Cillian Murphy refuses to take photos with fans.

The 47-year-old actor has become known around the world for his role as gangster Thomas Shelby in the acclaimed series 'Peaky Blinders' and has been nominated for an Oscar for his recent star turn in 'Oppenheimer' but admitted that he prefers to have a conversation with a fan if they bump into him on the street rather than pose for a selfie.

He told GQ: "Once I started doing that, it changed my life. I just think it’s better to say hello, and have a little conversation. I tell that to a lot of people, you know, actor friends of mine, and they’re just like: 'I feel so bad'.

"But you don’t need a photo record of everywhere you’ve been in a day.”

Cillian also explained to the outlet that he prefers to work on just one film a year because a lot of his friends are not in the business and he "loves" not having to work but also counts living his everyday life as "research" for himself as an actor and whatever his next role might be.

He said: "I have a couple of friends who are actors but a majority of them are not. The majority of my buddies are not in the business. I also love not working.

"And I think for me a lot of research as an actor is just living, and, you know, having a normal life doing regular things and just being able to observe, and be, in that sort of lovely flow of humanity.

"If you can’t do that because you’re going from film festival to movie set to promotions…I mean that’s The Bubble.

"I’m not saying that makes you any better or less as an actor, but it’s just a world that I couldn’t exist in. I find it would be very limiting on what you can experience as a human being, you know?"