In a very open and somewhat amusing interview, Cillian Murphy remembered an airport security incident that started with what he casually called a liberated set prop.
The discussion begins lightly. Is he a set thief? Not quite, he clarifies. “Liberate” is the better word. However, what follows quickly escalates into a story that feels almost too cinematic to be true. And yet, it happened.
When Cillian Murphy Had To Explain The “Tommy” Bullet Before Flying
Murphy disclosed that he had attempted to bring a prop bullet through airport security, which he had retained as a souvenir of his days as Tommy Shelby in ‘Peaky Blinders‘. The problem? It still looked very real. The shell, marked with Tommy, was found at the bottom of his bag when he was being checked by a security officer.
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The next thing was a state of sheer panic. Armed security personnel were confused, and Murphy attempted to explain that the object in question was not dangerous; it was merely a blank. “They were like, all these guys are standing with guns. It was at the bottom of my bag. I’m like, oh, I’m so sorry, it’s not a real bullet,” he told Netflix UK.
Can you imagine seeing Cillian Murphy getting swarmed by airport security 😱 pic.twitter.com/xkf2BdNlw7
— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) March 17, 2026
You can almost picture it: one of the most intense actors of his generation, suddenly fumbling for words, caught between embarrassment and urgency. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” he recalls thinking, desperately trying to defuse the situation. “It’s not a real bullet.” At that point, the boundary between fiction and reality was crossed in the most awkward manner imaginable.
Murphy Learned Props Can Cause Real Trouble
The situation is not the only thing that makes the story so compelling, but it is Murphy’s human response to it. No cool, collected character here. Not a tint of the icy Tommy Shelby who’s always in control. Only a man who wants to make his flight. And somehow, he did.
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Murphy says that security eventually enabled him to retain the item and made what would have been a potentially serious event a weirdly funny memory.
Still, the picture remains: a celebrity in front of armed policemen, justifying a prop of a TV set. It’s the kind of story that reminds you how surreal everyday moments can become. To Murphy, it must have been a lesson. To the rest of us, it is a wake-up call: perhaps, next time, you should consider not putting a souvenir in your carry-on. Since at times, even an innocent souvenir can lead to a very real scenario.
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