“It was very serendipitous, it all happened really quickly”: Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Emily Watson and Tim Mielants on Small Things Like These at Berlinale 2024

For anyone wondering how Matt Damon came to produce a heart-wrenching Irish drama starring Cillian Murphy – yes, the two started talking about it when they co-starred in Oppenheimer. As Jason Bourne himself put it, he was so impressed with Murphy’s work in Christopher Nolan’s multiple Oscar-nominated (all 13 of them) film that he immediately jumped at the chance to work with the Irish actor again, albeit behind the scenes.

During the making of Oppenheimer, Murphy was already lining up his next project, taking on both producing and leading man duties in Small Things Like These. He plays Bill Furlong, a coalman living in a small Irish town in the mid-80s. After making deliveries to the town’s Magdalene workhouse (overseen by some truly unsettling nuns), Bill can no longer turn a blind eye to the cruelty taking place on his own doorstep.

Damon had apparently raved about Murphy’s Oppenheimer performance during a conversation with his friend and producing partner, Ben Affleck, who also came on board as an executive producer for Small Things Like These for the pair’s newly formed studio (Artists Equity). According to Damon, it was quite straightforward how it all came about: he simply approached Murphy to talk about the project, saying, “We are starting a studio. Can we be part of it?”

Neither party needed much convincing to sign on, and much was said about the speed in which the film was assembled, with screenwriter Enda Walsh (adapting Claire Keegan’s Booker prize-shortlisted 2021 novel of the same name) delivering the first draft of the script in about two weeks.

The entire project was spearheaded by Murphy, although the film was suggested by his wife, artist Yvonne McGuinness. “It was actually my wife, I think, who said ‘Well what about Claire Keegan?,’ and I had read the book, but I didn’t realise that the rights were available. And we checked, and miraculously, the rights were available. So then I brought it to Alan (Moloney, the film’s co-producer), and said ‘What do you think of this?’ and he loved it, and I brought it to Enda (Walsh, the film’s screenwriter), and said ‘What do you think about this?’ and he loved it. And Alan was working with Matt on that documentary you just mentioned, and then I ended up working with Matt on Oppenheimer, and said, ‘What do you think of this?’ to him. So it sort of came about that way – it was very serendipitous, kind of, and it all happened really quickly, but it was kind of good karma.”

One of the film’s most memorable scenes comes courtesy of Emily Watson, playing the menacing Sister Mary, the head of the Magdalene workhouse depicted in the film. Watson relished the chance to play someone villainous, saying, “I had the most tremendous fun playing the role.” The actress also spoke of wanting to work with Murphy, however briefly (her scenes were mostly completed within a day of shooting): “When I read this script I knew immediately that this would be one of the great days of my acting life – to spend the day with Cillian playing in that scene, which on the surface is quite domestic and simple, and it sort of cuts through that there’s something just – the very worst of what humanity can be, and the kind of grip – I think people across many religions and cultures can understand being in that grip, and not being able to break out of it.” She continued, “What I think is remarkable about the film is that Cillian plays a man who is not political or articulate; the issue isn’t raised in any format that we would recognise as protest, but it’s just like it’s growing – his conscience; it’s the most delicate and beautiful thing that is irrepressible. So I just knew I wanted to be there.”

Director Tim Mielants was recruited after helming the entire third season of Peaky Blinders, starring Murphy. When asked if he was nervous about how the film would be received by the Berlinale’s opening night audience, the filmmaker didn’t waste words. “No, I’m not,” he said, firmly, to laughter.

Oliver Johnston

Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.