Aran Murphy is having quite a month, as he co-stars on not one, but two HBO shows — “Youth” and “War” — and plays one of the leads of Taika Waititi’s dystopian film “Klara and the Sun,” set to be released on Oct. 23. But if you think you’ve seen the 19-year-old actor before, it could be because of his strong resemblance to his Oscar-winning father, Cillian Murphy. “I don’t even think we look that much alike, but people seem to think otherwise,” the younger Murphy tells Variety.
In both “War” and “Youth,” Murphy plays a troubled teenager negotiating complex relationships with his parents as they navigate divorce. “Youth” follows Sharon Horgan as a rambunctious 50-year-old divorcée dipping back into the dating pool. As her son Rauri, Murphy plays a creepy, brooding university dropout whom audiences also can’t help sympathize with. After only a few days at school, he returns home because a rumor has been spread about him and a drunken hookup that suggests he may be a predator. Did Murphy decide for himself whether Rauri is to be believed about his innocence during the incident? “Yeah!” he says. “I mean, I’d like to think so. It’s up to the audience; I don’t decide that. But I want to back my character.”
Murphy’s and Rauri’s life trajectories are very different, but their timelines aren’t, which helped him get into character. “Contextually, we both just left school and were 18 — it was really about making decisions and whether college is the right thing, that kind of entrance into adult life, so that was a nice thing to draw on to relate to him,” he says.
He adds that Hogan’s strong scripts and professionalism helped Murphy find his footing on set.
“She was so awesome and charismatic and open to ideas that it was easy to just work and create that bond over shooting,” Murphy says. “The words were already so good, we were able to springboard off that and find the chemistry on the day.”
In “War,” Murphy has a raucous introduction in the Oct. 15 episode as Gabriel, who’s torn between his mother (Sienna Miller as Carla) and stepfather (Dominic West as Morgan) during their ugly, high-profile divorce. Caught between Carla, a past-her-prime actress, and Morgan, a billionaire social media entrepreneur, Gabriel finds himself in the crossfire, used as an asset to negotiate between them. Like Rauri in “Youth,” Murphy similarly credits his character’s duality and relatability to creator George Kay.
“It was all in the script — his frustration with what’s going on and nowhere to put it,” Murphy says. “I’m sure it’s a pretty universal kind of thing: People just want to take their anger out in some way.”
One manifestation of Gabriel’s anger is physical, meaning that Murphy needed to throw a punch while the character is drunk at a party after his friend makes a rude remark about his parents’ divorce.
“I’d never had to do something like that — that was new,” Murphy says. “That was a bit nerve-racking, because you don’t want to accidentally punch someone in the face.”
Acting professionally is all pretty new to Murphy. Despite growing up with artistic parents (his mother, Yvonne McGuinness, is an Irish visual artist), Murphy originally saw himself on the football field.
“That faded pretty quickly,” Murphy says. “I did a play when I was 11, and that was a really big deal for me. That was kind of the thing that showed me I wanted to [perform] for real when I became of age.”
Murphy, of course, grew up watching his father act. “Seeing my dad onscreen in dramatic situations as an 8-year-old was pretty full-on,” he says, mentioning Ken Loach war drama “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” which won the Palme D’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. “I think I need to revisit it as a 19-year-old.”
He’s seen most, but “definitely not all,” of his father’s filmography, and is “forever grateful” for informing his film education at a young age, and having insightful conversations with him about acting. But Cillian’s biggest role for Murphy has been as a supportive father, rather than a public figure or acting influence. “I think living with someone who’s in the public eye, the novelty of that wears off pretty quick,” Murphy says.
Murphy was more starstruck by working with Waititi on “Klara and the Sun” starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams. Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, the film follows Ortega as a robot girl experiencing the grandeur of human life for the first time. Though the movie is coming out this month, it was shot in early 2024 when Murphy was 16.
“It was incredibly surreal. One minute I was in school, and then the next I was flying out to New Zealand and shooting a Taika Waititi film at 16, so it was just absolutely nuts,” Murphy says. “[Ortega and Adams] are so great, just being in their presence and being able to learn so much. They’re also so kind and accommodating. It’s just a massive learning experience, and I’m really grateful for it.”
Despite his pride in the project, he says he’s “not a fan” of AI, adding “I don’t think it’s a net positive for the industry.” For Murphy, this film is important for “opening those discussions” about AI and “talking about the importance of human life and especially friendship and love and human qualities.”
With this momentum behind him, Murphy says he’s eager to keep learning: “I’m just auditioning and crossing my fingers. Basically, I’m just open to anything.”