An afternoon with Colin Farrell in Cannes
In the midst of the craziness at the 68th Cannes Film Festival, we were able to squeeze in some time to chat with Colin Farrell, the star of the dark romantic comedy film, “The Lobster.”
In the midst of the craziness at the 68th Cannes Film Festival, we were able to squeeze in some time to chat with Colin Farrell, the star of the dark romantic comedy film, “The Lobster,” at the Silencio restaurant that is located right in the heart of Rue des Belges, close to the Palais des Festivals.
The 38-year-old Irish actor looked slimmer compared to his character in the movie named David. He gained 40 pounds in eight weeks for the said role eating, “Oh God. I ate everything bad. Cheeseburgers, Philly cheese steaks, pizza, donuts, Coca-Cola, chocolate and that’s just breakfast.” He also admitted drinking four to five pints of melted ice cream a day.
And how did he lose the pounds, we asked. “I did a lot of yoga,” he revealed. “I love doing that. I never thought I would but I hate lifting weights and hate treadmills and all that. But yoga, my mind enjoys it. My body enjoys it. It wasn’t fun for eight weeks cutting calories. It’s hard. I was pissed off, grumpy and starving, really hungry but it was fine. It was eight weeks and that was it.”
“The Lobster” is set in a dystopian near future where lonely people are obliged to find a matching mate within a 45-day period or they are transformed into animals and sent off into the woods. It was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or and won the Jury Prize and the Queer PalmSpecial Mention.
How he looked in the film affected him, he confessed. “Yorgos (Lanthimos, the director) and I spoke about that and I remember he mentioned the word soft. I just got softer and softer until he texted me one night and said, ‘Stop eating now.’ Being David was a great gift to me because I literally felt so different.
“When we finished ‘The Lobster’ and I got back to Los Angeles, I sat on the couch and thought wow, I looked down and there’s my belly. There was a certain part of it that I couldn’t escape every night. You know when they say, it’s a wrap and you try to switch off or detach yourself, I wasn’t able to do that. I didn’t lose my mind but I’d go back to my room and David, my character, was there in the mirror.”
If he were to turn into an animal, just like in the movie, what animal would he want to be? “I think a seagull,” he replied. “There’s something beautiful about the sound of the seagull. There is a sense of longing in the sound of a seagull squawking, catching the wind and having that perspective of the earth but never getting too far. Not needing to be a hawk and going way up there but existing between land and ocean.”