The movie that “nearly killed” Colin Farrell
After starring in the BBC drama Ballykissangel, Colin Farrell quickly rose to prominence. The actor landed his first significant film role in Tim Roth’s The War Zone in 1999 before breaking into Hollywood through a part in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report in 2002. Since then, Farrell has balanced blockbusters such as S.W.A.T. and The Batman with more unusual picks, such as Yorgos Lanthimos’ brilliant feature The Lobster.
The actor has also enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Martin McDonagh, starring in three of his four films: In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, and, most recently, The Banshees of Inisherin. The latter earned Farrell his first ‘Best Actor’ nomination at the Academy Awards. Although Farrell currently harnesses a reputation as one of the industry’s most respected figures, at the start of his career, he was known for more than just his acting talents.
Farrell quickly garnered a reputation for being a party animal, becoming known as a Hollywood “bad boy”. The actor was frequently in the tabloids due to his hedonistic lifestyle, which involved plenty of alcohol, drugs and women. In 2005, he checked himself into a rehab clinic, and he has since ditched his reckless image.
During an interview with The Talks, Farrell was asked whether the “bad boy” label bothers him. He responded: “I am not attached to anything with regard to people’s opinions. Which is not to say opinions don’t affect me, but I am definitely not attached to them. I run not from anything nor run towards anything either, do you know what I mean?”
This led the interviewer to ask the actor whether he cares when one of his films is “panned”. He explained, “It is disappointing, but I identify myself less with my work than I used, so it doesn’t go in as deep anymore as other things that haven’t worked out in the past.” He subsequently revealed that Oliver Stone’s Alexander “nearly killed” him.
Farrell continued: “I mean, relatively speaking, coming from the very fortunate life that I’ve had, that was a very tough experience for me to go through, emotionally and psychologically. In an ideal world, you’ll make films and be parts of stories that people respond to. […] Films are made to be viewed by other people and to affect other people, to make them laugh or to make them question themselves or their environment or whatever it may be, to entertain. So, ideally, people will respond positively.”
The critical reaction to Alexander, in which the actor played Alexander the Great, was very poor, which shocked Farrell, who believed he had worked on an Oscar-worthy project. He explained to the Hollywood Reporter: “Expectation is a dangerous thing. Alexander was a story that Oliver Stone had dreamed of since he was in college. So, as grand as it was, as global as it was, as political as it was, as thrilling as it was, as violent as it was, and as sensual as it was, it was really personal — to Oliver and to me.”
Farrell continued: “We were all like, ‘Right, lads, we’re off to the Oscars. This is a sure thing.’ And then it came out. The reviews came out, and I remember someone going, ‘Oh God, it’s not good.’ And my publicist going, ‘It’s really not good.’ I was like, ‘Well, what do you mean ‘not good? … I felt so much shame. I found myself in a place where with everyone I met, I wanted to say, ‘Have you seen Alexander? If you have, I’m really sorry.’ I’m not even joking. I wasn’t going to give them their $20million back”.
Despite the hostile reception to Alexander, Farrell needn’t have worried. By 2006, he had starred in Michael Mann’s box-office success Miami Vice and the Academy Award-nominated The New World by Terrence Malick. Farrell’s star power only increased as the years went by, and Alexander is merely a minor flaw compared to his subsequent achievements.
