Spoilers for Steve are ahead. You can stream the film with a Netflix subscription.
The latest movie to drop on Netflix’s 2025 schedule, Steve, is an intense, empathetic and raw look into the lives of teachers at a struggling school. Cillian Murphy plays the titular teacher, and he works alongside Tracey Ullman’s Amanda. Throughout the film, they both struggle with everything they’re facing, and it all comes to a head toward the end. That climactic scene is moving and necessary for Steve, and when I spoke to Cillian Murphy about it, he told me why Ullman’s improvising during it gave him goosebumps.
This all came up because I asked the 2024 Oscar winner about working with Ullman, who is also a legend. I had read a quote from Elsbeth’s Carrie Preston about her guest-starring on the show, and she had described her as “magic.” So, I asked Murphy about a magic moment he had with the actress. In response, he brought up this key scene between Steve and Amanda, explaining:
It’s interesting because there’s a scene in the movie where Amanda kind of pushes Steve to say, ‘Tell me that it’s not your fault. Tell me that it’s not your fault.’ And she improvised all that. So it all happened in the moment, and we were completely all – it was all goosebumps.
I know I got goosebumps watching the scene. Throughout the entire film, bad things are happening to this school, and it’s specifically devastating when they find out it’s closing. Amanda and Steve confront that pain in this scene towards the end of the story, with Ullman’s character specifically telling Steve that all this is not his fault. She says:
No, no, I want you to talk about it. I want you to say it’s not your fault. I want you to acknowledge it. I want you to look at me and acknowledge it! ‘Cause you’re in agony, mate. You’re in fucking agony! You really are, and you can’t numb it, and you can’t stop it ‘cause you don’t fucking deal with it, Steve! You don’t fucking deal with it!
During this scene, the camera stays primarily on Murphy as Ullman’s character passionately tells him he needs to confront all this. He can’t hold it back anymore. It’s a powerful scene that directly addresses one of the primary conflicts of the movie — Steve’s inner turmoil and blame — and it stuck with me as I watched what happened to Steve in the film’s final moments.
According to the Peaky Blinders actor, while 95% of this movie was scripted, this scene was improvised, which, to me, speaks to Ullman’s talent. To that point, Murphy told me:
And like, 95% of the movie is not improvised, but that particular sequence, which is really crucial for Steve, that happened in the moment between me and Tracey, and it was like sort of goosebumps.
Goosebumps really is the best way to describe it. Throughout the film, we see the weight on Steve’s shoulders, and hearing Amanda tell him that this isn’t his fault is incredibly meaningful. He needed someone to tell him that, because she’s right, this isn’t all his fault. He’s simply stuck in a terrible situation, and they’re both working really hard to make it better.
It’s a remarkable example of the critical yet empathetic moments in this project on the 2025 movie schedule, and it’s a scene that highlights why Steve could be one of Ullman and Murphy’s best projects.
Now, to go back and see how this improvised and emotional moment fits into this film, you can stream Steve on Netflix.