IT'S A LOVE LETTER TO TEACHERS

STARS CILLIAN MURPHY AND JAY LYCURGO SPEAK WITH LYNN RUSK ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF SHOWING LOVE TO TROUBLED YOUTHS IN NEW REFORM SCHOOL DRAMA, STEVE

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OSCAR winner Cillian Murphy has reached dizzying heights in his career, from starring in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, to playing Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders.

Although he has achieved remarkable success on his own, the Irish actor credits a former teacher with sparking his love of literature, poetry, and theatre.

In his latest film Steve, which he describes as a love letter to teachers, Cillian portrays an impassioned headteacher working in a last-chance reform school.

Set in the mid-Nineties and directed by Tim Mielants, the movie follows a pivotal day in the life of headteacher Steve and his students, who exist in a world that has abandoned them.

The drama is a reimagining of Max Porter's bestselling book Shy, named after its protagonist, a teenager who boards at the school with a programme for troubled youths.

The movie follows Shy's relationship with Steve, who in turn is grappling with his own mental health as he fights to protect the school from closure.

Cillian, 49, who also is also a producer on the film, says he had no fixed template for his character but pays tribute to a teacher who inspired him.

"I had a teacher in secondary school. He wasn't necessarily an inspiration for this character, but he was an inspiration to me personally," says the Cork-born actor.

"He was one of those teachers who reached out, connected, and saw something in me. His name's Bill Wall, for the record, and he's a poet and a novelist, but at the time he was teaching English. He kind of unlocked literature, poetry, and theatre for me.