“We punch so far above our weight.”
In the case of Irish stars taking over Hollywood, Colin Farrell would now be considered part of the old guard.
The Dubliner has been around the scene for decades now and has paved the way for actors like Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan on their rise to the top.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the 47-year-old explained why so many Irish stars are in such high demand at the moment.
“I mean, we punch so far above our weight, you know?” he said.
“We’re only a country of five million people and I don’t know, Irish people – just whether it’s through music, the written word, whether it’s prose of poetry, film, theater of course – we just have a deep connection to the importance of story and to leaning into stories and meanings with which we understand ourselves and the world around us.”
Colin Farrell explains why Irish stars are taking over Hollywood
Farrell singled out particular praise for his Banshees of Inisherin and The Killing of a Sacred Deer co-star Barry Keoghan.
“Barry’s off to the races,” Farrell said of the Saltburn star. “He’s killing it, he’s doing amazing.
“I saw him last week for the first time in close to a year and he seemed like he was in great form, so it was great to see him.”
Farrell himself is a busy man these days, with two major TV projects coming out soon.
First up, the Irishman will be starring in the lead role for Apple TV+ show Sugar, where he’ll play Hollywood detective John Sugar, who gets wrapped up in a dangerous mystery.
“I’ve loved noir films for many, many years,” he said in the interview. “I’ve enjoyed so many of them, the private detective trope is always an interesting one because it brings up questions of purpose – meaning what side of the line you’re on, good and bad.”
“Private detectives are usually – in the world of noir – hard-boiled. They’re usually somewhat bittered or jaded by the ugliness they’ve observed throughout their work and this guy wasn’t.”
Farrell also makes his return as Batman villain Oswald Cobblepot in the upcoming HBO crime series The Penguin.
Speaking last week about the much-anticipated spinoff of the 2021 Matt Reeves film, Farrell told an interviewer that the series is “really dark” and “incredibly violent”.
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