Cillian Murphy returns to the big screen in Irish drama about Magdalene Laundry

Having just become the first Irishman to win the Best Actor Oscar, Cillian Murphy is busier than ever.

“This is the third film I’ve done since then, so it was obviously my coping mechanism,” he told Sky News at the UK premiere of Little Things Like This.

The film is set in Wexford in 1985. The film is based on Claire Keegan’s Orwell Prize-winning fiction novel of the same name, which follows coal miner Bill Furlong as he uncovers the treatment of unwed mothers sent to the Magdalene Laundry in his town.

MurphyThe 48-year-old first pitched the idea to Matt Damon, who produced the film under his production company Artist’s Equity, on the set of Oppenheimer, calling it “a bit of Manchester by the Sea meets Doubt.”

“Claire’s story was so perfect and brilliant in its brevity and in the way it captured and touched people, and I felt for us that it was our job to make a film that did justice to the novel.

“I never want to prescribe what people take from a film. I just hope they like it and maybe, just maybe, it will get them talking.”

Significantly, the film focuses on the more than 56,000 young women who were sent to Magdalene institutions “for repentance and rehabilitation” between 1922 and 1998, and “the children who were taken from them.”

In 2013, then Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny issued a public apology on behalf of the state to thousands of women who were forced to work for free and take part in prayers in Catholic workhouses.

Calling it a “disgrace to the nation”, the apology came after a report found the state was responsible for 24% of all laundromat admissions, where girls were imprisoned for numerous reasons, from poverty to pregnancy out of wedlock.

The last laundromat closed in 1996 in Dublin.

Murphy on becoming a producer

Little Things Like This is the first film from his independent production company, Big Things.

The 28 Days Later actor says he wants to continue putting storytelling at the forefront of his projects.

“I like to make films that have a human dimension first, you know, they’re interesting, but they’re about people.

“The next movie we made is also an adaptation of the novel, so we’ll see (which direction we go), but we’re really excited that this is the first movie to come out of the traps.”

Peaky Blinders and 28 Days

Speaking about his recent Oscar win for his leading role in Oppenheimer, Murphy says he still finds it surreal.

“Maybe at Christmas I’ll sit down and think about it, but nothing has changed for me. It was an amazing time, like a dream, wonderful and humble, but I haven’t understood it all yet.”

He’s already filmed a sequel to his 2002 cult classic 28 Days Later, aptly titled 28 Years Later, due out in summer 2025, and he’s currently midway through production on Peaky Blinders.

“It’s great, it’s very familiar, but it’s also different in a good way.”

“Such Little Things” is in theaters November 1st.