Farrell brings bad boy to big screen

Farrell plays corrupt cop Jimmy Egan in new film Pride and Glory

By Genevieve Hassan
Entertainment reporter, BBC News

"How disappointing, I could've nutted him," that's what Colin Farrell regrets not having done to fellow actor Edward Norton on the set of their latest film, Pride and Glory.

It is not that Farrell really has a desperate urge to knock the living daylights out of his co-star.

It is just that he did not know - until I mentioned it - that Norton, known for being a method actor, once reportedly knocked the teeth out of a fellow actor during a fight scene.

Farrell would apparently have liked the opportunity for a bit of fight but instead emerged from the gritty urban police drama with "not a lick" on him.

But it is that sort of comment which perhaps perpetuates the bad boy reputation Farrell has acquired over the years, thanks to a much publicised sex tape and a spell in rehab for alcohol and drug dependency in 2005.

Edward Norton (right) stars as Farrell's on-screen brother-in-law

Waiting to interview him was therefore a little unnerving but when the door opened, he doffed his hat and turned on the Irish charm - not a hint of the tearaway about him.

His latest role is a far departure from the good-guy roles we are used to seeing him in though.

Curiosity factor

Farrell plays Jimmy Egan, a cop who marries into a multi-generational family of New York police officers (Norton and Jon Voight are his on-screen brother and father-in-law), and ends up at the centre of a corruption scandal.

The star says that it was not a conscious decision to play the opposite of what people expect from him.

"I did actually think that maybe there was a mistake and that the part of Ray [Norton's character] was the part they were considering me for, so I called my agent and said 'are you sure it's the part of Jimmy?'.

There is an argument to be had for the way he acts and how remorseless he is Colin Farrell on his Pride and Glory character

"The character was something that was very foreign to me and the type of character that I hadn't explored before, so therein lay the curiosity and it jumped off the page."

So how did he prepare for such a bad-guy role - a person from whom not even babies are safe?

"You just find some rationale for the characters' actions," says Farrell.

"I would disagree with certain things Jimmy does in the film, but I also know that there is an argument to be had for the way he acts and how remorseless he is."

Farrell's character comes from a family of cops, but in real life the actor is from a family of footballers - with his father, Eamon, and uncle Tommy Farrell both playing for the Irish team Shamrock Rovers.

Career choices

Despite his male family history, Farrell says he did not feel any pressure to follow in their career footsteps.

"No I didn't, but I wanted to," he says.

"Well I thought I wanted to - but I don't think I wanted it as much as I thought, because I would've played more if I did.

"But until I was about 14, I played club level in Dublin and then I couldn't make training and I started having interests in other things. But my dad never pushed me in that direction."

Colin Farrell on missing out on joining Boyzone.

But football was not Farrell's only career option.

Life could have been very different for the star had he not been turned down when he auditioned for the Irish boyband Boyzone.

"I don't think I would've lasted too long in the band," he laughs, adding that he is "tone deaf" after singing a few bars of Love Me For A Reason into an invisible microphone.

"Yeah, life would've been very different - but if I had finished school maybe my life would be different. Had I not been accepted into drama school, who knows?"

He seems to linger on the what-ifs before snapping out of his reverie in time to say that the only way he now stretches his vocal cords is "in a hairbrush, just on my own".

As I leave the room, Farrell suddenly asks: "Do you smoke? No? You should start - it's great!"

Now that's more like the bad boy I was expecting.

Pride and Glory is released in cinemas across the UK on Friday 7 November.