Turn down the heat - Cillian Murphy can't stand being hyped as the latest Irish stud

He has recently won rave reviews on the Irish stage for playing the lead role in the Druid Theatre company's production of J.M. Synge's classic, "Playboy of the Western World," and soon will begin filming the new Batman movie, "Batman Begins," in which he plays Scarecrow.

"Anyone who takes more than a cursory glance will see I do a lot of theatre and I think I pick my projects with care," says Murphy. "This thing about heat, it's all just hot air." He is still stunned that his long-lashed blue eyes have inspired fan sites. His role models are Philip Seymour Hoffman and Billy Crudup-actors who concentrate on the work, not the image.

"I would hate to ever be considered a personality. When people go to the theatre or to the cinema, they shouldn't have any preconceived notions of you as a person. It's a big leap to go into a cinema or into a theatre and be transported, and I think that can be compromised if people go in there saying, oh, that's the guy who just got married to that person who just had a baby or whatever it is."

For Murphy (his first name is pronounced Kill-ian), acting is an accidental passion-he really wanted to be a rock guitarist. "It's not something I was burning to do since I was 7, it's something that I tried and then discovered a passion for, but it was an accidental passion. I was always interested in performing, I was playing music for years, and I loved films. Then I did a play and I realised it was something I enjoyed hugely." He made his debut, age 20, in a play called "Disco Pigs" while half-heartedly studying law at the University of Cork, his hometown.

The play was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival and transferred to the West End. "It was a baptism of fire," says Murphy, who still feels insecure about never having trained at drama school. "To this day I still feel like a bit of an interloper to this whole game, but it's becoming less and less of an issue. I think instincts are something that's in your DNA, and I rely on that."

His career has taken off thanks to the clout of the "zombie movie" "28 Days Later" at the U.S. box office. "There's something I love about Hollywood in that openly cynical way they will say, 'If the film hadn't made a lot of money, you're not going to be sitting in this office'... they're very cut and dry about it. At least you know where you stand."

After small roles in "Cold Mountain" (he was the kind-hearted Union soldier) and "Girl with a Pearl Earring," he screen-tested for director Christopher Nolan ("Memento") for the lead role in the new "Batman" movie, which went to Christian Bale. "I never really saw myself as Batman material, but it was very nice to be offered the other role," he says. "If anyone's going to reinvent the franchise, it'll be Chris Nolan, and with the level of cast, Liam Neeson is aboard and Morgan Freeman, I think the signs are good."

Details of the project are being closely guarded, but he expects Nolan to focus on the dark side of the comic-book saga. "His ambition would be to make it a more truthful rendering of the story, because it is a very dark and interesting psychological idea, that whole idea of the Bat Man."

Murphy lives in a one-bedroom North London flat with his girlfriend, an artist, and says he doesn't expect to be sunning himself by a Hollywood swimming pool anytime soon. If he goes anywhere, he says, it would be New York. "New York is probably my favourite city in the world, a move there mightn't be unrealistic, but for the moment I'm very happy in London. I'd love to do a show on Broadway."