Red Eye may have been a critical and commercial hit, but star Cillian Murphy isn't a fan of the movie.
The Wes Craven-directed thriller starred Rachel McAdams as a woman who is threatened into committing a terrorist act by a mysterious stranger played by Murphy while the pair are on a flight from Dallas to Miami.
On a budget of $26 million it made $96m at the box office and received positive reviews, but Murphy doesn't believe it's a good movie and is critical of his performance in it.
“I love Rachel McAdams and we had fun making it,” the Irishman told GQ. “But I don’t think it’s a good movie. It’s a good B movie.”
Murphy said what drew him to the role was the requirement to completely shift gears from being a good guy to a villain.
"I think it’s the duality of it. It’s why I wanted to play it," he recalled. "That two thing. The nice guy and the bad guy in one. The only reason it appealed to me is you could do that turn, you know?”
Red Eye (2005)
Lisa Reisert hates flying but goes on a flight to Miami anyway. Minutes after takeoff, the man sitting next to Lisa, Jackson, reveals the real reason he's on board: he's on a mission to kill a rich and powerful businessman. Lisa is the key to success in this murder plan and if she refuses to cooperate, her father will be killed by a hit man who is waiting for a call from Jackson.
Directed by: Wes Craven
Stars:
Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy and Brian Cox
Murphy critical of his performance in Red Eye
Murphy was previously critical of the movie in an interview with Uproxx and seemed to express bemusement as to why Red Eye was so popular.
Looking back on his comments, he believes he was simply much harsher on himself when he was a younger actor.
"The honest answer is I haven’t seen that movie since it came out like 15 or 16 years ago, whenever it was. I also think that, when I was a younger actor, I was really, really hard on everything that I was in," he said in 2021.
"I hated watching myself. I hated looking at myself on screen. I remember when I saw it was like 'Oh, that’s kind of a schlocky B movie. Rachel McAdams is excellent in it.' But I didn’t think I gave a very nuanced performance in it."
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