't. There's not much to write about me in the tabloids.

Today, I pick and choose my films very carefully. There's nothing I've done so far that I can't talk about with commitment and passion.

But you can make wonderful films within a small, independent environment and you can make wonderful films in Los Angeles, within the studio system. You hear a lot of actors saying, "I'd never go to Hollywood and sell out." But if it's a good script and a good director, why not? To shut oneself off completely is, I think, very limiting.

Too many filmmakers today are trying to put their work into a box. I can't stand that! Making movies is a lot of work. Let's take some risks.

[on his character in Breakfast on Pluto (2005)] To me, someone's sexuality is usually the least interesting thing about them. It's secondary. The only reason it becomes a source for dramatic storytelling is because people have made such an issue out of it.

I'm not worried about being pegged, but it's important for me to knock down any perceptions of me that are out there.

I think there's such a thing as a performance gene. If it's in your DNA it needs to come out. For me, it originally came out through music, then segued into acting and came out through there. I always needed to get up and perform.

I've always felt that the less the public knows about you, the more effective you can be when you go to portray someone else.

[Asked whether he finds himself drawn to dark characters] For me, drama is conflict. I'm not interested in a good man's life. I'm interested in contradiction. I'm interested in pressure, I'm interested in duress. All the great works of art, or film or literature, in my opinion, have elements of those in them. Because who wants to write about happy people?

[2004] Don't fucking call this article Murphy's Law!

[2004] A lot of this success-if it happened to me when I was 18-well then, I don't know. But I'm a bit older, and I've been there, and it's not that alluring to me now. When I act, I want it to be the most important thing that I do, but when I'm not doing it, I don't give a shit about it.

[2004, on how he prepared for his role in Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)] We went to this abattoir in Luxembourg and chopped shit up. It was my idea. [Why would a vegetarian take it upon himself to hack swine into little bits?] Have you ever seen someone smoking on film who doesn't smoke? They always do something dumb, and immediately it's obvious they don't smoke. [he laughs] It's not method acting-it's just so, when I come on screen, people don't go, 'Hang on a minute, that guy's never carried a pig before!' Otherwise some butcher in the audience will stand up and rip on the whole movie.

[2004] I don't consider myself copy. Most magazines just want to know who you're fucking or who you're slagging off. My objective is simply to make good art.

[2004] I spend a lot of time at home, actually. I don't really do the party or the premiere thing-unless it's my own, and then it would be rude not to go. It's not a very hectic life at all, really.

[2017, on his concerns about the Irish education system, which he feels did him few favours, focusing as it does on multiple disciplines] You get these really bright and creative kids who get eaten up by that system. If they [my own children] come out from education with some degree of self-confidence and self-awareness, that's enough. And, hopefully, they will make some good friends. Initially, I was the reluctant one when it came to moving back, but I was quite quickly convinced. Irish people are brilliant and you have to go away and come back to realise it.

[2017, on moving back to Ireland after having lived in London for 14 years] [It is a common Irish narrative] to move away in your 20s to England or America to establish yourself and find your calling, and then come home. I always thought that it was retrogressive, but now I realise that it is just natural. You want to be with your parents as they get older and you want your children to be aware of their culture. [Did your boys rebel when they were told they'd be leaving their schoolfriends behind?] We promised them a dog so that was just fine. I am the only one that walks it, of course.

[2017] A director, I forget who, told me that it takes 30 years to make an actor. And I believe that. You have to learn your craft, learn your trade - and also you have to live a life and experience things. I have been doing this for 20 years now so, hopefully, in another 10 years I will be an actor. Honestly, if you stick around long enough, don't make an idiot of yourself and aspire to make good work, people go: 'All right. He is here to stay.'

[2017, on struggling with press duties and avoiding TV chat shows until a few years ago] I was very uncomfortable with this. [gesture at journalist's tape recorder and notepad] The reductive nature nowadays of most journalism is very frustrating. [One newspaper report on the most recent series of Peaky Blinders focused on the baring of his bottom.] It is getting absurd with the dumbing down, the level of questions you get asked. Seriously, though, if someone asks a stupid question, you can only give a stupid answer or appear arrogant. But all of this stuff I tolerate a lot better now. Patience is something that as a young man I didn't have - when waiting for parts to arrive or waiting for people to behave as I wanted them to.

[2017] Having just turned 40 I hope I've achieved some sort of wisdom or patience.

I suppose professionally, as an actor, empathy is the most powerful tool you have, really, in trying to understand a character and trying to understand other people's motivations and so on.

I just adore Max's [Max Porter] writing and the thing his writing does for me, which Claire Keegan's writing does as well - and it's something I've always chased down in writing - is something that has an actual visceral effect on you, an emotional effect. I remember reading Foster, Claire's short story, I remember actually crying reading the book and having to put my hood up on the train to try to hide, I was so embarrassed.

[2005] I couldn't deal with the Hollywood bullshit without My wife. I wouldn't be here without her. I wouldn't be doing anything without her.

[2019] I have an amazing wife (the Irish artist Yvonne McGuinness) and I couldn't do this without her and her understanding.