There’s “high and tight,” and then there’s the haircut Cillian Murphy must get—with an electric razor, shaved sometimes daily, during four-month stints over the last decade. It’s a cut he used to find ridiculous, but now finds . . . tolerable (if not sometimes unflattering), and yet it’s also one so popular because of him that men from Cork County to Orange County need only two words to copy: they sit before their barbers and bark, “Give me the Peaky Blinders!”
The cut, a “texturized crop,” requires the sides shaved to the skin, the top left long, and the front pushed forward. Before its recent revival, the cut was worn by late Victorian English street gangs; long hair was thought disadvantageous for fights, also lice. Murphy is wearing the cut now, though a more mature variation, with the sides a bit longer, his hair a touch grayer. “It’s a slightly less severe cut this year,” explains the Irish actor, who is currently on set filming the final season of Peaky Blinders—the BBC series named after the textured crop gang, the gang named after their peaked hats and razor blades (for blinding, not shaving) sewn therein. Murphy plays the gang’s leader, Thomas Shelby, sporting perhaps the most severe version of the haircut. “Last [season] it was a zero blade. So that was [shaved] every day,” Murphy says blankly.
Murphy, who lives in Dublin, has been in Manchester since January finishing the series. He was originally due on-set last March. The plotline is, by now, near cliché: everything shuts down, everything gets delayed, everyone goes home. For the Irish, lockdown meant only grocery trips and nothing more than a mile or so from one’s doorstep. Murphy, however, wasn’t too upset.
“I actually was really into it; I love not working,” he says with a guilty smile. The expression is peak introvert—the face perking at the thought of canceled plans—and no one relishes downtime more than Murphy, who makes a point to take six months to a year off between projects. The break allows him to be a “normal civilian,” walk around, go to the shops. “I find the ancillary aspects of being an actor or being in showbiz dull and draining,” he says summarily.
The actor’s privateness is well known among fans and reporters. He’s never in the news. Fellow Dubliners don’t bother him. He doesn’t do too many interviews. “My life is very simple,” he explains. “I read a lot of books. I watch a lot of movies. Listen to a lot of music. Walk the dog. Cook. Be with my family.” He describes himself as “boring.” He is always on time.
While the past year granted Murphy some extended introversion—marking the longest break for the actor since he began 25 years ago—the year ultimately delayed a transition into Murphy’s next career phase. That phase will open this month with Murphy’s return to sci-fi horror in A Quiet Place Part II. The film, originally set to premiere on March 8, 2020 will now, more than a year later, become the biggest blockbuster to hit theatrical release since. Murphy will help usher in what hopefully becomes a return to movie-going normalcy.
Then Murphy will retire his most iconic role in Peaky Blinder’s final season—due out later this year, or early next. He has played the series lead, a tortured Thomas Shelby, since 2013, a role he never imagined would span six seasons, a reported 3,000+ nicotine-free cigarettes, and hundreds—hundreds—of haircuts. He’ll be getting his last “textured crop” very soon. He’s not sure how to feel.
“It’ll be very strange,” Murphy says about retiring Shelby. “I think probably when I stop, like a few months in, I’ll have to process the fact that I may not play him again. I’ll have to deal with that. But right now, I’m just still in it.”
And “it”—this year—has been more than enough to handle.
