Colin Farrell: Tuff Guy Recruit

His dark good looks are usually accompanied by a swagger, a cigarette and that "bad boy" rep. Since his debut as a roughneck soldier in Tigerland, hot Colin Farrell has caught our eye in a classic James Dean manner. He's able to drop his thick Irish brogue for a variety of American accents and his "presence" nearly stole Minority Report from Tom Cruise. His virtual one man show Phone Booth will finally be released and we'll see how Ben Affleck holds up against him as he plays Bullseye, the villain in the upcoming Daredevil superhero flick. Al Pacino, his co-star in The Recuit, has only the highest praise for the young actor who, at our interview, slouched in his expensive suit, puffed his ciggie, smiled charmingly and told it like it is. (We edited out many of his trademark curse words).

TeenHollywood: Any misconceptions about you? Like what's printed in the tabloids?

Colin: Yeah, there's a misconception that I think of myself as a bar brawling bad boy. Bullshit. I have no idea (where that comes from). Not from me. Who am I dating now? Am I dating anyone? I wonder if I'm happy.

TeenHollywood: You have a wedding band style tattoo on your ring finger.

Colin: (smiles) I was in love.

TeenHollywood: Are you in love now?

Colin: No. Just with those that've been there (in my life) for 26 years.

TeenHollywood: What about that story that you held up an airline flight to drink at the bar. Is that true?

Colin: No. If I arrived to an airport and had had a few drinks, I was out the night before and I was tired, I'd be like that the next day and I'd lay down which I've done before. If I did that now, it would be like 'He's a mess!' But I've always kind of been a mess, but a functional mess. But no, I didn't. That was on the way to Vietnam. It said I held up a flight for an hour. My bags would be off the plane.

TeenHollywood: How do you feel about people screaming for your name in the credits?

Colin: That's funny. That's new to me. I feel like they probably were plants. Spyglass or Touchstone Entertainment (got) a few people for $10 a pop to go AGGHHH! You know, it's cool and that's good. It'd be nice if people came to see the film and I really don't have much of a perspective on what my level of fame is, where it is. I really don't.

TeenHollywood: Did Minority Report change things?

Colin: That by far was the most successful film I've been in, seen by the most people, so in that respect yeah. But I'm still not very recognized. I can walk around anywhere, go anywhere, do anything and very few people notice me.

TeenHollywood: How do you feel about playing Americans? Would you rather use your natural Irish voice?

Colin: I did a job in Ireland and I worked on a film called Intermission. It was nice, I just played a Dublin character. It was f...ing lovely just to use my own accent. But I don't mind. I'm not American. I'm not a CIA agent, so you pretend. The accent is one of the things that I use to pretend. The dialect coach I've had for five or six films, he's on the set every day pissing me off in my ear between takes. I like him very much and so it's part of the job. I don't feel like I'm all that good at it particularly or perfect at it at all. It's always something I have to stay on top of.

TeenHollywood: What was the most surprising thing about working with Al Pacino?

Colin: Just his level of passion still after 40 years. After all the amazing films that he's been in and parts that he's played and just the incredible performances he's given. He's got nothing to prove to anyone but you get a distinct feeling that he still will die having a lot to prove to himself. He really does care so much about what he does and he's in it for the right reasons. He's in it to tell stories. He's in it to try and make a difference. He's in it to do the job as honestly and as truthfully as he can and it's so inspiring to see that, after all these years, he's still so obsessed with it and beats himself up over it.

TeenHollywood: Did you ask him any questions?

Colin: I asked him what his favorite movie that he was in was. He just looked at me and went, 'Scarface was pretty good'. We shot the shit all day on set. I had such a great time working with him.

TeenHollywood: Are you ever intimidated by your costars?

Colin: Oh yeah, totally. I shit myself when I was on the set with Pacino the first day. And with Cruise. I still get nervous all the time. But you just suck it in and do what you're there for. They still maintain that air of stature that they have when you look at them at the start. Up until the last day, I'd sort of start looking across the set and watch him rehearse his lines going, 'That's f....ing Al Pacino.' But you become a work partner with him every day and you get to know him, get to ask how this person or that person is in his life.

TeenHollywood: Do your agents and managers give you pressure not to talk so openly in the press?

Colin: I really don't say anything for shock tactics ever. I just want to maintain my ability to say what I want to say. I've been okay with it because fortunately, it's worked out for me. I got a note from my anal agent one day, there was a quote of mine and a picture. He faxed it to the hotel with a note saying, "Some important industry insiders have already commented on this quote. If this is how you wanna be perceived, nah nah nah nah nah."

TeenHollywood: What about your character in The Recruit is like you and what is different?

