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The new season of Peaky Blinders premieres Friday (June 10) on Netflix, so we're taking the opportunity to get to know its charismatic lead. Cillian Murphy plays his cards close to his chest and doesn't give too much away in interviews, but here are 10 things you may not know about the talented Irishman. 
1. Before he began focusing on acting, he wanted to be a rock star.
Murphy sang and played in several bands during the 1990s, including jazz-funk group The Son of Mr. Green Genes. They were popular enough to be offered a record deal and interviewed on Irish TV, as you'll see below.

Discussing his music career with The Guardian, Murphy said recently: "We did pretty well, but I'm happy it didn't work out. I don't think I'd have stayed friends with the guys in the band and I still am good friends with them. All bands fall out. Unless you're Coldplay, you get signed, used up, and spat out. At least as an actor you can make decisions on your own. That five-person dynamic in a band is traumatic."
2. He now has his own music festival.
Well, to be precise, Murphy is a co-curator of Sounds from a Safe Harbour, a festival that takes place every other year in his hometown of Cork. It's billed as a "festival of music, dance, arts, and conversation... taking place in intimate venues across Cork city," which sounds quite lovely, right?
3. He gave up being vegetarian when he was cast in Peaky Blinders.
This decision was motivated by his desire to bulk up to play tough guy Tommy Shelby. "I was vegetarian for about 15 years, but it was never a moral decision," Murphy told Mr. Porter. "It was more that I was worried about getting mad cow disease. For the first series of Peaky Blinders, they were anxious that I shouldn't look like a skinny Irish fella, and my trainer recommended meat."
4. He auditioned to play Batman in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.
It didn't work out, obviously, but Murphy managed to land the villainous role of Scarecrow instead. "I don’t believe I was close to landing that role," Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter. "The only actor who was right for that part at that time, in my estimation, was Christian Bale, and he absolutely smashed it. So, for me, it was just an experience, and then it turned into something else. It turned into that character, Scarecrow, and it turned into a working relationship with Chris [Nolan]. So I think back very, very fondly on that time, but I never, ever, ever considered myself Bruce Wayne material."
5. He started a law degree but dropped out when his acting career took off.
Murphy's breakthrough came when he landed the lead in Disco Pigs, an Irish coming-of-age play that was later adapted into a film, also starring Murphy. "That was was the turning point," Murphy recalled in an interview with The Irish Times. "I was 20. I was foolishly pursuing a law degree and then this thing came along, and just out of curiosity, I auditioned for it. It had a success in the theater world and we toured. I realized there was another option. It fulfilled that need to perform live, which I had abandoned with music. Theater was a new hope for me."
6. He's a keen runner.
In fact, Murphy has admitted  that running is the only form of exercise he enjoys, telling Esquire: "I used to do 10ks and half marathons, but now I just run for my head."
7. He doesn't want to be the next Bond.
Murphy told GQ in 2019 that he considers it "incredibly flattering" to be part of the Bond conversation, but said he believes Daniel Craig should be succeeded by a woman.
8. He lived in London for 14 years, before moving back to Ireland in 2015.
The move home was motivated by Murphy and wife Yvonne's desire to raise their two sons in Ireland. "It's kind of an Irish story, you know, to move away, do your thing and then come home," Murphy explained on the Armchair Expert podcast. "That seems to be a common narrative for Irish people. We wanted the kids to be Irish, and they were sort of at that age where they were preteens and they had very posh English accents and I wasn’t appreciating that too much. Our parents are a certain age and it was just a nice time to come home."
9. He is never going to be the kind of actor who seeks out publicity.
Murphy outlined his professional philosophy in an interview with The Irish Times, saying: "I didn't see myself as a personality. I see myself as an actor. I think those are two distinct jobs. And my job is to portray other people. The less that people know about me the better I can portray other people. That seems glaringly obvious and logical to me."
10. And finally, his name isn't pronounced "Silly-an."
It's pronounced "Killy-an," with a hard "c."
Do you have a favorite Cillian Murphy role to date?