Cillian Murphy dishes on his trendy Peaky Blinders haircut

Cillian Murphy, in real life, looks nothing like Tommy Shelby his steely-eyed Peaky Blinders alter-ego with the cropped-on-the-sides haircut who heads the English crime family at the heart of the 1920s-era Netflix drama.

Cillian Murphy, in real life, looks nothing like Tommy Shelby — his steely-eyed “Peaky Blinders” alter-ego with the cropped-on-the-sides haircut who heads the English crime family at the heart of the 1920s-era Netflix drama.

And that’s a good thing, he says.

“At the moment I’ve got long hair and a mustache, so I walk around pretty incognito,” says the Irish-born actor, 41. “It’s when you get the haircut that people start shouting at ya. When I don’t have the haircut I can get the bus quite unmolested.”

There’s a reason for all the “shouting” at Murphy: Season 4 of “Peaky Blinders” wrapped last month in the UK (on BBC Two) with nearly 4 million viewers — a record for the series, which also enjoys worldwide popularity thanks to its streaming home on Netflix (Season 4 premiered last month.)

“It’s nuts,” says the soft-spoken Murphy. “I’m just constantly surprised how [‘Peaky Blinders’] continues to grow. Sometimes with these longform shows they tend to plateau, or dip, for a season, but ‘Peaky’ seems to have incrementally gotten stronger and I’m really proud of that. It’s a testament to [writer/creator] Steven Knight.”

Murphy says the series, originally commissioned for one six-episode season, gradually began to catch on “like some sort of osmosis. When the second [season] came along it got into that zeitgeist-y kind of thing and by the third [season] people were walking around dressing as Peaky Blinders and getting the haircuts and listening to the [soundtrack] music.”

The show’s first three seasons tracked the Shelby family’s evolution from local (Birmingham) gangsters to a national force legitimized as Shelby Company Ltd. after dispatching their many enemies, including Inspector Campbell (Sam Neill).

(The term “peaky blinders” refers to the caps, worn by the Shelby men, which have razor blades stitched into their brims — used to blind or maim enemies. The series is based on a real Birmingham gang, caps and all, from the early 1900s.)

Season 4 finds the family at odds: Tommy’s brothers Arthur (Paul Anderson), John (Joe Cole) and Finn (Harry Kirton) seem lost, as does family matriarch Polly (Helen McCrory) and her grown son, Michael (Finn Cole). “I think they’re at their lowest ebb in Season 4,” says Murphy. “In the family’s eyes Tommy has betrayed them and blackmailed them … they’re all just fractured and living their own lives, and no one’s really comfortable in their own lives. But the family only works as a unit — Tommy on his own is not strong enough, Polly on her own is not strong enough — but as a unit they can sustain. This outside force in the guise of [American gangster] Luca Changretta (Adrien Brody) forces them to come back together and to fight …. the biggest threat they’ve ever faced.”

When asked, Murphy says he’s “unsentimental” regarding a particular moment or scene that’s resonated for him over the show’s run. [“Peaky Blinders” returns for Season 5 in 2019.]

“I don’t keep scripts or costumes or call sheets. The arc is always about moving forward,” he says. “From an actor’s perspective, I only work [on ‘Peaky Blinders’] four months a year and then I have a year off, so I have a long time to do other things” (including a role in the movie “Dunkirk”).

“When people meet me in the public arena they’re terribly disappointed,” he says. “I’m not moody and distant like Tommy … and I think people are genuinely underwhelmed when I’m such an unremarkable person in real life — but I’m quite happy about that.”

“Peaky Blinders” Season 4 now on Netflix

ncG1vNJzZmimqaW8tMCNnKamZ2Jlfnl7j2pmam9fmLatuMiapWalpae9qcWMnaCsoJWoerC6jKGgrGWkp7KvsNhmp56Zm656o7jIp5ueqqNitaK10ZysrWc%3D

 Share!