Why Tommy Shelby Never Eats In Peaky Blinders, Explained By Cillian Murphy

Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy explains why his character, Tommy Shelby, is never seen eating over the course of the series. Peaky Blinders sees the Irish actor play the protagonist and head of the Shelby crime family, joined by series regulars Annabelle Wallis (Malignant), Paul Anderson, Sophie Rundle, Joe Cole, Finn Cole, and the late Helen McCrory (Harry Potter). Several famed actors also feature in recurring roles throughout the show, including Sam Neill, Tom Hardy, Adrien Brody, Aidan Gillen, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Sam Claflin.

Created by British filmmaker Steven Knight (Locke) and set in the city of Birmingham, England, Peaky Blinders revolves around the exploits of the Peaky Blinders crime organization in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. The fictional group is roughly based on the real urban youth gang of the same name who sewed razor blades into the peaks of their caps and operated in the city from the 1890s to the 1910s. The series has obtained an enormous fanbase since it first premiered in 2013.

Now, in a recent interview with BBC Radio 1‘s Ali Plumb, Murphy explains why his Peaky Blinders character is never seen consuming any food throughout the show. He reveals that he wasn’t aware that Tommy had never eaten onscreen until after making Peaky Blinders seasons 1 & 2, which gave him and Knight the idea to go ahead with it and turn it into a “running gag.” Murphy also states that playing the character “for so long” afforded him and the showrunners with the “luxury” to add such details. Check out his full quote below:

I remember, we’d got through the first two series, and then realized that Tommy has never eaten, we’ve never seen Tommy eat. Like, he’s sat down at tables, but he’s never consumed a morsel. So, then we made it a kind of running gag. So, throughout the 36 hours of television, Tommy Shelby never consumes anything, except I think, once he consumes a sprig of mint when he’s with his son. So, these things develop when you have the luxury of being with a character for so long, these little things arise, and you just… You know, I will say to Steve, or Steve will pick up on it, and then we’ll just kind of run with it, you know.

Tommy never eating a single bite of food in the first 18 episodes of Peaky Blinders was first pointed out by viewers back in 2017, before the release of season 4, prompting fans to express their desire to finally see the lead character eat some form of solid food. Murphy had responded to the theory and tried to give some clarification as to why this was the case, saying the all-consuming nature of Tommy’s undertakings took over his life and didn’t give him enough time to sleep or eat, which he thinks was shown in “a brilliant way.“

Murphy’s latest comments on the much-discussed theory confirm that his character’s lack of appetite in the series was intentional, and more of a fun-fact for die-hard fans. While Tommy Shelby has swallowed the occasional mint leaf, as Murphy mentions above, the fact that the character has consumed whiskey a whopping 213 times onscreen may also give an idea as to why not too many fans have caught on to the bizarre stat. While Peaky Blinders season 6 is currently airing on BBC in the UK, international fans can find out if their desires are fulfilled when it drops on Netflix on June 10.

Source: Ali Plumb