In 1941, two Czechoslovakian soldiers parachuted into occupied Prague with orders to assassinate SS officer Reinhard Heydrich, one of the main leaders of the Third Reich. The true life mission, dubbed "Operation Anthropoid," is the basis of a new film, Anthropoid, from director Sean Ellis, who pulled in actors Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan to play the Czech soldiers.

The film, out Friday, is notably tragic, following the men through their assassination attempt to a deadly siege between them and the Reich in a Prague church. The story is not well known in terms of World War II fare, but for Murphy it was an interesting look at what a man can be willing to do for his country. We spoke with the actor, who is currently shooting Christopher Nolan's upcoming war epic Dunkirk, about why he selected the project, whether there's a sense of cohesion in his career and what's next for him with Peaky Blinders.

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Why does it feel important that stories from World War II continue to be told?

It was obviously a fascinating time in history and it changed the course of the world. With this story, it was one that was not that well known. If you go to the Czech Republic it's a huge part of their history and they're very, very proud of this assassination that did change the course of the Second World War. But people just seem attracted to World War II. And I guess it's because, in my opinion, it was the last just war. There was a very obvious side of good and evil. Everything now is so conflicted and confused, whereas back then having the Third Reich and the Nazis and what they stood for against the free world seemed quite clear.

When someone watches a historical film like this one do you hope they take something from it that's applicable today?

No. I don't believe in films being prescriptive. I believe audiences should be left to their own devices as to what they take from the picture and what resonates with them. I don't think it should be our decision to tell you how to feel. You should just feel what you feel. And if people think that the film is in some way prescient or has some relevance to what's happening now, then good. And if not that's okay as well.

When you were approached to do the film did you already know this story?

No, I didn't. But Sean Ellis, who wrote and directed it, he had been living with the story for like 10 or 15 years, so he was a major fountain of knowledge and he gave us all the materials we needed to be immersed in the story. So I became quickly educated on it.

What sort of research did you do?

I read all the relevant materials. And the whole experience was greatly enhanced by actually shooting in Prague and shooting at a lot of the real locations. We spent a lot of time in the actual church where the siege happened. You could see the real bullet holes, you could see where the grenades exploded. They're all there. It's profoundly moving to walk around there. And our crew was Czech and we had a lot of Czech actors in the film. Sean was very clear that he wanted it to be as authentic as possible.

Did you film in the actual church?

We built a life-sized replica. It was extraordinary. In this film studio in Prague there was a full reproduction of that church, which we then blew the shit out of. It was strange because me and Jamie had shot almost the entire movie together and we shot it more or less chronologically. And then I went home while he shot his sequence in the church upstairs and he went home while I shot my sequence in the church crypts downstairs. So they were very separate. But it took about three weeks.

Were you able to understand the character's motivation to go this far for the love of his country?

Yeah. The thing that you first of all have to remember is that they're sort of unremarkable people. They're just in remarkable times. It was important as well that my character and Jamie's character had different motivations. The ultimate motivation was the same, but my character is completely focused on the mission and doesn't really allow himself to think about what may or may not happen afterwards. You have to put yourself in the place of thinking, "When we go through this I will probably die." The saddest thing for me about it is that the assassination was a failure. It was only later that it became a success and they thought they had brought the wrath of the Third Reich down on Czechoslovakia – many people did die as a result of what they did. So having to live with that, to me, is very interesting to play psychologically.

The teaser trailer for Dunkirk just came out. Is it a coincidence that you're in two World War II movies?

People have been asking me this and it's a complete coincidence! With most actors our career is completely random. We made Anthropoid a year ago and we're shooting Dunkirk right now. They're different stories, but again the Dunkirk story is not one that people know that much. It was regarded as a failure. It was turned into something of a success. They're just fascinating stories and I'm attracted to a good story, not exclusively to World War II movies. There was a while where I did a couple of sci-fi films that came out one after the other and people were like "Oh, he's doing that." But it's just a coincidence. It's a quirk of distribution and a quirk of how these scripts arrive in your letterbox.

So does your career feel random?

Absolutely, yeah. I would defy you to name one actor whose career is thought out or planned. It can't be. The nature of what we do is to inhabit different characters and stories, and people are always making and writing things, and the business keeps shifting and changing. Like I never expected to be on a television show ten years ago and now I'm on a television show, because television is now a very important medium. That changed. You never can predict anything. These things just happen.

When you look back do you think there is anything cohesive about the sorts of projects you've been interested in?

I supposed I'm attracted to extremes. I quite like that. I'm attracted to characters under extreme pressure. I like to see what that does to the human psyche. That's a personal thing for me in literature and film. It does appeal to me. But again, it's random. With a capital "R."

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When you play characters in extreme situations do you ever have trouble detaching from them afterwards?

If you really immerse yourself in something, which I think is necessary to do to successfully portray someone honestly, then yeah, there is a equal but opposite reaction in your day-to-day life. After every role that's immersive there's a decompression period required. And that's okay. That's what we're supposed to do.

After three seasons, how well do you feel you know your character on Peaky Blinders?

He surprises me because the writing is so wild and unpredictable. I'm very lucky to have such a fantastic writer in Steve Knight. We get together between each series and I say, "Okay Steve. What's coming?" I can never ever predict what's coming because he's such a great, great writer. I feel like I know the character. He's a part of me now. But I never know where he's going to end up.

What do you find compelling about him?

He's a contradiction and I'm very interested in contradictions. I think that's what makes really interesting protagonists in TV and films. They do one thing but they feel another thing. I think this explosion of great writing in television – a lot of it is based on people you wouldn't necessarily want to spend a lot of time with but people do. They aren't necessarily noble heroes and I've never really been interested in the noble hero thing nor have I never been interested in the nefarious villain. I'm interested in the middle ground. The contradiction.

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That's a really interesting way to think about these characters – that they are people we shouldn't want to spend time with but do.

I think so. If you look at all the main protagonists in the all the great television that's happening right now no one of them are squared-jawed, clean cut heroes. They're all conflicted and damaged and probably on the wrong side of society. But yet we find them very, very compelling. Nobody can reduce themselves to an entirely good person, can they? Everyone's got the other side too.

Have you started shooting the next season of Peaky Blinders yet?

We've just been commissioned for seasons four and five. We're going to shoot four next year and five the following year.

So your life is very planned out.

This is the first time it's not been random!

How does that feel?

It's a strange turn of events. Normally you don't know what's coming next and you can't predict where you're going to be. But I know now for two years – well, for a chunk of each year – that I'm going to be shooting this show and playing my character. It's satisfying but also terrifyingly safe.

But you don't want to become a safe actor.

No. To me that is death. But I'm not talking about the performance or the work – just the schedule. The schedule is safe, not the work. I never want my acting to feel safe.

Emily Zemler Emily Zemler is a freelance writer based in London.

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