Cillian Murphy Asked Barry Keoghan to Play His Son in “Peaky Blinders” on Father's Day
Cillian Murphy Asked Barry Keoghan to Play His Son in “Peaky Blinders” on Father's Day
Brenton BlanchetTue, March 10, 2026 at 5:31 PM UTC
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Barry Keoghan and Cillian Murphy at a photocall for 'Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man'Credit: Shane Anthony Sinclair/Getty -
Cillian Murphy says he asked Barry Keoghan to play his on-screen son in the new Peaky Blinders movie via a Father's Day text
In the film, Keoghan plays son Duke Shelby, while Murphy reprises his role of Tommy Shelby, the leader of the Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is now available in limited theaters and will be available to stream globally on Netflix on March 20
Cillian Murphy picked the appropriate day to tap Barry Keoghan as his on-screen son.
The Peaky Blinders star, 49, shared during the Monday, March 9 episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers that Keoghan's casting in the forthcoming Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man film all started with a Father's Day text from his former Dunkirk cast mate.
"He tells this anecdote way better than I do," Murphy said. "It was Father's Day. We've known each other since Dunkirk, he was only a kid then. He had texted me on Father's Day. Nobody had let me know it was Father's Day."
Murphy — who shares real-life sons, Malachy and Aran, with his wife, Yvonne McGuinness — was then reminded by host Seth Meyers that it was "very much on them to tell you."
"I didn't get any — anyway," he joked. "Barry texted me, very kindly and very nicely. And he said, 'Hey Cil, how are you doing?' And I said, 'I'll just say it to him now.' So I texted him back and said, 'Do you want to play my son in Peaky Blinders?' And there was, sort of, you know when you can see people are typing? And then he said, 'Yeah.' He was into it."
Barry Keoghan and Cillian Murphy in 'Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man'Credit: Netflix
Myers then quipped, "Have you since told your sons that if they said 'Happy Father's Day' to you, they would have been in Peaky Blinders? It went to the first person who said something to their dad."
"I'm easy that way," Murphy joked.
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In the new film, Murphy reprises his role as Tommy Shelby, the leader of the Peaky Blinders. Keoghan, 33, plays his grown-up son Duke Shelby, a role played by Conrad Khan in the series. Per a log line from Netflix, the movie follows Shelby's estranged son being "embroiled in a Nazi plot" as his "self-exiled gangster" dad "must return to Birmingham to save his family — and his nation."
Speaking with The Telegraph about The Immortal Man last month, Murphy reflected on playing Tommy for "over a quarter of my life."
He first took on the role in the U.K. series in September 2013.
“I respond to the fallibility of everyone and the fact most people are trying to do the right thing,” Murphy said of playing difficult characters. “That is the struggle of being alive and it sounds really pretentious, but in Oppenheimer he had to work out how to rationalize the fact that he was the father of the atomic bomb yet still get up in the morning to put his f---ing shoes on. In that struggle there is great drama but everyone walks around in that contradictory way of living. Most of us are struggling to be good but just get derailed, make mistakes, before getting back on course.”
Murphy and Keoghan first appeared together on screen in 2017's Dunkirk. Speaking with Xposé on the film's red carpet premiere at the time, Murphy called him an "extraordinary talent."
"I hadn't worked with him or met him before this but we've become good pals now," he said. "I'm so proud of him. He's just really special."
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is now available in limited theaters and will be available to stream globally on Netflix on March 20.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
