Cillian Murphy has "zero interest" in playing "content" characters.

The 49-year-old actor has previously joked about always being cast as traumatised men but he has admitted working on "lighter material" isn't where his interest lies because he wants to explore life's "big questions".

He told The Observer magazine: "I have zero interest in playing characters that are seemingly content.

"First of all, I don't think that exists. Second of all, we don't see ourselves in those people. I think everyone is f****** struggling, to a greater or lesser degree. Everyone gets up in the morning like: how do I do this now? How do I get through this day? How the f*** do we get on in life knowing that, like, eventually, we're all just going to die. How do we do good? How do we raise our children?

"All these big questions, I don't think you find it in lighter material. It's not for me."

The Oppenheimer star wants to explore social issues in his work but insisted that doesn't mean his films won't be entertaining too.

He said: "Given the state of the world, it would be nice to make work that is entertaining but also kind of stimulating or provocative."

Cillian can next be seen in Steve, in which he plays the titular man, a headmaster at a school for troubled boys in the 1990s and he found it "very exposing" because the character was close to who he is.

He said: "For example, Tommy Shelby, you gotta get the suit on, you do the voice, you do the cigarette, you do the walk.

"There's a huge amount of work to become this [gangster] who I don't share any DNA with.

Whereas Max [Porter] had written [Steve] for me, and we know each other so well that it's written in my vernacular. It was very, very exposing."

Nearly all of Cillian's family were teachers, and he has "huge respect" for the profession.

He said: "It kind of never stops, being a teacher. I just lived it as a kid with my parents. I have huge respect for them."

The Peaky Blinders star's dad Brendan eventually became a primary school inspector, and even had to visit the establishment his son was attending.

Cillian laughed: "He was coming in and I was the one that was being thrown out of school all the time. So that was an interesting phase in our lives.

"I was just a terrible messer, you know?"