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Wednesday, February 5, 2003

COLIN FARRELL TALKS DAREDEVIL

By Rob Allstetter / The Comics Continuum

PASADENA, Calif. - Colin Farrell has had a pretty good week. His movie, The Recruit, topped the box office, he took Britney Spears to the premiere and he has another movie, Daredevil, certain to top the charts.

Farrell met with the press over the weekend at the Daredevil movie junket. During the following roundtable interview, he discussed his blossoming career, his Daredevil movie role and his fight scenes with Jennifer Garner.

QUESTION: Have you seen the film?

COLIN FARRELL: I saw it last night. It was great. I couldn't believe it. I thought it was great. Mark (Steven Johnson, director) did a fantastic, fantastic job.

QUESTION: How great was it being Bullseye?

COLIN FARRELL: It was loads of fun. I had a field day doing it. I had a blast. It was such a good time. Check your subtlety in at the door and then go for it.

QUESTION: How often did Mark say tone it down?

COLIN FARRELL: Never. He said, "Up, up, up!" He said, "More!" You were very aware doing a piece like that you're not restricted by the realms of reality, you know. It's a comic book-based story. And the character of Bullseye, more than any of the others, was always more insane in the comic.

Matt Murdock had a thing going on as Daredevil the vigilante at night and the lawyer during the day. And then Poindexter Bullseye was always kind of a lunatic in the comic book itself, so in the script (we) just took it a little bit further in that vein.

QUESTION: How did you speaking Irish in the film come about?

COLIN FARRELL: It was Mark's idea. It was never established in the comic book where Bullseye was from. So he said, "Why don't you do it in your Irish accent?" And I loved the idea, of course, I haven't in three years and six or seven films later, I haven't gotten the chance to use my Irish accent.

QUESTION: Did you really say, "I want a fuckin' costume"?

COLIN FARRELL: Yeah, you can see it. You can see it. (In character) "I want a fuckin' costume!" You can see it. You can see me lips say "fuckin'." And they put in "bloody." Y'know, I believe you can only get one "fuck" with a PG-13 film.

QUESTION: How much time did you take with Ben Affleck?

COLIN FARRELL: Y'know, we didn't get to work too much together, myself and Ben. There was so much green screen and CGI stuff that it was either him on the set doing bits and pieces on his own or me.

The cuts were, you know, "Go up, kick the glass, cut." "Do this, pretend you're catching glass, cut." "Throw the glass, cut." It was all snippets and bits and pieces, and a lot of the time he wasn't there.

The stuff where we're choking each other and I'm tied by his cane, we were there together. The stuff where I hit at the end, we were on camera for that stuff.

I didn't exactly get to sit across the table from him and do dialogue scenes. I never really got the feeling that I got the chance to work with him. But he's a great guy.

QUESTION: You seem to do a lot of in-close fighting with Jennifer Garner, though.

COLIN FARRELL: Yeah, that was hand-to-hand combat because that wasn't all tricks and glass and pipes and organs and the chapel.

QUESTION: So how tough is she?

COLIN FARRELL: She's really tough, man. (laughs).

QUESTION: She could kick your ass?

COLIN FARRELL: Probably, yeah. I'd put my money on her. She's a tough bird. Very tough.

That fight was more fun because it wasn't segmented. It wasn't so disjointed. And we got to go from start to finish. And it was close combat stuff.

Yeah, it was fun. She's a fit fuckin' girl. We'd do a take or two and I'd be in the corner wheezing. And she'd go, "OK, can we go straight away?" And I'd be like, "This fucking bitch is going to kill me." (laughs) But she's great in the film.

QUESTION: How great was that last scene? Does it mean your coming back?

COLIN FARRELL: It was cool. It was funny. I had no idea they were going to put in after the credits. Half the people will be gone, but it's a good wise. It's a cool idea, but they should probably do it like 20 seconds, 30 seconds into the credits. It's about a minute-and-a-half, two minutes.

(Farrell then describes the scene).

QUESTION: Are you signed up for another?

COLIN FARRELL: No.

QUESTION: Would you come back for another?

COLIN FARRELL: If Mark was involved, yeah. If Mark Steven Johnson was involved.

QUESTION: You've got this reputation in the press of being this hard-partying Irish bastard. How close is that to the truth?

COLIN FARRELL: Couldn't be further. Couldn't be further, (laughs).

