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Having fought off hoards of flesh-eating zombies in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, Cork-born Cillian Murphy joins a top ensemble cast for Intermission. He plays John, a supermarket worker whose split from his girlfriend sets off a chain of events affecting everyone around them.

Intermission has a big cast - 54 speaking characters, 11 different storylines. What was that like to work on?

Just wonderful. It was very much about performances, the whole ensemble thing was just great - everybody working together. Sometimes it didn't feel like a film set. It wasn't technically driven, it was very, very enjoyable

Your character's storyline is basically a love story...

He's embarked on this unnecessary journey really, to fix something that's not really broken - his relationship with Deirdre [played by Kelly Macdonald]. I thought it was a very sharp insight into Irish men who can't just say the thing and do it - they have to go and do all the most ridiculous things to get to the actual point. That was great, very accurate. As a young Irish male, I recognised a lot of myself in him.

Is that a typical Irish trait then?

I don't know, I guess I can only speak for myself and some of my friends. But not having a huge grasp of your emotional, ehm, whatever the word is, not being able to, you know, articulate that... Ehm, I think I've just answered the question by default!

You've done film and theatre and TV. Do you have a preference?

I enjoy all aspects of it, I don't have a preference for any medium. I think each of them has its attractions and I would hope they each inform the other in some way. Having started out in theatre, I feel an impulse to do it as much as I can. And in film and TV, I try to base it on the words on the page and the people involved, not so much commercial reasons.

Do you prefer playing darker or lighter roles?

Sometimes the darker stuff has greater potential for drama, it's always interesting to investigate things that you might come across in your own life. There's a lot of comedy in Intermission but it's got this depth. It's not comedy for comedy's sake - it's informed by something else. I like stuff like that.

With the success of 28 Days Later in the States, do you have ambitions to work over there?

I'd love to work in America, some of my favourite films come from America, [and] there are some great directors over there. I don't have a burning passion to live in America per se but I would certainly like to work there.