The shamrock raver

"Ah you fucking dirty bitch. Could you not keep your legs closed, or what?" OK, so its not how most people would choose to greet an eight months pregnant woman, but Colin Farrell isn’t most people. The 27-year old Dublin born actor has already acquired quite the reputation as a memorable interviewee (amongst other things) thanks to his penchant for straight-talking and that staple of Dublin wit – unmerciful slagging. Besides, rest assured that his remarks about your correspondent’s condition were intended in the nicest possible manner, delivered with constant pats to the bump, and such a devilishly disarming smile that you suspect that he could say a lot worse and still not get slapped in the gob for his efforts.

Of course, not everyone gets Colin Farrell. Especially not in America. Over there, even internet shrines exclusively dedicated to the worship of the lad tend to have message-boards covered in sentiments of the "He’s sooooo dreamy. If only he didn’t cuss so much" variety. Indeed, many were outraged last year when Farrell suggested that he was through with the concept of ‘love’ and wished to focus solely on the pursuit of casual sex instead. That such sentiments might be common among recently divorced blokes in their mid-twenties didn’t seem to deter the pseudo-feminist, neo-puritan stream of complaints that followed.

This was all fairly mild, however, compared with the kerfuffle surrounding the recent Vanity Fair cover story on Farrell. The magazine had assigned a journalist to spend a few days with the actor in his beloved native city, only for Farrell’s candour and alcohol consumption to leave the writer (and many Vanity Fair readers) floored.

"It was a set up," says Farrell of the experience now. "I mean, you can meet me for a couple of hours, and I’ll chat away to you, and there’ll be no bullshit. I said plenty to him, but he decided to take a fucking stance. He decided he was going to write me up as an animal. Okay. I was home for the few days and I was on the batter but he twisted words around to suit himself. Like he said I had a row with a barman in Reynards when we were only having a bit of a banter.

"And then came the complaint letters. I got this one from Shannon in Chicago: ‘I’m Irish American and you’re representing us badly.’ I nearly wanted to write back to her, except that I would have found it really hard not to use the word cunt. And I would’ve found it really hard not to point out that she wasn’t actually Irish, but I am. I may be from the posh part of town, but I know where I’m coming from, I’m not just named after some Irish river. But yeah, the journalist just printed what he wanted in the first place. I wasn’t quite the drunken animal he made out."

Almost certainly Farrell speaketh the truth, as he’s far from the belligerent type on booze. I can vouch for this, because when I meet up with him, the man is at the end of a gruelling two-day binge. (After all, having seemingly single-handedly filled the Irish tabloids with tales of incessant partying and romantic dalliances for the duration of his recent visit home, how else was he going to spend his last six hours in Dublin?).
Though clearly slaughtered, and dreading the flight ahead ("I fucking hate flying"), he’s still good company and one charming fucker to boot. He’s also fantastically unguarded, a trait which, ironically, has ensured that even in his native country he’s frequently misquoted. When I ask him, for example, about his recent derogatory remarks regarding Irish womens’ bikini zones, he assures me that he’s never had a problem with our national pubic grooming habits.

"Oh, the Sunday Independent fucking had that, and they fucking nailed me there," he says. "Listen, I have noticed that Irish women aren’t as kempt, but that’s not something to complain about. I wouldn’t complain about it anyway. That was totally twisting something I had said into this whole big ‘Irish pussy isn’t good enough for Colin’ thing. And that’s bullshit. I mean I’m not just trying to butter you up because you’re a woman when I say to you that I have never met a pussy I wouldn’t eat."

If Farrell isn’t as restrained as is the Hollywood norm, this is not only refreshing but more than understandable when one factors in the phenomenal speed of his meteoric rise through the thespian ranks. As he puts it himself: "There’s no handbook to teach you what happens when you’re suddenly in the public eye. There’s no Being A Celebrity for Dummies. I know, I’ve checked! Basically, the closest thing my entire family had to a brush with fame before now, was when my dad (Eamonn Farrell) and my uncle (Tommy Farrell) would have been in the papers because they played for Shamrock Rovers."
Football was actually a career option that young Colin aspired to himself, though not specifically with the Hoops.

"I don’t have a team," he reveals. "My old fellah, what a fucking eejit. He told me never to support a team. Don’t get me wrong. I get it. I get football, but this was drummed into me from I was eight. Now you don’t fucking say that to an eight-year-old because the next thing you know I’m at football games, and all my mates are going mad, jumping up and down, and I’m there ‘Oh, that was a good cross’. What bollix."

Unfortunately, a glittering career living out every young boy’s ultimate dream in the League of Ireland proved beyond young Colin’s reach.

"You know how it is – you’ve done a couple of litres of cider, a few joints and then you start looking at birds. You don’t exactly impress on the training ground the following morning."

A steady diet of what Farrell calls "yokes" didn’t exactly enhance the lad’s performance on the park either.

