Success can be dangerous when you’re young. You lose touch with what matters... now I do yoga
BOOZE & DRUGS ALL IN THE PAST FOR COLIN FARRELL
Even Colin Farrell no longer recognises himself in the hellraiser he once was. For a start, he has fewer tattoos... though of course the change is more than skin deep.
Where once his life seemed one long, raucous and sometimes destructive party fuelled by drink, drugs and women, he now enjoys a new-found stability built on family, hard work – and yoga.
“It’s made a big difference in my life,” the 41-year-old says, earnestly.
Looking back over the previous decades, he admits: “It’s hard for me to relate to that chapter of my life.
“It all happened so fast. Success can be dangerous, especially when you’re young. It creates a false reality and you lose touch with things that really matter.”
And what really matters to him now are his beloved young sons James, 13, and Henry, eight.
James is his child with American model Kim Bordenave, and Henry with ex-wife Alicja Bachleda-Curus.
“My children keep me grounded,” he says. “And I’m devoted to being the best possible father to them.”
Now, he says, he’s “open to different ways of seeing things”.
“A lot of my attitudes in life have changed,” he adds. “And I’ve learnt that your family and your children are the emotional ties that matter most to you.”
With James, who has Angelman syndrome, a neuro-genetic disorder, he says: “We share in the smallest victories – the first words at age six or seven, being able to feed oneself and getting the seizures under control.”
Colin was not much older than his eldest boy is now when, as a rebellious teen growing up in Castleknock, Dublin, he began to drink and take drugs.
By the age of 19 he had sought counselling for feeling “sad”. The tendency to spiral out of control was “already something that was in me”, he previously said.
He grew up wanting to be a professional footballer like his father Eamonn and uncle Tommy, who both played for Shamrock Rovers – but he didn’t make the grade.
But football’s loss was acting’s gain, and in 1997 he had his first film role in Drinking Crude, before landing a regular role as Danny Byrne in the popular TV series Ballykissangel.
His big break came when he was spotted in a play at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London by Kevin Spacey, who recommended him for a role in Ordinary Decent Criminals.
Soon he was the darling of Hollywood, with star turns in two big 2003 thrillers, The Recruit and Phone Booth – and he found drink and drugs were more accessible than ever.
He has previously admitted spending months at a time lost in booze and drugs. If a party finished too early, he would buy himself “a bag of powder” and continue the party alone with a bottle of Jack Daniels until 5.30am.
He previously admitted: “I used to go bananas for five months then take the foot off the gas for two months and clean up a bit. I was sad. I was drinking loads.”
He got to a point when pure oblivion, even death, was tempting. In a shocking admission, he once revealed: “I remember thinking one day that I’ll go to New York, buy £2,000 of smack and rent a bedsit, put black sacks on the window and shoot up until I die.”
Finally, after finishing work on Miami Vice in 2005, he flew himself straight to rehab – where he “began to come out of the haze I had burrowed myself into so deeply”.
Then there were the women. Nicknamed the “Lusty Leprechaun”. Colin was linked to a string of ladies including Britney Spears, Carmen Electra, Kate Beckinsale and Lindsay Lohan. In 2001 he had a non-legally
I’ve learnt family & kids are the emotional ties that matter most COLIN FARRELL ON THE CHANGE IN HIS LIFE
binding ceremony in Tahiti with Amelia Warner, now wed to Jamie Dornan.
When a private sex tape he made with Playboy model Nicole Narain in 2003 was leaked, porn bosses offered him £4million for the rights to the 14-minute video. He turned it down.
He even had a “relationship” with Elizabeth Taylor, who he became close to towards the end of her life.
He called her “a spectacular woman” and described the relationship as “romantic”. When she died in 2011, he read a poem at her funeral.
But as well as being a lover, he was a fighter, too, with his fiery nature often leading to public scuffles. In 2010 he brawled with a member of the public outside central London club Cafe de Paris. The year before, he turned on a photographer who yelled at his sister to “move along” at a red carpet event, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck.
All of this meant that he was often in the limelight as much for his chaotic lifestyle as for his films.
Speaking about his early career, he now admits: “I probably didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have.”
He is now finding more fulfilment in his work, and enjoys the luxury of being able to choose smaller projects he can become engrossed in. “I want to be able to tell interesting stories and do good work,” he says. “I don’t need the kind of attention that comes with doing big films all the time.” In 2008 he won a Best Actor Golden Globe for his part in hit, In Bruges. Since then, with roles in True Detective and last year’s The Lobster, he has become a go-to star in the world of indie cinema, too. He can currently be seen on the big screen starring in The Beguiled, a loose remake of the 1971 Clint Eastwood film about the American Civil War.
Colin plays a wounded soldier from the North forced to hide out at a girls’ school in the South.
He says he got great enjoyment from working with director Sofia Coppola and actors Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, and Elle Fanning.
“It wasn’t what you would call a hard day at the office,” he laughs.
“Sofia created a very special working environment, and it was very easy to work with three incredibly talented women in Nicole, Kirsten, and Elle.
“Being able to enjoy the experience of working with incredible actors is something that’s more important than ever to me. I lost that for a while.
“Once I reconnected to what made acting so exciting for me in the first place – it’s been a wonderful time for me as an actor.”
His only grubby secret now is that, while filming The Beguiled, he stopped washing his hair to have authentically dirty-looking locks.
He said his stylist suggested rinsing with “just a little conditioner” to achieve the look.
Another role Colin particularly enjoyed was playing Percival Graves in JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. He says: “I hope that one day I can tell my grandchildren that I was part of that world.”
As for the present, he says: “I’m enjoying life more now. I have a much more stable and serene life.
“I’m very happy where I am now with everything.”