I’m glad I’m not very famous any more..being a celeb can be madness
Actor Farrell enjoying his quieter life
COLIN Farrell has described being a celebrity as “madness” and admits he’s happy to be slightly less famous these days.
The 40-year-old Dubliner said he had about five years of “incredible fame” but enjoys a quieter life now.
Farrell added: “I don’t feel part of it at all – the whole fame thing and celebrity thing.
“I mean, I really don’t. When I started – when I was lucky enough to get my first American film – then it all went mad so fast for me and I had a period of maybe five or six years of incredible fame and recognisability and all that. It was madness.”
The father-of-two also credited a few box-office flops, such as Alexander, for his star fading slightly.
He said: “That’s since gone – a few films that didn’t quite work at the box office.
“Having films that are seen by audiences if they’re good and they connect is a wonderful thing, but I’m glad that period of madness is over for me in my life.”
The star of current hit Fantastic Beasts was speaking to Hugh Grant for an upcoming episode of Variety and PBS’S Actors on Actors.
Unlike many A-listers, Farrell said he doesn’t have social media and intends to keep his private life private. He added: “Two or three times a year I may stamp on a red carpet and do some interviews or do this kind of thing.
“Outside of that, social media I don’t have and I feel very outside of it.”
The pair also spoke candidly about the difference between choosing roles that mean something to them versus films that they know will be a box-office success.
Love Actually actor Grant said: “It’s an entertainment business.
“If you’re not entertaining people and you’re only really pleasing your peers, so you get awards and things, then I think it can become a fraction masturbatory.”
Farrell agreed with Grant and admitted he craves approval.
He said: “That would bore the hell out of me and I know there is a part of me that wants to be liked, and there is a part of me that wants my peers to think I’m decent at what I do.
“Absolutely. But to kind of blindly pursue that, or have that be the thing that conditions how I choose roles, would be terrible. It’d be so boring to me.”