Cillian Murphy Swaps 'Oppenheimer' Bombast for Raw Drama in 'Steve'

Post- Oppenheimer , Cillian Murphy has used his Oscar cache to get the films he wants made.

In the two years since winning best actor for playing “father of the atomic bomb,” Murphy has turned to a pair of intimate, kitchen-sink dramas: Small Things Like These , which opened the Berlin festival last year, and Steve , set for its world premiere in Toronto.

Both projects are miles away, in tone and subject, from Oppenheimer . Small Things , an adaptation of Clare Keegan’s novel, sees Murphy as a coal seller in a poor Irish village who finds the moral courage to help a woman in need. In Steve , adapted from Max Porter’s novella Shy , he plays an overworked teacher at a school for at-risk teens going through what may be the worst day of his life.

Post- Oppenheimer