Colin Farrell
An intense and versatile Irish heartthrob with fierce intelligence
When Joel Schumacher cast an unknown Irish actor, Colin Farrell, as a smart-ass Texan draftee his gritty, low-budget Vietnam War drama, Tigerland, in 2000, Hollywood took notice, and the world gained an overnight star. Farrell commanded attention: his black-Irish good looks and his flawless American accent were matched by his emotional clarity and immediacy and the mesmerizing way he conveyed intelligence and heart. Over the next few years, he was everywhere: opposite Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, in the espionage thriller The Recruit (see the clip at bottom), in a tour-de-force starring role as a sleazy promoter in Schumacher’s Phone Booth, and as the romantic lead in Oliver Stone’s ancient epic, Alexander, and Terrence Malick’s The New World, where he played Captain John Smith, the pioneer of the Jamestown settlement who falls for Pocahontas.
Farrell gets wet in Tigerland (2000), the film that launched his career:
The rollercoaster of fame landed him in rehab in 2005, and recovery, but his breakneck career has continued apace ever since. Farrell never stops charming and thrilling us with his work onscreen. He starred opposite Jamie Foxx in the film version of Miami Vice, played a guilt-stricken hitman in the riveting In Bruges, and took to sea as an Irish fisherman in the enchanting Ondine. In Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks, he played the alcoholic dad of the creator of Mary Poppins, and most recently, he portrayed a lonely man looking for a mate in the romantic sci-fi fable, The Lobster (watch the trailer at top). Along the way he fathered two children and had a string of passionate affairs, remaining forever single. Though he just turned 40, his seductive journey is nowhere near finished. Viva Colin!
Farrell and Bridget Moynahan as CIA agents seducing each other, in The Recruit (2003):
