“I was a bit sad”: the role Colin Farrell called one of the biggest “kicks on the arse” he’s ever taken
While his career and personal life haven’t always run smoothly, Colin Farrell has never lost the ability to portray compelling and fascinating characters in both TV and film.
Two of his best alter egos have come as a result of working with Martin McDonagh: a guilt-stricken hitman in In Bruges, and a paranoid small-town pest in The Banshees of Inisherin. Recently, he has impressed with his portrayal of a washed-up, identity-stealing gambler in Edward Berger’s criminally maligned Ballad of a Small Player, and as the titular supervillain in DC’s The Penguin, it takes a lot to get such a grounded performance out of a character who thinks he’s a bird.
Lost in the shuffle of the Irishman’s many triumphs is his role in the second season of True Detective, where he plays a local police officer who is tasked with investigating the death of a corrupt government official. As is usually the way with the series, he is one of many famous faces in the line-up, which also includes Vince Vaughn, Taylor Kitsch, and Rachel McAdams.
Sadly, not even this dazzling array of stars could blind the critics. Reviews of True Detective season two were pretty rough, and while most agreed that the principal cast did a grand job with their characters, a complicated plot and laboured script significantly weighed things down. Some outlets even put it in their year-end ‘Worst of’ lists covering all of TV, and as Farrell explained to The Independent, he took this to heart.
“I was a bit sad with True Detective because I really did have a great experience playing, what was the character’s name? Ray Velcoro,” he said. “Loved that character. Loved, loved, loved playing Ray. He was an animal, but he was a decent man that did a lot of despicable shit.” Well, you clearly didn’t love him enough to remember his name the first time around, did you, Colin?
Detective Ray Velcoro, who sadly has nothing to do with the popular shoe-fastening material, is indeed a gripping individual, just as bent as the official whose murder he’s trying to solve, but he comes equipped with his own sense of justice, as seen when he attacks the father of his son’s schoolyard bully.
Farrell plays him with his usual emotional heft (and a killer moustache), but this wasn’t enough to elevate the rest of the second season, which, in all honesty, was always going to struggle.
The first one, fronted by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, had gripped audiences with its tense atmosphere, nonlinear structure, and gorgeous cinematography, and was nominated for four Primetime Emmys, its only victory coming in for Cary Joji Fukunaga, who directed all eight episodes, while its predecessor failed to manage any awards shoutouts.
While Fukunaga didn’t return for the follow-up, series creator and lead writer Nic Pizzolatto stayed on as showrunner, so things shouldn’t have changed that drastically, but sometimes, that’s just how things go.
Sadly for all involved, the second season remains the black sheep of the True Detective family, where the third and fourth instalments both received critical acclaim, with Jodie Foster recently picking up an Emmy for her monumental efforts on season four; no wonder Farrell refers to it as “one of the kicks on the arse” he’s had in his career.
