The Northsider Colin Farrell’ is a label applied so often to Laurence Kinlan of late that he’s getting more than a little sick of it. “Every journalist I’ve met seems to use that one,” explains the 20 year old Dublin actor. “I mean I like Colin Farrell and what he’s done has opened doors for other Irish actors like me. Oliver Stone would hardly be over here casting for Alexander The Great if it wasn’t for Colin. But it’s mad hearing it all the time.”

He’ll probably have to live with the comparison. Having spent the last few years clocking up performances in Irish movies such as Angela’s Ashes, Saltwater and Everlasting Piece, the lad is widely tipped as the next big thing, and he’s now Hollywood bound in the manner of his Castleknock counterpart. Recent months have seen him pop up in Intermission, The Halo Effect, and Ned Kelly. The latter, a big budget biopic of the 1880’s Aussie outlaw casts Laurence as Dan Kelly alongside the likes of Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom. This he admits was something of a culture shock, having gotten used to make-your-own-coffee productions.
“It was just so different,” he admits. “It was brilliant getting to go to Australia to do a film with completely new people – apart from anything else, it was interesting watching how they worked and how a production this size works, because you have seven cameras going at once and that kind of thing. It wasn’t what I was used to from Irish films. We spent six months outside Melbourne because we couldn’t film in actual Kelly country – it’s covered in ten feet tall statues of Ned so that would have looked a bit stupid really.”
The film is based on the Robert Drew novel My Sunshine, a dreamlike retelling of the Kelly story which emphasises the mythical dimension. Having just about heard of this outback Robin Hood, Laurence duly felt the weight of history bearing down as the production approached.
“In the run-up to the movie, I started getting worried – it was only after I got to Australia that I fully realised how big Ned Kelly was over there, and that I’d better not fuck this up. So it was just a matter of getting down and reading everything that I could. I read My Sunshine, which the script is based on, and I read Peter Carey’s book, well most of it anyway! They did actually have loads of stuff for us to read, and they wanted us to look at all the conflicting stories and make up our own minds. We were told not to watch the Mick Jagger version, though.”
Did he form a distinct impression about the historical Dan Kelly, or indeed the Kelly gang.
“Yeah, I thought they were mad bastards” he laughs, “But they did have a soft side, and I reckon they were terrified. Knowing that you will be shot on sight must be mental. So it was important to get that across. Dan was considered to be more of a thinker. He never would have got into as much trouble as Ned would, but when it came to it, and it was a matter of family, he put his hand up for the cause. Whether you think that they are heroes are not, they sure stood up for what they believed in.”
And how about his high-profile, high-earning co-stars?
“They were all lovely.” insists Laurence, “All the guys are still in touch. It was a bit intimidating at first but it was great to be working on a film with people like Geoffrey Rush and Orlando and Heath Ledger, Naomi Watts and Rachel Griffiths, because you’re looking around and thinking ‘fuck, he’s won an Oscar, he’s getting millions’. But after a couple of weeks of talking to them, you just become friends and you stop looking at them in any other way.”
Still, with his new friends in tow Laurence has found himself getting caught in the crossfire of Orlando mania. “So many people show up wherever Orlando goes, and girls just go apeshit,” he reflects. “It’s funny, the first time I met him, I didn’t recognise him from his films, and I remember thinking ‘look at this guy, he’s a total born movie star, his teeth and everything are perfect. He’s like a model, this fella. This guy’s going to be huge.’ It didn’t take me long to find out that he already was. And then, I was at the Australian premiere in Melbourne and I was walking up the red carpet, and all these girls started screaming ‘Laurence! Laurence!’ and I thought ‘Oh my God, this is brilliant’ so I went over, but of course, they only wanted to ask ‘Where’s Orlando?’ Oh well, someday.”
Ned Kelly is on general release