The TV series “Peaky Blinders” officially ended its six-season run in April of 2022, and it has been announced that there will be a feature film (a sort of unofficial seventh season). “Peaky Blinders” was set in Birmingham just after World War I and followed the rise of a street gang, the Peaky Blinders, as their crime empire grew over the course of a decade. While the gang in the series is fictional, there was a real-life street gang called the Peaky Blinders which operated in Birmingham from the 1880s to the 1910s. The name “Peaky Blinders” has been said to refer to the razors that the gang members would supposedly stitch into their trademark peaked caps. They would then, so armed, headbutt attackers, stabbing them in the eyes and blinding them. Peaky blinders. (This story, however, is debated.)
Cillian Murphy played the lead character on “Peaky Blinders,” a ruffian named Tommy Shelby. The actor, one might note, is broad-shouldered on “Peaky Blinders,” sporting a thicker frame than one might have noticed him having in other roles. In 2023, for example, Murphy played the titular character in Christopher Nolan’s excellent biopic “Oppenheimer.” He had many shirtless scenes in the film, showing off his stick-like physique (which required skipping meals). According to Murphy’s “Oppenheimer” co-star Emily Blunt, his daily intake, assuming he ate at all, often consisted of “one almond most nights or a little slice of apple.” (Murphy himself debunked the “one almond a day” soundbite in an interview with GQ, explaining that Blunt was just “being very sympathetic” and “it was more than that.”)
Talking to Mr. Porter in 2017, Murphy discussed his diet while filming “Peaky Blinders,” saying that he took to eating meat again. He had previously been a vegetarian for 15 years, having changed his diet to avoid certain foodborne pathogens.
Murphy’s vegetarianism wasn’t a moral decision
People can, of course, alter their diet for any number of reasons, and Cillian Murphy chose to be a vegetarian because of notorious outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy — a.k.a. Mad Cow Disease — that swept through England in the mid-1990s. The cattle-spread illness was first recorded as spreading to humans in 1994 in the form of Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease. It was a major scandal in the British food industry, and the export of British beef was banned for decades. Murphy, untrusting of the meat industry, sought his proteins elsewhere.
When it came time to play a street tough in “Peaky Blinders,” however, Murphy noted that he, to capture a certain verisimilitude about his character, needed to start eating meat again. Tommy Shelby was not a vegetarian, and Murphy was told by a personal trainer that his character’s physical appearance would look different than Murphy’s due to their diets. Murphy explained:
“I was vegetarian for about 15 years. […] But it was never a moral decision. It was more that I was worried about getting mad cow disease. For the first series of ‘Peaky Blinders,’ they were anxious that I shouldn’t look like a skinny Irish fella, and my trainer recommended meat.”
There are many vegetarians and vegans who choose their diets for moral reasons. Some don’t like to take part in the wholesale slaughter of animals, sensitive to taking lives. Others recognize that widespread meat production wreaks havoc on the planet’s environment, preferring sustainably sourced foods. Murphy simply didn’t want to get sick.
And what was his first meat meal after 15 years of abstinence? It wasn’t beef.
I’ll have the venison, please
Murphy recalled that he was in a small Irish hotel, enjoying a birthday vacation for his wife, when he finally got back on the meat train, as it were. He had a choice of entrees, and he chose to eat a deer steak. Murphy recalled:
“Actually, it was a venison steak. […] A few cocktails had been had before dinner. When the waiter asked if I’d like the fish or the venison, I hesitated and he said, ‘Have the venison.’ He was right. It was extraordinary. They reared their own deer on the property.”
Murphy did turn back to meat, and he seems pleased that it wasn’t a corporate meat product but a locally sourced animal. In a 2022 interview with the Observer, however, Murphy noted that he had returned to a vegetarian diet. This was after filming on “Peaky Blinders” had officially come to an end. Overall, though, the actor feels that his eating habits are one of the most boring possible things to discuss, saying:
“I was vegetarian for a long time then I relapsed and now I’ve relapsed back to vegetarianism. My wife is, too. It’s so unremarkable! It’s not good copy.”
The following year, speaking on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, Murphy revealed that he had recently stepped things up and was “trying the vegan thing.” When the host asked how it was going, though, Murphy gave a deep sigh and confessed, “I miss cheese.”
It’s worth noting that a high-protein, meat-forward diet isn’t necessary for building up muscle or having a muscular physique. Quick searches online will reveal any number of strict vegan bodybuilders. Murphy wanted to eat a certain way while playing Tommy Shelby. In his case and yours, it’s best to choose what is healthiest and makes you most comfortable.