Cillian Murphy didn’t read “Small Things Like These” looking for a movie to make. He was simply a fan of the author Claire Keegan.

His story, nominated for the Booker Prize, was a work of historical fiction about the Magdalene laundries in Ireland and an ordinary man suffering from repressed trauma who cannot force himself to look away at Christmas 1985. The beauty of prose and the complexities of the themes persisted in Murphy’s mind. The Irish actor was also considering starting his own production company. Miraculously, the rights were available.

In a nod to the film, which opens in North American theaters Friday, Murphy and his producing partner Alan Moloney have named their company Big Things Films.

“We thought if you called it Small Things Films, it would show a real lack of ambition,” Murphy said with a chuckle. “We thought it would be better to call it Big Things Films.”

“Small Things Like These” was made after “Oppenheimer” but before the Oscar, which Murphy is still processing. But work keeps him busy. His company already has another film in post-production, “Steve,” based on the novel “Shy” by Max Porter. And in September he began filming the film “Peaky Blinders”.

Murphy spoke to the Associated Press before heading to “Peaky Blinders” about his role as a “serial re-collaborator,” the humbling and passive experience of winning the Oscar and pitching the film to Matt Damon during a night shoot on “Oppenheimer.” The remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

AP: What made you want to see Claire’s book as a film?

MURPHY: It’s a seemingly simple story, but it’s actually incredibly complex in the way it talks about society and complicity and shame and guilt and secrecy and fear and all of those things. . I felt like there was a lot to offer the audience.

AP: And as an actor, what opportunities did you see with your character?

MURPHY: It’s a male protagonist written by a woman, but it’s a story about women. It was quite interesting and unconventional. And the story really begins at the end of the film. The real drama comes later. And I think it’s so unconventional and quite radical. The reason Bill is the man he is is because of what happened to him as a child and this act of charity that his mother experienced. And then these horrible acts of cruelty that these other girls go through, that’s what brings her to this place in her life.

Claire had actually said in a podcast, someone had said “oh, that’s such a heroic act” and she had said “no, he’s not a hero, he’s just someone doing a nervous breakdown”. I thought that was really clever. And that’s kind of how I tried to play it.

It all comes back, as is usually the case with men, in middle age. They begin to truly feel their mortality and have children of their own. That’s when everything seems to come crashing down on them. And it’s so beautifully observed by Claire and Enda (Walsh).

AP: There are a lot of people involved in this film that you’ve worked with before, from director Tim Mielants (“Peaky Blinders”) to your friends “Disco Pigs” (playwright Enda Walsh and actress Eileen Walsh, who plays Bill’s wife). Why did you call them?

MURPHY: I’m kind of a serial collaborator. I love working with people again. And I really strongly believe that you got the best job through trust and friendship. Enda, I’ve worked in a theater four or five times and it’s usually brilliant. I knew he loved Claire’s book and would understand this world. And Eileen, it’s very difficult to play 20 years of history, but when you have 28 years of history, you get it for free. She’s just an incredibly powerful actress. She can kind of do it all.

AP: Matt Damon is also a producer at Artists Equity. How did this happen?

MURPHY: My producing partner was working with Matt on the U2 documentary on Sarajevo, and I was working with Matt on “Oppenheimer.” It was a pincer movement. I remember it was like a night shoot somewhere in the desert, and we were waiting for the rain to pass or the lights to be fixed. And he was telling me about Artists Equity. I said well, I happen to have this script and I gave it to him. It tastes so good. He’s such a great filmmaker and actor, just a legend and a lovely human being. He really, really understands these kinds of stories. And immediately he said, yeah, here we go.

AP: Do you feel like that helped this film garner more interest from American distributors?

MURPHY: I’m not really aware of it, because it’s so new and so fresh. You know, it’s very difficult to talk about because it was an extremely humbling and almost passive experience, because you don’t really have control over other people voting on the work that you’ve done. But if it allows us to tell the kind of stories that I would like to tell, that have a point of view, that have something to say, then I will accept it.