Interview tease: Cillian Murphy on preferring dark material and deferring to Robert De Niro

RedEye photographer Lenny Gilmore captures Cillian Murphy (June 21, 2012)

Matt Pais, @mattpais RedEye movie critic

June 21, 2012

It will be a while before I post the full Q&A from today's interview with Cillian Murphy and writer/director Rodrigo Cortes of "Red Lights," opening July 27. For now, here are some of Murphy's thoughts about taking on lighter roles and what the actor and his director think about making conversation with fellow "Red Lights" star Robert De Niro.

On doing a romantic comedy or something else that would lighten things up from his usual roles: "It’s just a matter of taste really. I don’t say, “Don’t send me any romantic comedies” to my agent. But it’s generally the films that I enjoy watching and the stories that I enjoy telling and also reading are I guess more involved in the sort of darker side of psychology I guess. Not always, but I think in that world ’s the scope for drama tends to be greater. So if you’re talking about the end of the world and life or death, there’s more at stake than 'The Wedding Planner.'" (CM)

Why you don’t try to create long conversations with Robert De Niro: “I don’t think you fill the silences with Robert De Niro. I think you sort of defer to his status and his seniority and let the man have his time.” (CM) “Any way of impersonating him is just not saying much. If you use a couple of words to describe a complex theory, you are impersonating him.” (RC)

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