Colin Farrell Interview ‘Total Recall’ By Sian Edwards VIVA PRESS 2012
Irish actor and former bad boy, Colin Farrell, 35, stars in the remake of Total Recall, taking the place of Arnold Schwarzenegger in this sci-fi futuristic action movie classic. He was seen last year in the comedy Horrible Bosses and the horror remake, Fright Night.
In his personal life, he’s done it all. Sex tapes, drug and alcohol addiction/rehab, and stalkers. He lives in Los Angeles and is father to two sons of different mothers: US model, Kim Bordenave, who gave birth to James, in 2003 who is afflicted with a rare developmental condition called Angelman Syndrome, and his other son, Henry, was born in 2009 to Ondine co-star Alicia Bachelda-Curus.
Q: How was it stepping into Schwarzenegger’s shoes?
I didn’t feel like I had to step into his shoes, genuinely. Like this film…. it’s always suspicious when someone says “genuinely” twice (laughs) but the film is different enough, and the character is different enough. Just like the other thing I did that was a remake, “Fright Night,” I wouldn’t have went near “Fright Night” if the character was as suave and as European feeling as Chris Sarandon’s Jerry Dandridge was. My character was kind of base and kind of arrogant, and feral, but anyway, this felt very different. So, I didn’t feel the pressure of having to walk in the shoes of Arnie, and thank God I didn’t have any one-liners because no one did one-liners like our Arnold.
Q: Could you tell me or describe the state of mind you are in right now, is it more the brain working or the heart?
Right this very moment?
Q: These days.
These days, we are aiming high.
Q: We?
We, yes. The heart, and the mind. The we. I pluralize. It’s all in tandem ideally, man. One listens to the other and you know, and they both respect each other’s opinions. Sometimes they are on the same page, and sometimes they are not and it’s funny.
Q: Is it more confusing?
No, it’s funny. You know the saying, we all say, ‘Trust your gut, trust your instinct.’ But where is your gut coming from? Like what is informing your gut?
Q: It’s deeper.
Yeah, but where does your gut get its voice? From experience. How has the experience formed you? Then, is your gut coming from fear, I have no idea.
Q: What drives you more - fear or desire?
Well, desire can be born out of fear. Take a man’s desire, take a 60 year old man’s desire, to sleep with as many younger women as he can, like women who are 25 or 30. Is that born of desire of fear?
Q: Well, it’s Viagra, isn’t it?
It’s Viagra. (laughs) That’s desire, but it’s born of what? It’s born of fear; it’s born of fear of mortality. It’s born of fear of not being attractive enough, so of the two I don’t think you can mutually exclude any ideas like that. But myself, I would have a great respect for the amount of fear that as a man I have in my life, whatever that fear is. The fear that I’m not a good actor, I’m not a good father, I’m not a good friend, fear I’m not going to leave my mark, a fear that I won’t get to experience next year, whatever it is. Flying, whatever it may be. In recognition of something I think you maybe can bring it on board. You can maybe ask it not to sit in the Captains seat but maybe be a co-pilot.
Q: Fright Night had some comedic elements in it – what about this one?
No.
Q: Are you going to be doing any comedy in the future?
No, thank you, no, but I’d love to. I want to have fun exploring all types of genres really. I had fun on Fright Night just to be able to go and it was fun. This film tonally is not….. I wouldn’t say the original is cheesy, but it was camp. You put a bullet in your wife’s head and you say (imitates Arnold) “Consider that a divorce!” (laughs) I mean, that was good. That was very good. It’s camp, and it’s not camp because it’s outdated. It was camp at the time, so it’s meant to be. It’s intended that way, it’s not an accident and it’s not about being dated. But this one is tonally different. I really approached it more as it’s a drama, set in the backdrop of these magnificent cityscapes and these really kind of elaborate action scenes.
Q: When you were growing up, were you of an age where the Arnie’s and the Sly’s were at the top of their game? Were they important to you as a kid?
Yeah, I don’t know if they were important but I think they certainly entertained me man. I mean Predator to this day, if that’s on the TV, I mean, number one. It’s still a brilliant film, but number
two, it’s an exercise in nostalgia for me as well. Commando, Red Heat with Belushi, I mean, I fucking watch Michael Dudikoff in American Ninja on Betamax, do you know what I mean? Chuck Norris, Delta Force, I mean all of that stuff. So all these boys are yeah, being a boy, I particularly at an earlier stage of my life loved action films.
Q: And who was the best of all these characters?
