Silent knight

CILLIAN Murphy isn’t going to answer the question. “Did you get invited to do a cameo in the final Batman?” he’s asked. It’s a sneaky, trick question because the air of secrecy surrounding Christopher Nolan’s third Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, has greater security than a royal visit.

No one is saying anything. Including Murphy, the Irish actor who made an impression as Dr Jonathan Crane, alias The Scarecrow, in Batman Begins and then reprised the role in The Dark Knight.

“It’s coming out in July isn’t it, so we don’t have long to wait,” he replies cheekily.

So he’s saying he’s not saying – is that right?

“Listen, people are so impatient these days aren’t they? People on the internet and fans. I understand why. Because everybody is anticipating that film and other films like it,” he says.

“But isn’t the beauty of it going into the movie not having read the script and not having seen footage from the shoot and just looking at it as it is meant to be? Chris (Nolan) is very much about that and I am very much about that.”

He does reveal he was considered for the Batman role that went to Christian Bale. Not that he has any feelings about not getting that role.

“I don’t have nostalgia. Nostalgia ... you have got to look forward in this business and I am lucky to be involved in this amazing trilogy, and also I didn’t really fill the Bat suit. You need to be able to fill a Bat suit.

“So I could never look back and say ‘Dammit!’. He (Christian) has done a phenomenal job. The thing about parts is if someone does it well you can’t see someone else in the role.”

He has every right to keep silent about The Dark Knight Rises because he’s here to talk about another film, Red Lights, a psychological thriller in which he and Sigourney Weaver play investigators of paranormal phenomena who expose frauds and fakes in the world of mind-readers, ghost hunters and faith healers.

Setting out to show up a legendary blind psychic (played by Robert De Niro) might not be the wisest decision they’ve made.

Murphy read a lot on the subject, including books by a famous sceptic James Randi. “I went to Vegas to look at the more showbiz aspects of it because I think De Niro’s character is kind of an amalgam of the faith healers, the kind of showbiz Copperfield, Criss Angel thing and the sort of TV evangelist. He’s like all of those mixed together,” explains the actor.

“I got to meet Copperfield briefly. There you go if you’re talking about presence, That guy has got some energy, it’s kind of mad and interesting. They harness that energy or personality that they have and just make it into a showbiz thing.

“I don’t mind the showbusiness aspect of it (psychics), that’s harmless really. But the stuff that gets dark is when people who are vulnerable, or sick or have lost somebody and they start throwing money at these guys and they will put aside all rational thought and reason and logic. When these guys prey on these people, it’s very scary I think.”

Murphy remains completely sceptical about such matters. “I am kind of boringly rational.

I have never seen anything that can’t be explained, Maybe I am too involved in life to be worried about these things.”

He didn’t come across anything to make him doubt. “I did this other film, Sunshine, which was about religion and science so I’ve been in this world. I spent a lot of time with these scientists.

I really believe that we should be curious and always open but in order for something to be taken seriously there has to be empirical evidence. You can’t just claim something.”

Murphy works happily on both sides of the Atlantic counting 28 Days Later, Red Eye, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, In Time, Girl With A Pearl Earring and Breakfast On Pluto among his credits.

“I never make a distinction between doing a film in Hollywood and doing an independent film. It’s just a story, it has always been for me the story. The constants are that it should challenge me and the story should always be a story worth telling,” he says.

‘WHETHER I’m doing a film or TV or theatre is immaterial. And whether it has a ginormous budget or a tiny budget is immaterial, it’s how you use those resources.

I have no plan or strategy. I have no idea what is going to come in the door next. I don’t say, ‘I have got to do an Irish film or an American film or do a play’. It’s just what happens.”

Red Lights offered the chance to work with acting giants Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver, about whom he finds it very hard to talk without resorting to cliches along the lines of a dream come true.

“Even before I dreamt about being an actor I would have watched his movies and Sigourney’s.

They would have been heroes of mine, so to actually be in a room working with them was ridiculous. But I’ve had the pleasure and the great luck to work with some incredible actors over the years and you have to observe and learn and take something from it and try and become better yourself. I will never ever forget it that’s for sure.

“I guess the most outstanding thing for me was that they still had this joy in it after all these years. A real concentration and immersion in it. For De Niro, it seems to be all about the detail of it. It is very small and very precise.

He finds it through the takes and builds it. And Sigourney, it’s a huge amount of research, a lot of discussion.”

• Red Lights (15) is now showing in cinemas.