Tadg Murphy doesn’t remember much about the airing of Sally Rooney’s extraordinarily successful series Normal People. In fact, he doesn’t remember about 2020 at all.
There’s good reason: The Dublin-born actor and his partner, writer and director Anna Shiels-McNamee, had a baby son, Ryan, to care for.
“I wasn’t sleeping much. I remember normal people is coming and I remember it being a comforting thing to watch,” he says.
43-year-old appears in highly anticipated follow-up series Ordinary people, conversations with friends. The same creative team behind this series, which also includes director Lenny Abrahamson.
The story centers on two Trinity College Dublin students and former lovers, Francis (Alison Oliver) and Bobby (Sasha Lane), at the wedding of famed writer Melissa (Jemima Kirke) and “pathologically inactive” actor Nick (Joe Alwyn). get confused. ,
Murphy plays Derek, one of Melissa and Nick’s bohemian middle-class friends, who join four while traveling to Croatia on vacation with his wife Evelyn (Salle Matu Garnet).
Rooney has been called the voice of his generation for his insightful portrayal of twentysomethings. However, according to some of the actors in this series, it seems that their portrayal of the thirties is not as rounded.
Kirke (37) told daily Telegraph Last month: “As I was finally reading the book, I was thinking, ‘This is a marriage written from the perspective of a 22-year-old.’ I don’t think it’s good or bad. His writing is beautiful but so are the moments Come when I had to struggle to get some work done.”
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Murphy seems to share that sentiment. “I remember thinking that the old characters were a little thin,” he says.
“I told Lenny that” [our first] meeting because it was a concern, obviously. He said that’s why he wanted to cast me because he thought I was the character and would add a little bit more to Derek.
He is definitely a character. He talks to me via Zoom from his home in Sutton, his long hair tangled in a top knot. He is unselfishly honest and direct.
Despite my initial reservations about the older characters, filming the series seems like a pleasure; Three weeks overlooking the Adriatic in the ancient city of Hvar.
He describes Alwyn as “an angel man” and former girls Actress Kirke as “the best freak on earth”. He knows that saying everything was hunky-dory on set can sound a little, well, boring.
“I know, it’s pretty f**king boring… I wish I could have said there was one person who was a real pain in the hole, but if there was such a person it was probably me.”
normal people Midas was the touch; Everyone and everything that appeared on the screen became an event. For example, Connell’s gold chain garnered 150,000 followers on Instagram and was even described as “definitely on course to win a BAFTA in itself”.
this must have been somewhat intimidating chat with friends Given that it may well follow the same trajectory.
good hands
“Not at all… you think you’re in good hands,” Murphy says. “I’m kind of giving the past s*** what people think about how a show is going. I think that whatever’s going to do really well is never good, and whatever I do Seems he does the full sh**e that well.
I ask for examples and he laughs and says it’s probably best not to get into the specifics. maybe.
normal people resonated with audiences when it aired; For some it brought back memories of their own formative years. For others, who were meant to live the college life but found themselves constantly isolated in lockdown, it began to represent something else.
Murphy is a keen kite surfer and has spoken to some of the twenty-somethings “Out on the Water” about Rooney’s book and series.
“He felt it was speaking directly to his experience,” he says. “It was like true romance for them, and it really connected as they were single during the pandemic. It was almost like a social life they could imagine and connect with. ,
Murphy began acting when he was in secondary school, when one of his teachers, Torleak O’Brien, noticed his potential. He became involved in school productions and went on to study drama at Trinity College’s Samuel Beckett Center.
Upon graduation he was called ‘one to see’ and performed on stage at the Gate, Abbey, Royal Court and the Young Vic. He also acted in TV shows like Vikings And hospitaland movies including boy eats girls And Alexander, Over the years, their workload has increased dramatically. he was in the sky series brassicGuy Ritchie’s Manu’s anger And currently shooting a horror film by Damien McCarthy in West Cork.
He also played the role of Eric Blaze Eye in the movie Raktbeej. the northman (“It was a tough job – I was in the woods at midnight in my nineties, Dancing with the Men”) and will star in an upcoming BBC Western with Emily Blunt English,
under pressure
“Someone told me that when you have kids, that baby is born with a piece of bread under their arm,” he says. “So I was broke and had no work. And Ryan came along and it went non-stop… I guess because you have to pay your rent, and you’re under pressure,” he says.
There is pressure to pay rent, he says, but he hasn’t taken every job that comes his way.
“I really care about my work, and I really care about the people I work with, but I started saying no to things I don’t usually say… Time is much more precious to me now.”
Murphy’s career also took a turn when he stopped trying to hide his partial blindness.
At the age of 13, his right eye was badly damaged in a bow-and-arrow fight. He spent a month in the hospital and eventually lost one eye.
For years he tried to hide it, wearing a prosthetic that perfectly matched his seeing eye.
“I was subconsciously hiding my eye the whole time, covering it with my hair,” he says.
But when he met his partner, Anna, she asked what he was hiding, and his attitude began to change. on tv series black sail He was fitted with a slightly yellow prosthesis, as the character was blind. She decided to continue wearing it after the shoot; It made him feel like he was being more authentic: “I’m like ‘This is who I am.
Losing an eye at such a young age seems like a potentially disastrous ordeal, but, as a child, he was taken aback.
“You would believe it was painful, but it wasn’t because you get so much attention,” he says. “And I’ve had so much craziness with it over the years. I always thought of it as a force to be reckoned with.”
It was only years later that he realized the trauma and hurt it caused him and his family. Eventually he was forced to face the injury when his son was born.
“I guess that’s what happens. If you’re lucky enough to be in love with your child, you can’t hide from yourself any more,” he says. “You want to be honest and truthful with them, and how can you do that when you’re in denial about something yourself?”
‘Talk to Friends’ is on Wednesday at 9.35 pm on RTE One