Academy Award-nominee Cillian Murphy said he didn't know landing his breakthrough role in 2002's 28 Days Later meant starring in a zombie movie, Variety reported.

During a conversation for the SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Conversations program in December last year, the actor spoke about working with director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland on the film. In 28 Days Later, Murphy played Jim, who wakes up from a coma 28 days after a virus which induced rage in the population and causing society to break down.

He hadn't seen any of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead movies so, “I wasn't too aware we were making a zombie movie, to be honest with you,” he said.

At that time, zombie weren't as popular a trope as they are now as well.

“Before 28 Days Later, there weren't that many zombie movies – it was kind of a dead genre,” Murphy noted, which caused the audience to laugh over the pun – an unintended one.

He also recalled how he saw so many references to the film during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The amount of memes – I do know what a meme is – that everybody sent me during the pandemic of 28 Days Later was crazy,” Murphy continued.

“It just shows that good writing is prescient, it always remains prescient and relative,” he added.

The actor recalled how he got the role and said that he was already a fan of Boyle's, having seen his film Shallow Grave and Trainspotting.

“They were formative films for me. I remember going to see them in the cinema, they were huge for me. So I desperately wanted [28 Days Later],” he said. Murphy added that he must have auditioned six times to get the role.

When he was asked if he was nervous as a newcomer then to lead a film with veteran actors like fellow Irishman Brendon Gleeson, he said he was thankful that they had already done a film together. Murphy and Gleeson were in 1998's Sweety Barrett.

The actor said that there were actually two ending to 28 Days Later: one in which his character survives and another where he doesn't. Murphy said that when he was younger and a bit more of a nihilist, he preferred having the two women surviving and “f**k the man.” However, the studio or the producers wanted the one that ended with hope.

While the conversation ended with the actor saying he's open to a sequel, it's not clear yet if he is reprising his role in the upcoming 28 Years Later, which reunites him with Boyle and Garland. It has been confirmed that Murphy will be serving as executive producer.