Arnie was pretty cool, to be honest with you. Terminator….he just had such a presence, such a presence. Rocky, I mean, come on man.
Q: Do you remember your dreams?
I do. Do you remember my dreams? (laughter)
Q: Would you like to tell?
Would I like to tell? No, no, no. The dreams are far too open for interpretation, I can only tell you cold, hard facts, of which may not any exist.
Q: So do you write it down? Do you have a dream diary?
Sometimes.
Q: More nightmares, or more good dreams?
No. I don’t know, it’s hard to separate. Again, nightmares are a dream that creates some unpleasant feeling unawake, is that what a nightmare is, regardless? One man’s spilled oranges could be another man’s vampire attacking him. I mean, oh Jesus, I saw re-runs of a TV show I did, (laughs) to someone else, they may be just bored, but me, I don’t know. Dreams have interesting things to say to us.
Q: Kate’s Beckinsale’s husband said that the elevator fight between Kate and Jessica Biel was the most polite fight he ever watched. How was it for you to beat up on Kate with her husband standing by?
I loved it. (Laughs) Kissing her was a bit tricky. Beating her up was okay. No it was fine, actually kissing her was tricky. It was fine, they were all pros, but between the two of them, the fight between the women was a bit, ‘Oh sorry, I got caught in your hair,’ a bit of that was going on. And then Kate one time, a bit where she gives me a shot in the neck, and turns around and chops me, and she kept checking me, which is good, and as the camera is rolling, she’s saying, “Sorry darling, sorry darling!”, ohhh! (laughs) I’ve hit guys in the face making films and you feel like shit, so you are very cautious, and these two very strong women, they are well able to take care of themselves.
Q: Have you been smacked a few times by accident? Or by intent maybe?
By horses more than anything. (laughs) Alexander, I got battered on that, man, by the horses, by the women too (laughs)
Q: In the Malick movie?
In The New World? Not so much in The New World, no, not so much in The New World. In this, bruises and cuts and all fun stuff, bruises and stuff, fun, some pulled muscles but Alexander was one I got battered. I fucking, I limped out of that film.
Q: Do you have a concept of reality yourself?
The fact that you could ask me that question here, has fucked with my concept of reality. (laughs) So significantly, I don’t even know where to start. Go on, continue.
Q: I learned that you have experience with altered realties.
Right, I do. Well long before I ever did drugs I had experience with altered realities.
Q: In which way?
Dreams as a child.
Q: Imagination?
Yeah. Imagination is the idea of trying to find some essential truth in that which is undiscernibly physical in this world we live in, and so, do I have a perception of reality? I do and I have a perception of how fickle it is and I know that. Without getting solipsistic, it’s as much about how you approach it as the thing that you actually approach.
Q: What is your most precious memory? What is the thing you most like about your past?
I don’t revisit it so much. I remember very fondly the days of playing football when I was a child. The days of playing soccer, long, glorious, sun kissed summer days, the smell of fresh cut grass in the air and the humming of bees also on the breeze. I really can remember that really distinctly, a bunch of nine year old boys on a grassy patch with their T-shirts off and their T-shirts being used as goal posts. They were fucking cool days man, they were cool days.
Q: Do you still play?
No, I haven’t kicked a ball in a while. But I would get giddy now, if football came out now, I would literally have a visceral, I would get giddy.
Q: How do you keep fit?
I go to the gym, I do yoga. It depends. Work dictates a good bit of what I do with myself, my life. Like, I just realized, I haven’t had a haircut that hasn’t been on a film set in 15 years. I just don’t. You wake up, you go to work and then let it all hopefully grow which is not that important of a deal but, like fitness as well, for this film, I ran a lot. I don’t like running, and I lifted a lot of weights and heavier weights than I usually lift. I’m about to start a film. I had a particular idea of the character physically and it’s not dramatically any different from Total Recall but with my frame, small differences take a good deal of work to get to, so I’m doing a lot of spinning.
Q: That’s not fun.
(laughs) thank God it’s only 45 minutes. 15 minutes into the class you’ve only got a half an hour left. (laughs)
Q: What inspires you besides making movies?
Just existing really. Just existing and my kids, of course, I’m a dad of two boys and traveling inspires me, meeting different people inspires me, food inspires me, sunset inspires me, music inspires me.
Q: So has being a father changed you?
Sure, but you know, being in Tuesday has changed me from being in Monday, (laughs) sure absolutely. I don’t know what ways it’s changed me, I could go, yeah, I’ve become more….. but my first was almost three years old before I made any significant changes. But yeah, of course.
Q: Thank you.
END