"I used to be dropping yokes all the time. I was at the Pod when it opened – one of these kids with a rubber T-shirt. You know the kind. Sometimes I’d be dropping yokes just sitting in my bedroom, then I’d go downstairs and watch some game with me da. He wouldn’t have a clue, now. But my head got wrecked by yokes in the end. The fear, you know? I do have a good reign on myself, and I pulled myself up before I went too far, but I was miserable for a good while after. But it was just pints and joints for me after that."
Instead of becoming the new George Best (though arguably Colin could give him a run in the partying hard stakes), Farrell spent three years at Castleknock (where he played rugby), two at Gormanston and, at 17, a year waiting on tables in Australia, before following his sister Catherine into the Gaiety School Of Acting. Although he dropped out soon after, the acting bug had well and truly bitten, and a few months later the breakthrough came when he successfully auditioned for the role of Danny Byrne in Ballykissangel.

After two years in tea-time telly, Farrell decided to leave the series in order to clock up a few extra credits on the CV, ending up on the London stage in the Donmar production of In A Little World Of Our Own. His performance as an autistic teen in the play won many admirers, and Kevin Spacey happened to be among them. It was he who immediately suggested Farrell to Irish director Thaddeus O’Sullivan for a supporting role in Ordinary Decent Criminal, a comedic reworking of the Martin Cahill story.

More importantly, Spacey hooked the young actor up with an agent in L.A. As a result, Farrell was catapulted from supporting film roles in small indie flicks such as Drinking Crude (1997) and Tim Roth’s directorial debut The War Zone (1999) straight into Hollywood and, despite having turned up late for the audition, he impressed director Joel Schumacher (Falling Down, Batman & Robin) sufficiently to land the lead role in 2000’s Tigerland.

The film saw Farrell play Boz, a non-conformist Texan drifter training in Louisiana for a stint in the Vietnam war. The Castleknock lad’s performance – and more remarkably his accent – was perfectly pitched, and earned a Best Actor Award from the Boston Society of Film Critics.

Almost certainly then, were it not for Farrell’s impeccable rep as a chick magnet, people would be asking what proverbial cock you have to suck in order to facilitate such a series of lucky breaks.

"I know, I know," he nods. "I wonder about it myself. It was just amazingly good fortune. I had so many breaks. It was a big break getting Ballykissangel, and then it was a big break getting the play in London, and then I met Spacey because of that, and that was huge, because out of that I got Ordinary Decent Criminal and an American agent – so then I got the meeting with Schumacher. It was a whole series of things, rather than one moment."

Since Tigerland, Farrell’s career has seen him working with such big leaguers as Bruce Willis, Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise and Samuel L. Jackson. Not bad for a self-confessed "lazy bastard" – though, until recently, a string of flops (including Hart’s War and American Outlaws) had movie magazines such as Empire asking just when was Colin Farrell going to start justifying his salary (now standing at $8 million a movie). Movieline magazine went further and rather unkindly dubbed Farrell the Actor Most In Need of a Hit To Support The Hype way back in November, 2001.

Thankfully, the pressure’s off a bit, as the last year has seen the actor attached to some major crowd pleasers including Daredevil, which saw his comicbook super-villian battling against Ben Affleck’s blind superhero, and Minority Report – though Farrell modestly shrugs off any contribution he may have made towards the latter’s success. "That ain’t me babe," he insists. "That’s Spielberg and Cruise doing the business there. It was great, and when I got offered Minority Report, I thought – Jesus, they must be on fucking drugs. It’s like this, though, I don’t need anyone telling me – this better be worth it. I know that a lot of people have had a lot of faith in me.

"You know, you feel bad because someone is always paying your wages. Like I got two and a half million for Hart’s War, and then the thing fucking bombed. I live in the real world. I know I’m only going to get so many chances. That’s why it was nice when The Recruit did a bit of bread. So hopefully I’ll get a couple more films now, before they fuck me out of Hollywood."

That bit of bread for The Recruit included the number one slot, and over $16 million in takings for the opening weekend alone in the US. However, Farrell was attracted to this taut espionage thriller for reasons other than its potential box office revenue; in it his rookie CIA agent gets to pitch his wits in a game of cat-and-mouse with no less a personage than Al Pacino. Despite the esteemed on-screen competition, Farrell once again shines in his role as a cheeky young pup.

"Do you know, it’s funny, I didn’t even realise he was a cheeky young pup, until I saw the thing," says Farrell of his character. "I thought he was a miserable cunt at first. He’s a bit of a moper, still banging on about the death of his father years later. I did the film more because Pacino was in it, and to get a script that allowed you to spar with him was fucking great."

Was Pacino an intimidating figure, at all?

"More than anything else, my preconceptions of him made him scary. I thought he’d be a thorny old fucker alright, but he was a gem, he was a peach. Honest. If anything, he’s a bit shy. Head down – that kind of thing – and then someone yells action, and up he comes like a peacock."

