Which Actor Was Almost Cast As Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby In Peaky Blinders? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Cillian Murphy is Tommy Shelby. The brooding eyes, the sharp cheekbones, the unsettling calm before he unleashes chaos—he owns it. But here’s the wild part: he almost lost the role to Jason Statham. Yeah, that Jason Statham. Imagine Peaky Blinders with more punches and less psychological terror.

Director Steven Knight initially had his heart set on Statham. “I met them both in LA,” Knight spilled (via Esquire). “Jason is Jason. Cillian, when you meet him, isn’t Tommy.” Basically, Knight wasn’t sold on Murphy’s physicality. And honestly, even Murphy knew it. “There was a bit of convincing needed,” he later admitted (via The Guardian).

But Murphy wasn’t backing down. In the ultimate flex, he shot Knight a text saying, “Remember, I’m an actor.” That one line flipped the script,...