Politics & Power Quote by Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy’s line is a masterclass in the modern celebrity half-step: present, available, but not for purchase. On the surface it’s a mild preference statement about geography. Underneath, it’s a careful separation of “living” from “working” that keeps him globally employable without performing the usual starry-eyed America worship.

The phrasing does a lot of work. “Burning passion” is deliberately overheated language, and Murphy cools it down with “per se,” a little verbal shrug that signals: don’t turn this into a referendum on my gratitude, politics, or identity. He’s not rejecting the U.S.; he’s declining the narrative that success requires relocation, assimilation, or a permanent passport to Los Angeles. For an Irish actor whose career has thrived on choosing moody, grounded roles over Hollywood self-mythology, that distinction protects both his personal life and his brand.

Then there’s the industry reality: America is less a country than a production hub. Saying he’d “certainly like to work there” reads as pragmatic, even flattering to U.S. gatekeepers, while preserving the right to keep his home base elsewhere. It’s the voice of someone who knows how the machine works: you can chase projects without surrendering your life to them.

In a culture that treats moving to America as a symbolic upgrade, Murphy’s stance lands as quietly radical. Not anti-American, just anti-assumption.