Did the legendary actor’s method acting techniques manifest themselves at all?
"There were touches of it, alright," recalls Farrell. "There was one night, and he started screaming at himself – ‘Come on, Al, Method!!’ Everyone shuddered. I mean he wasn’t screaming at anyone except himself, ’cos everyone was having a laugh, and then he thought he wasn’t concentrating. But he was brilliant. Aw Jesus, he probably thinks that’s very personal, and I’m after blabbing it now!"

In addition to The Recruit, Colin Farrell fans can get a further fix of their idol in April, with the release of Phone Booth, in which he plays a role previously linked with everyone from Ed Norton to Will Smith. It’s an important landmark in the actor’s career, as it will test whether he’s now in a position to open a movie on his own. It’s been a long time coming in every sense. The film, which features Farrell as a sleazy publicist at the mercy of a sniper (Kiefer Sutherland), was postponed after September 11, and again after the Maryland sniper killings.

Phone Booth also marks the actor’s third collaboration with director Schumacher, when you factor in the forthcoming Veronica Guerin movie, ("I only have five lines in that though. It’s a real ‘go for a piss and you’ll miss it’ appearance.") and quite clearly, the pair work well together.

"I fucking adore Schumacher," gushes Farrell. "I have a huge amount of respect for him. He’s been a really good friend apart from anything else. I trust him completely. He knows my family, my mother loves him. He’s cool."

Despite the familiarity with the director, it has been a bit weird thinking about Phone Booth for promotional purposes, as the making of the film coincided with Colin’s whirlwind romance with British actress Amelia Warner. The pair were married in July, 2001 only to separate six months later. Still, Farrell has only happy memories of that time.

"We were still rehearsing, but getting ready to shoot for Phone Booth, when I met her. So, it was a bit of a mindfuck. There I was in the middle of a mental twelve-day shoot, three cameras going at once, all that stuff, and then going home to her in my hotel room at night. There’s no doubt that if an actor can have a muse, then she was my muse for that gig."

So, there’s no sense of acrimony since the divorce?

"No way. There’s no regrets at all. It’s two years later and her name is still on my finger. There’s no bitterness there at all, and I don’t think she feels bitter toward me either."
As Colin Farrell’s previously noted candour doesn’t stretch to Britney’s sexual etiquette ("Ah you must be fucking joking. I can’t be telling you that. I should’ve known you’d ask though"), we end up discussing whether or not fame has changed him.

"Do you know, I don’t really get off on myself that much. To tell you the truth, I don’t see myself as being all that interesting or attractive. Occasionally, I do look around, and there’s Pacino, and you go – Jesus, it’s Michael Corleone. So sometimes I find that I’m looking at things as a child, or as a fan. That’s the only time it’s a really big deal. Put it to you this way, I’m not sure how many millions it will take for me to start throwing tantrums on set yet. There may be a reporter outside my brother’s house, but there hasn’t been any big change with me."

And in a world full of sanitised and strategically marketed celebrities, we should all be grateful for that.

Colin Farrell: Select Filmography:

Drinking Crude (1997)
The War Zone (1999)
Ordinary Decent Criminal (1999)
Tigerland (2000)
Hart’s War (2001)
American Outlaws (2002)
Minority Report (2002)
Daredevil (2003)
The Recruit (2003)
Phone Booth (2003)
Veronica Guerin (2003)
S.W.A.T. (2003)
Intermission (2003)

Colin Farrell’s leading ladies

KIM BORDENAVE
When Colin announced recently that he’s going to be a dad in six months, the revelation kickstarted a tabloid feeding frenzy to find possible mothers. There are quite a few candidates, but so far, this 33-year-old model is the frontrunner. She met Colin on a movie set, and it was rumoured to be lust at first sight. Aw! There’s one to tell the kid growing up.

AMELIA WARNER
The former Mrs. Farrell married Colin in July, 2001. The marriage only lasted until November, but Colin still touchingly refers to her as his muse.

NICOLE NARAIN
Colin has quite the eye for exotic types having previously been linked with Naomi Campbell. This particular dusky beauty shared Colin’s bed for “five frantic months”. Apparently she was a mite pissed off after the recent Britney debacle, claiming “I’m angry, hurt and very jealous that it isn’t me.”

BRITNEY SPEARS
Though Colin admits that the whole furore surrounding his appearance with the fast-fading pop princess was a stunt, he had been seeing the girl for two weeks prior to the photo op. And not just for coffee, if Nicole Narain is to be believed – “I know they were having sex, because he told me. But what does he see in her? This isn’t a mature woman we’re dealing with here.” Somebody should hook this woman up with fellow Britney casualty Fred Durst, quick.

DEMI MOORE
Having starred alongside Hollywood stalwart Bruce Willis in Hart’s War, Colin went one better recently when he attended the Golden Globes with the former Mrs. Willis draped across him. The ensemble earned lavish praise from all the assembled fashionistas.

KATE BECKINSALE
This English rose had just split up from hubby Michael Sheen, her partner of nine years. Within minutes, she was spotted having dinner with Colin at the Sanderson Hotel in London. The dinner was said to have seemed ‘intimate’. What, were they eating the food off each other?