Cillian Murphy, The Wind that Shakes the Barley

For Cillian Murphy, the luck of the Irish has a literal meaning when it comes to starring in Ken Loach's prize-winning The Wind That Shakes the Barley. It's because, he tells us, he's from Cork, where Loach's riveting drama of Ireland's struggle for independence in the 1920s takes place. Loach works in sequence, casts realistically, and never lets his actors know what's happening to their characters until the day they film. Unlike any of his Hollywood counterparts, Murphy - a rising star thanks to Red Eye, Batman Begins, and Breakfast on Pluto - embraced these restrictions.

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