Ever since his breakthrough as the target of Kiefer Sutherland's psychopathic sniper in
Phone Booth
, Farrell has raced around Hollywood making police thrillers with the likes of Al Pacino (
The Recruit
), Samuel L. Jackson (
S.W.A.T.
) and Jamie Foxx (
Miami Vice
). He has made little-seen movies by auteurs including Terrence Malick (
The New World
), Woody Allen (
Cassandra's Dream
, straight to DVD here) and, although he looked cute in a skirt, was terribly miscast as the great Egyptian conquerer in Oliver Stone's big budget debacle,
Alexander
.
By the time Farrell had completed
Miami Vice
, he had run out of steam, so he took a break for the first time in seven years. "I actually took stock of what I do. I asked myself, do I still want to do it? Do I want to keep doing it? And if I am going to keep doing it, how do I want to do it?"
Whether or not giving up the booze has made a difference, Farrell now delivers one of his best performances ever in the black comedy,
In Bruges
. And thankfully, it's no grandiose exercise. In Bruges will make you laugh and maybe even cry, but it will surely do two things. It will astonish you with the writing by the award-winning playwright and first-time feature director Martin McDonagh (
The Beauty Queen of Leenane
), and it will make you fall in love with Farrell's irascible Irish scallywag, yet again.
"Irish scallywag," he repeats, mulling over the words and smiling. "It was fun, it was lovely. Just the way Ray talks, the way he smiles, the way he looks. It was a great script - it started and finished with that really. Wonderfully unique writing that those who are aware of Martin's plays have already become used to."
An Oscar winner for his short film
Six Shooter
, McDonagh, who is of Irish ancestry and travels on an Irish passport, has been able to cast a more critical eye on Irish culture because he was born in London. The astute human observations he brought to his hugely successful plays are in evidence here, and it's all very Irish, even if the action happens in Bruges.
Irishmen Ray and Ken (Brendan Gleeson, the star of Six Shooter) have come to Belgium's best-preserved medieval city to escape the heat following Ray's accidental murder of a child. Based in London, they are instructed by their gnarly gangster boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes), to have a holiday, which to Ray means girls and getting drunk. But underneath it all, Ray is grieving. Ultimately he knows he has come to Bruges to die, one way or the other.
"The story is more about what lies beneath the surface rather than what he does for a living," says Farrell. "What comes up is a young man very confused about his place in the world and who has made some very wrong decisions that came with tragic consequences. But there's a really interesting journey of him going back to himself. What reigns supreme in Martin's work is hope."
"This part in some ways is sexier and more dangerous than what Colin's done before," notes McDonagh. "I wanted to tap into some other things that I saw in him when I met him, which is a quietness and a sadness somehow, a shyness, a vulnerability maybe. And as we all know, he's got a tremendous sense of humour."
Smoking as many cigarettes as he can lay his hands on, Farrell sports stubble, long hair and wears a waistcoat and baggy pants. He looks gorgeous and fit, and what comes as a surprise is that the former soccer player doesn't have any crow's feet around the eyes.
"You must need new glasses," he suggests.
What does he do to keep healthy?
"Nothing at all."
No gym?
"Not at all. None of that nonsense."
Since becoming a father, Farrell has developed a new sense of responsibility. Although retaining close ties with Dublin, for two years he has lived in Los Angeles to be near his four-year-old son James (with ex-girlfriend Kim Bordenave), who suffers from a rare neuro-genetic disorder called Angelman Syndrome. "He's doing fine," says his very proud father. "I'm incredibly blessed to have him in my life."
Farrell acknowledges that he has settled down a lot since he first arrived in Hollywood and basically went crazy.
"I hope I grow up a bit every day. I'm still a big child really, and that will always be part of who I am as a man as I've still got a mischievous nature. I like to have a laugh, but yeah, you grow up through time I guess. It was interesting when I stood back and took a little break because now I'm finding a new creative energy as far as the work goes."
His upcoming role in Gavin O'Connor's much-delayed crime drama,
Pride and Glory
, was agreed upon before
Miami Vice
, and it is since then that Farrell has gone out on a limb. Earlier this year he was one of three actors, together with Jude Law and Johnny Depp, to finish playing Heath Ledger's part in Terry Gilliam's
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
.
"I didn't know Heath particularly well, but we'd met a few times," he says. "We lost one of the truly good ones out there, you know. He was a wonderful, compassionate human being, a fine actor and he was only getting better. So we did what we needed to do to get his work out there. He's too good for it not to be seen."
Farrell, a bad sleeper like Ledger, once had a problem with prescription drugs. "We won't go there," he says politely. Even so, since our interview, there is yet another Ledger comparison. Farrell has stunned Hollywood by going to great lengths for a role, losing what is believed to be 19kg to portray a war-torn photographer in
Triage
, based on a novel by Scott Anderson and directed by Bosnian Danis Tanovic.
"I lost weight because my role demanded it," Farrell told reporters at a recent press conference in Spain. "It was all very healthy." Hopefully he can stay that way, because Farrell is also only getting better with age.
LOWDOWN
Who:
Colin Farrell, heart-throb Irish actor with wild-man reputation
What & when:
In Bruges (opens November 6)
