Cillian Murphy shows off his muscles in a fitted T-shirt as he bulks up to reprise Peaky Blinders role after extreme weight loss for Oppenheimer
Cillian Murphy showed off his toned physique on Thursday as he hit the gym ahead of filming for the Peaky Blinders movie.
The 47-year-old Irish actor, who played the lead role of Tommy Shelby in the hit BBC series, showed off his toned figure under a grey T-shirt as he prepared for a dance in Dublin.
Cillian also wore casual sweatpants and sneakers with a cap and sunglasses.
His new look was a drastic change from last year, when he underwent grueling and “unhealthy” preparation for his Oscar-winning role in Oppenheimer.
Cillian went to great lengths to portray J. Robert Oppenheimer, reportedly eating only one almond a day to match the physicist’s “almost emaciated” frame.
Cillian Murphy showed off his toned physique on Thursday as he hit the gym in Dublin following his gruelling weight loss regime for Oppenheimer (right)
The Irish actor, 47, who played the lead role of Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders, showed off his toned figure under a grey T-shirt as he prepared to put on a pump
However, he has gotten back into shape after signing up for the Peaky Blinders film, and it looks set to reprise his starring role two years after the BBC series ended.
Cillian said of the project earlier this year: ‘I’ve always said that if Knight delivers a script that I know he can deliver, because he’s such a phenomenal writer, then I’ll be in it.
“If we want to see Tommy Shelby turn 50, I’ll be there. Let’s do it.”
The spin-off is filmed in Birmingham, England, at Digbeth Studios and on location in Digbeth and Small Heath.
The film is expected to be released in 2025 at the earliest, but no official date has been announced yet.
Cillian said of his character Tommy: ‘I loved playing him. He was exhausting and so vastly different for me that every time I went back it was a bit of a journey.
“I’m really not sentimental about work. I feel like the next thing is the most exciting thing.”
“And I mean, it was a ten-year period in my life, so it’s important, but I always feel like, let’s keep going.”
Cillian also wore casual tracksuit bottoms and trainers with a cap and sunglasses as he walked across the car park and to the gym for his workout
The original plan was to make a seventh season of Peaky Blinders, which would have been set during World War II.
However, the film will serve as the conclusion of the series after six seasons.
Peaky Blinders opened in 2013 and attracted huge audiences both in the UK and internationally, starring Tom Hardy and Anya Taylor-Joy.
It’s not the first time Cillian has had to transform his body for an acting role.
He reportedly went to great lengths to emulate the slender build of physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor.
His co-star Emily Blunt spoke about Cillian’s drastic transformation, saying that his gruelling diet meant he could only survive on ‘an almond a day’.
In an interview with Extra, Emily, who plays his TV wife Kitty, described the “monumental undertaking” of losing weight for the role.
Cillian said: ‘I like to act with my body, and Oppenheimer had a very distinctive physique and silhouette, and I wanted to get that right.
‘I had to lose quite a bit of weight and we worked on the costume and the tailoring; he was very thin, almost emaciated, and lived on martinis and cigarettes.
“He had such bright eyes and I wanted to give him that big look. So we worked a lot on his silhouette and facial expressions before we started.”
Cillian has gotten back into shape after signing up for the Peaky Blinders film to reprise his lead role as Tommy Shelby, two years after the BBC series ended