Cillian Murphy hails Ireland's 'phenomenal' acting talent

Hollywood star Cillian Murphy has claimed "Irish people tell stories very well".

Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy thinks the pipeline of Irish acting talent is "phenomenal".

The 47-year-old actor believes "Irish people tell stories very well" and he's relished the recent success of Irish stars like Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal and Kerry Condon.

The 'Oppenheimer' star - who was born in Cork in the Republic of Ireland - told the BBC: "I think part of it is coincidence, and I think part of it is that Irish people tell stories very well, just in the pub to each other. We're good at it. We have a long history of it.

"We're comfortable with stories, with songs, with poetry. These things are just kind of second nature to us.

"But it is kind of phenomenal the level of talent that the country is producing. For like five million people, it's kind of extraordinary."

Cillian starred in 'Oppenheimer' last year, and he feels proud of the movie's success.

The acclaimed actor - who has already won a Golden Globe for his performance in the film - said: "This is actually a very human story. And if you think about the sort of dilemmas they were wrestling with at the time, they are the biggest, most profound, most paradoxical, most important kind of moral dilemmas that we're still wrestling with as a race and as the world.

"I feel that when you present those in a hugely entertaining way, [Christopher Nolan's] movies become like events. And there's no one else that does it like that.

"And then for some reason, it just clicked and people started going, this momentum, and we were all on strike at the time. So we were just sort of texting each other, just watching this thing happen."