Cillian Murphy’s Surprising Music Past Leaves Taylor Swift Speechless On The Graham Norton Show

Cillian Murphy went on The Graham Norton Show and ended up casually dropping a great bit of trivia: before he was the guy in the hat on Peaky Blinders or the face of Oppenheimer, he was almost a rock star. And Taylor Swift was right there on the couch for the story.

The Norton couch moment (feat. Taylor Swift)

Murphy sat alongside Swift and others and talked about his early days, mentioning that he actually started out as a musician. In a clip doing the rounds on social media, posted by @kittyatdawn on October 3, 2025, you can see Murphy getting adorably embarrassed telling Swift about the record deal he was offered. The audio in the snippet is a little muddy, but you can clearly clock Swift leaning in, fully intrigued. It is also perfectly timed with Swift having just released another album, which has fans now poking around Murphy's old band out of sheer curiosity.

Wait, Cillian almost signed a five-album deal?

• Back in his teens and early 20s, Murphy played in a band with his brother Paidi called The Sons of Mr. Green Genes.
• They were offered a legit five-album deal. They walked away from it because Paidi was still in school and, as Murphy tells it, the contract felt like handing their lives and songs over to a label.
• A teacher nudged Murphy toward acting, even though his heart was set on being a rock star at the time. He rarely brings up the old band now, but he still talks about music as a big creative fuel.
• He looks back on that era fondly and, yes, fans are already digging up those tracks online thanks to the Norton clip (and Swift sitting there for the reveal certainly helps).

He was already a star before Oppenheimer

Murphy did not exactly come out of nowhere in 2023. Before leading Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, he was already busy racking up memorable roles: Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders, Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow in Nolan's Batman trilogy, and Emmett in A Quiet Place Part II. That run set the table for his 2024 Best Actor Oscar, which feels like the inevitable payoff of a career built on sharp, varied choices.

So why not release music now?

The 49-year-old Cork native has been pretty blunt about why he is not dusting off the guitar for a second act. As he told NME:

"I just never thought that I was good enough really. It is why I haven't, you know, pursued the music either. I like to do one thing quite well."

Fair enough. It is a little sad we will not get a surprise Murphy EP, but the old Sons of Mr. Green Genes recordings are still out there for a rabbit-hole listen if you are curious.

Would you want Murphy to drop a few songs now, or should he keep the focus on acting? I am torn, but I would absolutely press play.