IMAGE: Cillian Murphy wins the Best Actor award for Oppenheimer. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters
Accepting his Best Actor Oscar for the biopic Oppenheimer, Irish actor Cillian Murphy gave a shout-out to his homeland, saying, ‘I’m a very proud Irishman standing here tonight.’
‘I am little overwhelmed. Thank you to the Academy, Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas. It’s been the wildest, most exhilarating, most creatively satisfying journey you’ve taken me on for the last 20 years; I owe you more than I can say.’
To the cast and crew, he added, ‘Every single crew member, every single cast member of Oppenheimer you guys carried me through.
‘All my fellow nominees, I remain in awe of you guys, truly,’ he said.
‘I want to thank my incredible team, big shout-out to Craig Franky, Brendan Murphy, Mary Murphy, my two boys Malachy and Aran who are sitting up there.’
In closing, Murphy added, ‘We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb, and for better or for worse, we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world, so I’d really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere.’
IMAGE: Cillian Murphy wins the Oscar for Best Actor for Oppenheimer. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters
Murphy won over Bradley Cooper (Maestro), Colman Domingo (Rustin), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction).
Earlier, Murphy won the Best Actor award for Oppenheimer at the BAFTA Awards and Golden Globe Awards.
The biopic, set during World War II, follows Oppenheimer, known as the ‘Father of the Atomic Bomb’ during a period in history when he understood that testing the atomic bomb would ignite the atmosphere and destroy the world, yet he pushed the button anyway.
