Cillian Murphy says a Father’s Day text led to Barry Keoghan’s Peaky Blinders casting

Cillian Murphy recently revealed that Barry Keoghan landed his role in the upcoming Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man after a surprisingly simple text message sent on Father’s Day.

During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Murphy shared that he reached out to Keoghan directly to ask if he wanted to play his on-screen son in the film, which continues the story of the hit series Peaky Blinders.

Murphy explained that the two actors had stayed in touch after working together on the 2017 war film Dunkirk. On Father’s Day, Keoghan sent Murphy a friendly message checking in.

“He texted me, very kindly,” Murphy recalled. “And I said, ‘I’ll just say it to him now.’ So I texted him back and said, ‘Do you want to play my son in Peaky Blinders?’”

According to Murphy, Keoghan responded almost immediately. “You know when you can see people are typing?” the actor said, adding that Keoghan quickly replied, “Yeah,” and happily accepted the role.

In the film, Murphy reprises his role as Tommy Shelby, the leader of the Shelby crime family, while Keoghan plays his grown-up son Duke Shelby, a character previously portrayed by Conrad Khan in the original series.

Murphy shares two sons, Malachy and Aran, with his wife, Yvonne McGuinness, and joked during the interview that his own children might have secured the role if they had texted him first on Father’s Day.

The upcoming movie follows Tommy Shelby returning to Birmingham as his estranged son becomes entangled in a dangerous Nazi plot, forcing the former gangster to step back into action to protect his family and country.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is currently playing in select theaters and will begin streaming worldwide on Netflix on March 20.