Americans think Cillian Murphy dropped ‘F bomb’ in Golden Globes win speech

The Oppenheimer star's funny and heartfelt speech has exposed a truth.

Cillian Murphy picked up a Best Actor prize at the Golden Globes last night for his role in Oppenheimer and delivered a charming, funny and heartfelt speech. However, his use of the Irish term "fecking" has exposed a truth - some Americans really do not really understand the word. For our non-Irish readers who may be unaware, "feck" is a common slang expletive in Irish-English and is used as a less serious alternative to "f**k", lacking the sexual connotations of the latter. That said, Murphy's use of Irish-English term at the Globes has revealed that some people in the US think "feck" and "f**k" are equally offensive. The actor said as he accepted his award:

"I want to thank Chris and Emma [Thomas, the director’s wife and Oppenheimer producer] for having faith in me for 20 years and six feckin’ pictures. Thanks so much.”

During the live broadcast of Murphy's speech, however, the sound dropped out when he said: "Six feckin' pictures. Thanks so much." You can see footage of the censored speech below:

Cillian Murphy wins the Golden Globe for Best Male Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama at the 2024 #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/v7NG6kgKBX

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 8, 2024

Americans think Cillian Murphy dropped 'F bomb' in Globes win speech

And though the Golden Globes later posted the full uncensored speech to its YouTube channel, one major US media outlet recapping Murphy's win referred to him as having dropped "F-bombs". Writing about the ceremony, Entertainment Weekly said:

"Cillian Murphy isn’t done dropping bombs — Irish F-bombs, that is. "The actor won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama on Sunday for his work in Oppenheimer, and viewers at home missed a key part of his speech due to censored profanity."

The difference between "feck" and "f**k" may be worth learning for US media outlets covering movies as Ireland in recent years has had a major presence during film awards season. Last year saw Irish movies The Banshees of Inisherin and An Cailín Ciúin up for Oscars, along with Paul Mescal for his work in the indie drama Aftersun. This year, meanwhile, Cillian Murphy is the bookies favourite to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards, where he could be competing against his fellow countrymen Andrew Scott and Barry Keoghan for their work in All of Us Strangers and Saltburn. All three were up for the Best Actor in a Drama Movie prize at last night's Golden Globes, with Murphy coming out victorious. You can check out his Globes win speech right here: Read more:

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