When renowned screenwriter Steven Knight set about formulating what would become one of his best creations, the modern gangster classic television series Peaky Blinders, he had a very important choice to make. He already had his main character fully fleshed out: Thomas Shelby, an ambitious, emotionally shut-off war veteran who conducts himself like he’s already dead and living on borrowed time. Knight was deliberating between two very different actors when deciding who best had the skills to embody Shelby. One of these men was an icon of the Irish acting scene, able to be in almost any kind of film you can imagine. The other was an icon of the rough and tumble action film scene, equally capable of fighting off sharks and jump-kicking down doors. It was the matchup nobody could have foreseen, Cillian Murphy vs. Jason Statham.
Cillian Murphy’s Text to Steven Knight Gave Him the Upper Hand Over Jason Statham
Knight has told the story that he was torn between going with either of these two masters of the brood and the grumbling voice. According to The Independent, he said that he “met them both in LA to talk about the role and opted for Jason…because physically in the room Jason is Jason.” You have to imagine that what he means by this is that Statham is a very impressive physical specimen in person, and that his tough guy persona is not entirely an act. Knight followed up by mentioning how Murphy “isn’t Tommy, obviously, but I was stupid enough not to understand that.” In his defense, Murphy is an incredibly soft-spoken and gentle soul, leagues away from the calculating killer Knight was looking for.
Seemingly sensing a disturbance in the Force, Murphy decided to pull a true giga-Chad move to ensure he’d get the role. Knight said that one day he received a text from Murphy, and what did that text say? “Remember, I’m an actor.” At that moment, Knight realized that Murphy “can transform himself. If you meet him in the street, he is a totally different human being.” Knight was finally able to see past Murphy’s introverted exterior and realize he had what it took to live up to the Peaky Blinders standard.
Jason Statham Is Best as a Likable Action Star
This is no shade whatsoever to Statham — who has his own certain set of skills he brings to the table — but he could not bring to Thomas Shelby what Murphy did. While it’s true that Thomas is a ruthless man who’s killed before and has it in him to kill again, he is above all else a politician at heart. He is strategic in his methods, completely closed off in his emotionality even to his own most beloved family members, and ruthless in who or what he will use as collateral in order to get what he wants. If ever there was a modern anti-hero of deeply questionable morality to rival the likes of Tony Soprano or Walter White, it’s Thomas Shelby.
While Jason has played his fair share of guys who aren’t afraid to kill people or do continuously insane things just to stay alive, he is almost always portrayed in a totally positive manner. He is the modern day equivalent of a Charles Bronson or a Steve McQueen, the likable gruff hero who is always up against meaner, more overtly evil enemies. Don’t get it twisted — he’s great in these roles, as his combination of street knowledge and his comfort with quips make him the rare action star that feels equally at home in both types of flicks. He can be both the hardened badass in Parker or Wrath of Man, but also be a more humorous and slapstick version of his persona in films like Spy or The Expendables.
There are two downsides to the image he’s maintained. For one, there’s a noted pressure for action stars to continue to do roles that keep their core fanbase happy. People like Jason Statham because they want to see him do Jason Statham-type roles, and taking a chance on a more outside-the-box character like Thomas could be seen as a risk for his career. Second, there’s always an underpinning of likability to his characters — almost to a fault. No matter what he does, we always feel like the movie is approving of his actions, with rare exceptions. Even his most prominent villain role, Deckard Shaw in the Fast and Furious saga, had to become a full-fledged good guy at some point because audiences loved seeing him on-screen and interacting with the main cast so much. Audiences feel compelled to be on his side, regardless of the consequences.
Cillian Murphy Can Better Embrace the Small Scale
As Murphy himself professed, he is “an actor,” which is an understatement if ever there was one. Cillian Murphy has steadily built a reputation for himself as one of the consummate actors of our time, slipping from super villain, to Irish freedom fighter, to space captain with an impeccable ease. Plus, despite Knight’s hesitations over picturing Murphy as such a tough threat as Thomas, Murphy has actually had a great history of playing men of imposing force. Think of his terrorist Jackson Rippner holding Rachel McAdams hostage and surviving getting stabbed in the throat with a pen in Red Eye, or the steadily increasing violence and chaotic behavior of one of his earliest roles in Disco Pigs, or even the coke snorting, gun toting, walking red flag that is Tom in The Party. These may not be muscular bruiser types that can knock heads together with ease like Statham can in his sleep, but they are men who are all full of murderous drive, and know how to keep themselves composed and proper in various social circles, while also projecting a sense of constant calculation and the ability to hide true emotions from everyone in the room except the audience.
To make a long story short, Murphy can carry a scene in a smaller scale than Statham can. If we see Murphy sit like a stone for an entire scene watching everyone else, we read this as him gathering knowledge, playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. If Statham does the same, we expect him to find the right time to interrogate someone or get what he wants through sheer fisticuffs, or perhaps even find a way to witty banter his way out of the situation. While Statham can be a quite stern actor himself, his is more a barreling full force kind of focus, like a determined dog chasing a car. The ambiguous and slippery nature of Murphy’s temperament is much more fitting for the kind of expert power player that Thomas Shelby winds up being.
Thomas Shelby’s Casting in ‘Peaky Blinders’ Came Down to a Matter of Fit Above All Else
None of this is to cast any aspersions on Statham’s abilities as an actor, but instead to highlight that he simply wasn’t as good of a fit as Murphy. Statham bringing a lot of charisma and physical threat to a starring role is great for a slice of pulpy fun like Safe, but not as fitting for a multi-season character study of a broken man manipulating the world around him to do what he thinks is right, even if that means potentially turning against his own trusted allies. That kind of moral confusion and ping ponging of conflicting motivations and actions is much more suited to an actor like Murphy, as there’s simultaneously no audience pressure on him to fulfill the role of a standard likable hero and more freedom for him and the writers to explore the darker potential of the character in a way that feels honest to the material. It’s important to keep in mind that, ultimately, it’s not a matter of getting the biggest actor for the role, but the right actor. Cillian Murphy was the right man for the job, by order of the Peaky f***ing Blinders.
