Colin Farrell is having a hell of a year already, having earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor as Padraic in The Banshees of Inisherin for which he is also nominated for two SAG Awards, a BAFTA, won his second Golden Globe, the Volpi Cup at Venice and winner of several critics prizes including New York, Boston, National Society of Film Critics and National Board of Review among many others. This comes after a busy 2022 in which he was seen in four major films including as The Penguin in The Batman (for which his remarkable transformation also is cited by the Oscars with a Make Up and Hairstyling nomination); Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives, playing real-life diving hero John Volenthen; and the critically acclaimed After Yang. Can we say versatile?
On top of all this, as he tells me in our conversation for this week’s edition of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side, Farrell is about to begin production on the new HBO Max series The Penguin ,in which he will continue to explore the many sides of this villain from the DC Universe.
The Dublin-born actor has been a major star since his breakthrough in 2000’s Tigerland, followed by a career in which he has starred for the likes of Steven Spielberg (Minority Report), Oliver Stone (Alexander), Michael Mann, Tim Burton, Woody Allen, Peter Weir, Yorgas Lathimos and on and on. He talks about those experiences, his regrets, his favorites, who he is taking to the Oscars and why he also keeps returning to work with Banshees writer-director Martin McDonagh, for whom he also starred in 2008’s In Bruges and later 2012’s Seven Psychopaths. McDonagh in fact wrote Banshees as a reunion for Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, even though these are wildly different characters than the hitmen they played in In Bruges. It also represents a return to his roots by shooting in his home country of Ireland.
To watch our conversation just click on the link above.
Join me every week during Oscar season for another edition of The Actor’s Side.
