Sunday, February 10, 2002

By LIZ BRAUN -- Toronto Sun

LAS VEGAS -- Irish actor Colin Farrell is never at a loss for words, and the words he's never at a loss for are delivered at a fabulously rapid clip. The diminutive Dubliner talks so fast we are reminded of a leprechaun on speed; that would be a very talented, very cute leprechaun, mind you.

Farrell co-stars with Bruce Willis in a new WWII movie called Hart's War, which opens here Friday. Farrell plays Tommy Hart, an introspective lieutenant who winds up in a German POW camp where the inmates are led by American Colonel William McNamara (Willis).

In this story, a racially motivated crime is the catalyst for Tommy Hart's personal awakening and redemption. The cast includes Terrence Howard, Cole Hauser, Marcel Iures and Linus Roach.

In the past two years, young Mr. Farrell has been on a wild ride, working endlessly. He's been in

Tigerland, American Outlaws and the Dublin gangster movie Ordinary Decent Criminal with Kevin Spacey. He may be in Daredevil. He has another feature to shoot in Ireland. And still to come is his work in Minority Report with Tom Cruise, and his starring role in Phone Booth -- a part Jim Carrey backed out of.

(Interestingly, Farrell also got cast in Hart's War after another actor dropped the role. Edward Norton was to take the part of Hart, but he chose not to. That's only worth noting because Hart's War is directed by Greg Hoblit, the soft-spoken director who cast Norton in Primal Fear and hence launched his career. But hey -- there are six million stories of disloyalty in the naked city, and this is just one of them).

Anyway, on top of everything else, Farrell is currently filming The Farm here in Toronto opposite Al Pacino.

"I have had an amazing 21/2 years," he says. "But if it all ends tomorrow, gawd, have I got stories for my friends and for my kids someday. And I've got it on film."

How all this meteoric rise stuff has changed his life, says the 25-year-old actor, is ... not much.

"Other than having a lot more money and a lot more opportunity to travel than I ever thought I'd have," he says, "I still have the same friends, I still have the same life, my mother is still my mother and Dublin is still my home."

Well -- he did get married to a young actress (Amelia Warner) and then unmarried in the twinkling of an eye, but that's another story. Joel Schumacher directed Farrell in Tigerland and he's also the director of Phone Booth. When Carrey decided not to do Phone Booth, a thriller about some ordinary guy who answers a ringing pay phone and finds himself the pawn of an assassin, Schumacher contacted Farrell.

"He said, 'We might be coming to you,' but I thought he was taking the p---," notes Farrell, with typical modesty.

Phone Booth was shot in 12 days. "There was no time for long, meaningful pauses for the camera. My head was melted at the end of it. I had a great time. I smoked 120 cigarettes a day, I was a nervous wreck and I loved it."

Farrell isn't sure when Phone Booth will be released, because business is business, and he's aware that people don't really know who he is yet. And they must, if a movie is to make money. After all, he plays Hart in a movie called Hart's War -- but it's Bruce Willis' image on the ad materials.

"I'm not on the poster of this fecking film, and I understand why," says Farrell with equanimity. (He doesn't actually say "fecking," but take that as the Irish spelling.) "I'm just glad it's going to be put out there, and seen and I hope enjoyed."

Hart's War once again brings viewers back to WWII. Why is America so fascinated at the moment with World War II?

"I don't know how fascinated America is -- are they?" asks the actor. "I don't know how many people have seen the WWII movies that have been made over the last two years, and that would tell whether they are fascinated with WWII or fascinated with computer-generated cartoons."

Farrell's hopes for Hart's War are that people will go to see it and get something from it. "And if all they get from this story is that humanity does not exist in the realm of creeds or the realm of race or the realm of sexual preference, if they get that from this movie, that's enough."

Asked if he's ever felt he had to prove anything to some of the superstars he's worked with -- Cruise, Pacino, Willis -- Farrell says, "No. I have a lot to prove to myself. And if you're going to be up there with the big boys, you do want to be prepared and do your fecking best."

Farrell says, "I bought popcorn and watched these people on the big screen in Dublin and now I'm working with them and it's bizarre -- but that goes away very quick because of the way they treat you. I've yet to work with anyone who abuses the situation that they're in, thank God, and I've yet to get into a p---ing contest with anyone and it'll be interesting to deal with that when it happens."

He says, "You cut them and they bleed, you hurt them and they cry, they have families that get sick -- they're human beings. All the work experiences, while being different, because the piece and the people have been different -- they've all been enjoyable. I've enjoyed every second."

He did, he admits, have a moment of feeling intimidated when he first went to meet Al Pacino. "Of course, come on. We'd all be on the same page there, I mean," he lowers his voice to a whisper, "Michael Corleone!"

Farrell, the son of former footballer Eamonn Farrell, grew up in Castleknock with a brother and two sisters.

He says he was taught at school by Franciscan priests and Vincentian priests -- "The Vincentian brothers wore black and the Franciscans wore dresses," he deadpans. Then he adds, "I wasn't really brought up in a Catholic environment. I was brought up in a much healthier environment than that."

He's on record as claiming he dreams of growing a beard and just going off backpacking. "True. I did say that. I got married instead. Within the next year I will for sure. Asia. Indonesia."

Why the beard? To be incognito?

"No. When I don't work I have a beard. When I don't work I'm not into self-grooming."

Will he never take a break from filming?

"No, because it's a job. Who gets a break from his job? Is the bank manager going to come over and say, 'Hey, teller, do you want a break for a couple of months?' No. Never. I love me job, darlin'."