Cillian Murphy on Small Things Like These and how his Irish buddies keep him humble

What's our individual responsibility when we see atrocities happening in our world? That question is the central premise of Cillian Murphy's new film, Small Things Like These, which is based on the novel of the same name by Claire Keegan.

Set in a small Irish town in 1985, the film follows Bill Furlong (Murphy), a coal merchant and father of five girls who discovers that the local convent in his community is forcing the young women in their care to live under inhumane conditions. The convent is emblematic of Ireland's real life Magdalene laundries, which were Catholic-run institutions for "fallen women" that operated from the 18th century until the last one was closed in 1996.

Murphy's character is a stoic man who carries his own sadness after seeing the way his mother was treated for having a child out of wedlock. In an interview with Q's Tom Power, the actor says Bill is dealing with several personal crises, including his unresolved grief about not knowing who his father is, the responsibility of raising his own family, and the weight of witnessing the abuse going on at the convent.

"I decided from the beginning not to play him as a hero, even though I suppose on paper you could look at it as a heroic act," Murphy says. "To me, it feels like he's actually in the middle of some sort of a nervous breakdown. You know, he can't sleep. He's sitting up at night and he doesn't talk. And that's a very familiar Irish trope: the quiet, deep-thinking Irish male."

When films work, it's really not what the characters are saying, it's how they're behaving.- Cillian Murphy

Bill has very little dialogue in the movie, which meant the Oscar winner had to primarily transmit his character's emotions non-verbally.

"I love that," he says. "When films work, it's really not what the characters are saying, it's how they're behaving and how they're sitting and how they're looking. I love characters in reflection and in repose. So it was a big, big challenge for me to try and create this character in a mostly silent way."

How his Irish friends keep him humble

With his talent for playing troubled, complex characters, Murphy has been called one of the greatest actors of all time. Earlier this year, he won the Oscar for best actor, which recognized his tour-de-force performance in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.

Despite the acclaim, Murphy's buddies in Ireland manage to keep his ego in check. He says it's the Irish way to celebrate your loved one by gently ribbing them.

"'Slagging,' we call it," he tells Power. "I mean, that is the highest form of affection, really. My brother and my best friend came over as a surprise to the [Oscars] ceremony. They were there with me and it kind of made everything OK because, you know, they were just slagging me off. It was wonderful because it's all coming from a place of real love, you know. It's the most incredible, insane, overwhelming, bizarre experience to be caught up in that. But when you have your buddies there, they're also experiencing it and they see the real you."

The full interview with Cillian Murphy is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Cillian Murphy produced by Glory Omotayo.