This was in an Irish Sunday paper today: Sorry its a bit long so read whichever bits you want
Colin Farrell picks up the newspaper and appears to read it. It's the day after the Irish premiere of Alexander and someone has marked the pages of all the Irish dailies with Post-Its, so he has no trouble locating coverage of the event. The pages look rumpled and read, but suddenly he has renewed interest in them. I realise this is not the first occasion in our time togetherthat he has done this, appeared to be absorbed in something else.
He's talked about being bored in interviews and therefore carelessly shooting his mouth off, but that's not what's going on here. Instead, Farrell fudges the issues that really matter by focusing elsewhere, on photos of his Alexander co-star, AngelinaJolie; on faces in the crowd outside the Savoy; on his ridiculous moustache.
We're talking about his 17-month-old son, James, when I twig that Farrell's heading for the newsprint for a third time. James was with Farrell and his family in Dublin for Christmas, he says, and it was brilliant. Did James's mother - model, Kim Bordenave, with whom he had a brief relationship - come too, I ask. "Nah," Farrell answers. "She went on holiday somewhere. I don't know where the hell she went, actually." I ask if they get along, and Farrell makes a face like he's eaten something nasty and laughs without smiling. "Ah, you know," he says, reaching for the newspaper.
We don't know and Colin's not telling, not in any detail, anyway. But, funnily, this doesn't take away from our imagined quite intimate relationship with him, a result of his endless other confessions. The afternoon we meet, Farrell appears to lay himself bare. After all, you wouldn't catch Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt confessing to be "totally hanging" after the night before that didn't end until 10am, or conducting interviews unwashed, unshaven and reeking of drink.
Farrell trembles a little but is unshaken, unapologetic and open about the fact that all he's really interested in is getting back to his bed before starting all over again. He's nearing the end of the arduous publicity trail for Alexander, it's been tough to keep smiling and explaining and defending, while getting the drubbing of his life. It's plain to see he's near the end ofhis rope.
"I was, yeah, I was devastated," Farrell says, agreeing with director Oliver Stone's assessment of his star's reaction to the slating of Alexander. "It never made me question whether this was what I wanted to do. I love acting, I love how it makes me compete with myself and be honest with myself, but it was tough. I mean, I've had mixed reviews in the past, but this was like, 'Wow, you really think it was that bad?'"
While reviews may have been mixed in the past, however, for films such as Daredevil or Phone Booth, Farrell has never taken a personal mauling before. "Ah," he says, "sometimes the suffragettes come out and sometimes the Americans portray me as some sort of mad leprechaun, but for the most part the press has been kind to me."
As have his women, despite his refusal to enter into anything resembling a relationship. "They know the deal," says Farrell, looking me dead in the eye. "The women I have casual sex with are in it for exactly the same reason I am. The cards are on the table, 'Drinking, one-night stands, drugs and the rest, that's the safe stuff, the rest you release at greater personal risk'
"I'm not actively looking oractively not looking," he explains. "I'm all about whatever life throws at me." I ask if it threw him Angelina Jolie, referring to speculation that he was or is involved with the actress, who, only a year his senior, plays Alexander's mother.
"She's not up for it, the callous bitch," he laughs, mock-dropping his head in his hands. And then reaching for a newspaper. "Look at the chimneys, man," he says. The window of his Four Seasons suite is open, the net curtain billowing out in the breeze to revealthe Poolbeg chimneys in thenear-distance.
"That's just a perfect Dublin day, man. Kilmer [Val, his father in Alexander] was in here earlier and I was like, 'Look out at that, that's Dublin'."
The previous day, I learn later, Farrell took Kilmer, Jolie and Oliver Stone on a whistle-stop tour of his native city, taking in his mother's Castleknock home and his own place in Irishtown, not far from the chimneys. They were less than impressed with his Irishtown bungalow, by all accounts, but Farrell's pridewas undented.
The greatest passion with which he speaks, in fact, is in connection with home and with his family. He seems more angered by his sister - and PA - Claudine's distress at the Alexander reviews than by his own, and locks eyes again to insist he'd be nowhere now without family and friends. There's no doubting the sincerity of this. Farrell keeps family very close, and at an early morning, no-fuss screening of Alexander before Christmas, there were his mother, Rita, and brother, Eamon, eager to support the showing of their boy's filmin Ireland.
He rolls his eyes, but smiles, when I mention their obvious pride and the characteristic Colin Farrell comment of the conversation comes when I ask if it's true that Eamon advised him on the gay aspect of the film. "Yeah, as if!" he guffaws. "I asked my brother."
I also ask if his dad, also Eamon, was at the premiere. Last year, Farrell revealed a less than harmonious relationship with the former professional football player, who he portrayed as a domineering presence in his childhood.
"Yeah," he says. "My dad was there andthat was great. I mean, him and my mother are mates now. They're separated along time and, you know,they're mates."
And is his father finewith what Colin has said about him?
"Well," he answers, half-laughing, rubbing his stubbled chin with the hand on which the nails are not bitten, "I've never actually talked to him about it. I suppose there have been times, maybe, when I should have kept my big mouth shut, but I was too tired or bored or whatever to do that."
He picks up the newspaper, flaps it like he's shaking out a hanky, and continues, "I'm not one of these guys who can say, 'no comment', or start telling some convoluted story that has nothing to do with the subject, but you have to understand that when I've talked about these things, about my father, it's been about past. It's a history I'm telling, not how I feel about this guy right now. And it's cool, it's cool."
It was cool, too, Farrell says, to be a father himself this past Christmas. The past months, the savaging of Alexander, took its toll on him. "Christmas was great, a break from all of it," hesays, adding, "I'm a shitefather, though." When pushed to explain, Farrell concedes he's not the worst, but has a sense of humour about his ability. "I can change a nappy," he scoffs. "But that's the stuff that's so easy it's retarded. That's just working Velcro. It's the restof it."
He would love to see more of James in LA, but his work schedule makes that difficult. This year, Farrell has two films due for release, Terrence Malick's The New World, a story of 17th-century pioneering America, and Robert Towne's Depression era, Ask the Dust, at least one ofwhich he hopes will redeemhis reputation.
Further, Farrell soon starts shooting the Miami Vice film - "socks on, sleeves rolled down, thank God" - with director Michael Mann and Ray star, Jamie Foxx. The work is great, but Farrell concedes it keeps him from his boy. "I see him as much as I can and I will see him more and more as he gets older and becomes more aware. Sure, I'd have full custody if I could, but that's not going to happen."
At this point, Farrell makes his most intent attack on the papers. He seems to be reading, but is not concentrating so hard he can't indicate a certain coolness between himself and the mother of his child. He indicates with a grimace and some muttering, but is smart enough to know thisis something best keptto himself. Drinking, one-night stands, drugs and the rest, that's the safe stuff, the rest you release at greater personal risk. And Colin Farrell's taken enough personal risks for one year, thank you very much.
*new* Interview with Colin Farrell.. 