QUESTION: Britney Spears - you're just friends?

COLIN FARRELL: Absolutely. Absolutely. A man can't have enough friends in the world like this. (laughs)

QUESTION: How did you guys meet?

COLIN FARRELL: She came out to the set of S.W.A.T. to have a look at the set. With her brother and her big group of bodyguards.

QUESTION: So are you dating?

COLIN FARRELL: No, no, no.

QUESTION: Are you dating anybody?

COLIN FARRELL: No. What are you doing later on?

QUESTION: Is it harder the more famous you get to find someone?

COLIN FARRELL: I don't know. Maybe. Just because you're traveling so much because I'm all over the place. I'm here in Los Angeles and I've been in Dublin to do press in Europe for The Recruit. Maybe because of that simple logistic, it would be harder, I'm sure. Since I've been unfortunate enough to have this bit of success, I haven't had a girlfriend or have been dating or haven't gone on with anybody.

QUESTION: Do you throw darts?

COLIN FARRELL: I've played my fair share of darts.

QUESTION: Are you good?

COLIN FARRELL: Not as good as Bullseye, but I'm not bad. I'm alright. I'm OK.

QUESTION: What about the motorcycle? Did you do your stunts?

COLIN FARRELL: Stand on it? It was tied to the back of a rig. And I stood on it, and I had a wire. Just in case I fell off, I would have swung into the back of a truck. But I had a wire and I was like, "Whuuuuuuh…"

They didn't use a lot of it. It wasn't too cool. They got another guy to do it from a distance, who just on a free bike, a motorbike, took it up to 40 and got up on it. That bastard! Made me look good.

QUESTION: Were you familiar with the comic book at all?

COLIN FARRELL: No. I had never heard of it because there's not much of a comic-book culture from where I come from, like there is over here. But as soon as I met Mark Steven Johnson - he got his first comic book bought for him when he was eight, I think - and his passion for the piece was just so contagious that I quickly understood what the catch was with it.

QUESTION: Did you go back and read the comics at all?

COLIN FARRELL: Mark sent me a lot of the books and I read them. And he showed me a lot of artwork and so on and so forth. But just between talking with him and reading some of the books I kind of garnered a greater understanding at all.

QUESTION: Is it difficult for you being from Ireland to try to fit into this Hollywood scene that is so politically correct?

COLIN FARRELL: I'm not really concerned about fitting in, man, to be honest with you, and it hasn't obviously done me any harm not to fit in. If anything, it's probably the other extreme. I'm not really concerned with it, you know? The only thing that I have that nobody can take - they can take away the work, they can take away the articles, they can take away the interviews, they can take away my chance to sit with you people at a table, but they can't take away my opinion and what I believe as a person. So, I want to very much hold on to that.

QUESTION: Is it frustrating that they sometimes seem to try to?

COLIN FARRELL: Not really. I expect it. It's not much surprising.

I don't even tell anyone to fuck off. I may say "fuck," but you never hear me screaming at anyone to fuck off. I'm not an asshole. I don't think I have an attitude problem. I just have an opinion that is might own.

QUESTION: You talked about Mark Steven Johnson's passion. Can you talk about what it was like for a first-time director?

COLIN FARRELL: Well, he had done Simon Birch before. The scale of this film - this was the first time he had done something the scale of this.

As I said, he was a Daredevil fan all his life, a diehard one. And he wrote the script, obviously, and he just had an inordinate amount of love for the characters and the folklore and the mythology aspect of it and all the religious relevance.

And he was just onboard. From Day One, he was involved with costumes, he got the music together, he got all these amazing bands together to do the soundtrack. He just had his finger in every bit of the pie and the creative process. And was just an inspiration to be around.

On the set, you'd be doing long days and bulbs burst and you go behind on schedule and shit happens, and at times you'd get frustrated. And he was always just really optimistic and his love for the project always shone through. He was just fantastic to be around.

He'd play rock 'n roll music in between the set-ups. Two o'clock in the morning in downtown Los Angeles, he's on a rooftop and U2 would be blasting out while the crews are going around doing their business. It was just a great set to be on. Just great to be around.

He had great ideas with Bullseye, the physicality of him and what he would like to be as a creature.

QUESTION: Did you ever wear the bull's-eye in public?

COLIN FARRELL: I tried to get into the Standard Hotel downtown, and they wouldn't let me.



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