When an actor lands a role in a film, especially their breakthrough role, you might think that the actor knows what type of film it is.
However, a recent interview with Cillian Murphy has revealed that the Oscar-nominated actor had no idea that “28 Days Later” was a zombie film, according to Variety. This is even though Murphy was playing a role where his character had woken up from a coma to discover that society had broken down due to a rage-inducing virus. Most zombie movies tend to have slow-moving plots, whereas the story in “28 Days Later” started quite fast, which may be where Murphy got confused.
“28 Days Later” came out in 2022, and Murphy says that filming occurred during the SARS pandemic when a lot of “air rage” was happening. He also said in the interview that, since not many zombie films had been made at the time, he didn’t expect a zombie film to be made. He even joked with the audience that it was a “dead genre.”
One thing Murphy did note during the interview was the relevance of “28 Days Later” to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that he saw people sharing memes from the film on social media and that he was also sent memes about everyone having to stay at home during the pandemic and no one being outside.
That, coupled with people walking around wearing hazmat suits, Murphy says, shows just how good the writing on the film was as it has been able to stay “prescient and relative.”
What further fueled Murphy’s mishap regarding “28 Days Later” being a zombie film was that he had never seen some of the world’s most iconic zombie films, particularly those created by George A. Romero, who directed films such as “Night of the Living Dead.”
Murphy said he had never seen those films and instead chose to focus on real-life events, such as the SARS pandemic, according to Screen Rant.
However, many people will argue that “28 Days Later” is not a zombie film. One argument for this is that those who have the virus die because they don’t have enough food, whereas other zombie films show those with the virus can go on without food. What also tends to define a zombie film is whether an infected person has to be dead before their behavior changes, which is also an argument as to why “28 Days Later” is not a zombie movie.
So Cillian Murphy can probably be forgiven for not coming to this realization, the confusion of which may be resolved in the reported sequel to the movie, which is currently said to be in the works, according to The Guardian.