Colin: He seems like a bit of a tough guy and I don't necessarily think I am but sometimes people think that. 'Ooh, tough guy'. He's just a pretty straightforward guy who has a certain amount of confusion in his life as I do and as we all do, trying to figure things out and learn what is happiness. So, those common things that we all kinda share, those questions we have, that would be some similarities between me and him. And then both of my parents are still alive. He lost his father by the time he was 12 and his mother by the time he was 14. So those were very definite turning points in his life. At 25, even though he's got stubble and the shape of a man, he's still very much stuck in the year that his father died. He's still very much a child inside who doesn't know his place in the world. So, it's always nice to have that kind of stuff going on inside the character.

TeenHollywood: Are you into computers like he is?

Colin: No, I'm terrible. I had a month to try and- - I can't type for shit. It would take me the hour and a half that the film lasts to do one of those quick Liberace moves. [He mimics fast typing].

TeenHollywood: How did you physically train for the film?

Colin: At the end of the take you [GASPS]. I don't really work out. I would for a job, like for SWAT, the film I'm doing now, I lifted weights for a month and had protein shakes and I hated every second of it, but I did it. So, I do it for work if I have to.

TeenHollywood: How do people back home respond to your success?

Colin: In Ireland if you're too big for your boots you'll be cut down regardless of whether you're an actor or not. You'll be cut down to size quick enough. I go home and in the streets, most people go, 'Hey, man. Saw you on the TV. F....ing' brilliant. Watchin' your career, you're doing great over there in America'. So, that's mostly what I was dealing with, which is great while it lasts. I'm sure someone'll give me a dig some day just for the fun of it.

TeenHollywood: You've wanted to go to Vietnam. We understand you just did?

Colin: I did, yeah. Since doing Tigerland, I wanted to see Vietnam and it was just nice to arrive in an airport and not have a towncar there and not have a hotel room booked. I'm such a fortunate little bastard. It was only for a week, but it was nice to just go and travel on my own.

TeenHollywood: What surprised you about the country?

Colin: I just couldn't believe how friendly the people were. I just couldn't believe how beautifully open they were. Because they've been put through the ringer by westerners in particular and you walk over and you're obviously a westerner. You could be American, you could be Irish, you could be many races, and they just embrace you so warmly and so openly. They really were fantastic. The first couple days I was paranoid that someone might pull a knife. If people are that nice to you, sometimes you think they might have an agenda, but they're just such a beautiful people, such a beautiful culture. They're so happy with what they have. To sustain life is enough for them.

TeenHollywood: Is there anything that surprised you about the CIA?

Colin: I didn't [go to Langley] because they tightened up security-wise by the time I was getting ready for this. I read some books. I didn't need to know that much about the CIA because it's not like I was a four year veteran who was out working in the field as an agent. I didn't have to know that much playing a recruit. So, I was always just more concerned about James's state of mind and state of sorrow and where he was emotionally and his relationship with Al's character and his relationship with Bridget's character than I was with the CIA. I chose rather to make sense of the script in respect to the thriller aspect.

TeenHolllywood: Do you watch dailies while you are making a film?

Colin: No f...ing way, are you joking? It's not a technique for me. For Gabriel (Macht), who's in this film and played Zack, he likes to watch the monitor playback and dailies because he says it's like a racehorse, doing too much of this, too little of that. I want to try to just figure it out here [points to heart].

TeenHollywood: Did you like working with American Irish gal Bridget Moynahan?

Colin: She's amazing. She's so smart and so talented, and not particularly hard on the eyes either. I just loved working with her. I love her as a person, I really do. That day when I was kissing her was a good day at the office, I tell you. I just checked the schedule for a long time wondering when that would come up. She's a really, really fine actor We rehearsed on our own quite a bit, We talked about the script and worked our way through the scenes.

TeenHollywood: How do you make the love scenes more comfortable?

Colin: There's nothing you can do. They're either comfortable or they're not. You either like the person you're with and you have a laugh and you take it with a pinch of salt, or it doesn't work out. With Bridget, I adore her so much and we got along so well, we're such good pals, and the crew were all such pals when we shot that scene. It was towards the end and just another day on the set.

TeenHollywood: Can you talk a bit about your role in Daredevil?

Colin: I play a character called Bullseye. I don't know what that means, but it was good fun. It was a case of check your subtlety in at the door and try and have as best a time as you can doing it. It's very much a comic book character so he's not restricted by the realm of reality at all. I seem to spend the whole thing just growling and it was a case of the costume makes the man.

TeenHollywood: What about that bullseye you have on your forehead in the movie?

Colin: That took only 10 minutes every morning. It was a gelatin. They had printed out gelatin molds, bullseyes they just glued to my forehead.

TeenHollywood: Did you have a fight choreographer?

Colin: Yeah, Cheung-Yan Yuen, the master. He was doing it and not a word of English. You'd have his translator. We did quite a bit of wirework and he choreographed all the fights. He's a genius. It was quite fun to do.