Jason Statham, irrespective of the function, appears like a badass. He is obtained a gruff demeanor and a face that claims, “Yeah, I believably appear like a man who would snap jumper cables to my tongue and activate a automobile battery.” In the meantime, Cillian Murphy has been each an emaciated survivor of the zombie apocalypse in “28 Days Later” and a waif-ish transgender girl named Kitten in “Breakfast on Pluto.” However the factor about Tommy Shelby is that he is not a wall of brute pressure — he is a mastermind who manipulates his environment and capitalizes on folks’s belief. At the very least, that is how he got here to be with Murphy within the function. Had Statham gotten the job, the character would have been fully totally different.
Within the Esquire interview, Knight mentioned that the textual content from Murphy impressed his change of coronary heart. “[That] is totally the factor, as a result of he can rework himself,” he mentioned. And that is certainly one of Murphy’s biggest strengths as an actor. Sure, he is been these characters who do not seem bodily imposing, however he is additionally been an absolute menace in movies like “Crimson Eye” and even “Batman Begins.” This is not to say that Statham could not have made Tommy Shelby, however he would have been a very totally different Tommy Shelby than the one we obtained.
And hey, not taking part in Tommy Shelby opened Statham as much as be a part of the “Quick and Livid” franchise. All people wins!