Cillian Murphy is one of the big additions to the world of A Quiet Place Part II, but for him it wasn’t just another gig. It was a project he greatly respected. Interviews with the Irish actor and DC vet that were conducted over a year ago — before the pandemic hit, delaying the sequel’s release — are only now starting to hit, and in some he’s confessed to writing a gushing letter to John Krasinski, the series’ director, co-writer, and actor, before getting cast. But he never sent it.
The story seems to first appear in a post by Hollywood.com released last March. “I saw it in the cinema with my two sons,” Murphy he told WENN. “It knocked me out emotionally. It ticks all the horror-thriller boxes.” It stuck with him so much that he did what fans have long done to stars and filmmakers they admire.
“After I saw the movie I was so blown away by it I had to write to John Krasinski, because I didn’t know him and I hadn’t worked with [his wife] Emily [Blunt] before,” he said. “I was just big fans of both of them. I wrote this email to John saying how much I enjoyed the film and congratulating him on it. Then I chickened out and I never sent it! I was like, ‘You don’t need to be doing that. He’s a busy man. He doesn’t need to hear from some actor!’
A year later Murphy wound up getting a call from Krasinski, seeing if he was interested in the sequel, which Murphy called “a lovely sort of serendipity or simpatico that he was thinking of me for that part.”
The story was brought up in a Hollywood Reporter interview that was done around the same time but which has only now been published. Murphy was asked about reaching out to fellow actors, to let them know when they’ve done something above and beyond.
“I think it’s a healthy thing amongst artists to reach out and to compliment your colleagues on their work, whether you know them or not,” Murphy told THR. “I don’t tend to do it so much with actors and screenwriters because it can look like you’re just petitioning for a job, and that’s probably the reason I didn’t send it to John.”
He continued:
But I have done it many times with musicians, writers and novelists, just to say, “Look, you don’t know me, but I wanted to say your creation had a big impact on me. It was a serious piece of work and thank you for that.” It’s important for us to do that because a lot of this industry is set up around representatives, and I think, sometimes, the sort of artist-to-artist interaction can be lost.
THR also asked Murphy about one of his other jobs: playing Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s beloved Batman films. It wasn’t the role he was initially asked to play. In fact, he auditioned for the Caped Crusader himself. His screen test was made available back in 2019, which Murphy said is “not something I’d really wish to see more than once.” But he has no beef losing the part to Christian Bale.
“I don’t believe I was close to landing that role. The only actor who was right for that part at that time, in my estimation, was Christian Bale, and he absolutely smashed it,” Murphy said. “So, for me, it was just an experience, and then it turned into something else. It turned into that character, Scarecrow, and it turned into a working relationship with Chris. So I think back very, very fondly on that time, but I never, ever, ever considered myself Bruce Wayne material.”
(Via Hollywood.com and THR)