He made his professional debut in Enda Walsh 's play Disco Pigs , a role he later reprised in the screen adaptation. His early film credits include the horror film 28 Days Later , the dark comedy Intermission , the thriller Red Eye , the Irish war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley , and the science fiction thriller Sunshine He played a transgender Irish woman in the comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto , which earned him his first Golden Globe Award nomination.
Murphy began his collaboration with filmmaker Christopher Nolan in , playing the Scarecrow in The Dark Knight trilogy โ as well as appearing in Inception and Dunkirk Murphy portrayed J. In , The Irish Times named him one of the greatest Irish film actors of all time. Murphy was born on 25 May [ 3 ] in Douglas, Cork. His mother taught French while his father, Brendan, worked for the Department of Education. Murphy was raised Catholic and attended the fee-paying Catholic secondary school Presentation Brothers College , where he did well academically but often got into trouble, sometimes being suspended; he decided in his fourth year that misbehaving was not worth the hassle.
Murphy got his first taste of performing in secondary school when he participated in a drama module presented by Corcadorca Theatre Company director Pat Kiernan.
He later described the experience as a "huge high" and a "fully alive" feeling that he then set out to chase. Green Genes, which they adopted from the Frank Zappa song of the same name.
He later said the band "specialised in wacky lyrics and endless guitar solos". Murphy began studying law at University College Cork UCC in but failed his first-year exams because he "had no ambitions to do it". Murphy also played the lead in their production of Little Shop of Horrors , which was performed in the Cork Opera House. He later admitted that his primary motivation at the time was not to pursue an acting career, but to go to parties and meet women. Murphy pressured Pat Kiernan until he got an audition at Corcadorca Theatre Company , and in September , he made his professional acting debut on the stage, playing the part of a volatile Cork teenager in Enda Walsh 's Disco Pigs.
