Irish bad boy Colin Farrell has come a long way since his days in the BBC TV series 'Ballykissangel' in the late '90s. He's had a string of leading roles in Hollywood blockbusters including 'S.W.A.T', 'Phone Booth' and the epic 'Alexander'. He has been under constant media scrutiny with stories of boozing and womanising, but he recently had a successful stay in rehab, which he says he did for the sake of his two-year-old son.
This summer he stars in 'Miami Vice', as undercover cop Sonny Crockett, alongside Jamie Foxx. The film is a return to the '80s TV series of the same name, by its original director and producer Michael Mann, with Crockett and Tubbs fully updated and in the thick of the drugs underworld in 21st-century Miami.
You spent time with real undercover cops. Is it true that they set you up?
Yes, they did. That was nice of them, I'll never forget it! Michael arranged for us to spend a lot of time with some undercover cops doing research. Over a week of these scenarios that were set up, I had formulated, I thought, a lot of trust with these guys.
There was a particular day when they were going to make a buy; about 40 kilos of cocaine off a bunch of Columbians that they had established a relationship with. These were working undercover cops. They said - after the week went so swimmingly well - that I could come along if I wanted to have a look, and that nothing bad would happened and, as I said, that they'd formed a relationship with these Columbian guys. And I went along, and the sh*t hit the fan - guns were pulled, I had an accident in my pants (nearly), and I did get the real sensation, the real emotional effect of what it would be like to be in that environment when something goes awry. I thought it was real, I found out the next day it was a set-up. It was probably more useful than I give it credit for!
What kind of preparation did you do in order for the shoot-out scenes to look so authentic?
We had a lot of trigger time; we spent hours and hours on the range. We were using live ammo so that helped us all as actors. You begin to trust each other really quick when you're shooting live rounds, and you're crossing behind each other with your gun fully loaded ready to go and you're making sure the muzzle's pointed north. By the time we got to the final shoot-out at the end we were comfortable.
That kind of preparation is just another avenue into a character, anything that's different from your own realm of experience as a human being and your personal life, anything, whether it's driving a car, or a boat, or using guns – anything that separates you from yourself and leads you more towards this character's existence is a big help.
I think you need to understand the importance of an action scene not existing as an island unto itself, it has to be emotionally connected. Jamie's character is looking for revenge for what Jose Niro has done to Naomi's character Trudi, and obviously Gong Lee's character finds out for the first time who I really am. So the line between just dialogue scenes, and character-driven scenes and action scenes get blurred, and they kind of co-exist.
Were you surprised by the kind of technology used by the police and the drug traffickers?
There's one scene in the film where Jamie and myself are driving towards a meeting with Jesús Montoya and our signals are blocked, and Tubbs says, 'This is the kind of stuff that happens over the sky in Baghdad; what's it doing on a dope deal?' The amount of counter-surveillance that they have, the amount of money they have, the bad guys have anything that's available to law enforcement, for the right price. So it's a constant uphill battle. It's pretty scary the technology they have.
Are you into hi-tech stuff yourself?
I still send pigeons! I'm terrible with technology. I have a cellphone...
What was it like working with Gong Li?
Michael (Mann) had wanted to work with Gong Li for a long time. She has such an enigmatic character and presence about her which is so wonderful, so honest, that it was obvious from the first meeting in Michael's production office in Los Angeles that she was getting the part. Even though her English wasn't very good she hit the textbooks and got about four months' studying in before starting the film. Then Michael gave me 'Raise the Red Lantern' to watch and I was blown away by her performance - I got a bit nervous about working with her. I got the sh*ts, actually. She's very strong and honest and powerful.
Do you get the jitters when a movie you're in has its opening weekend?
I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't f**king nervous! This film cost a lot of money to make and a lot of people invested a lot of energy and time. For me personally it was 10 months of my life, if I live to be 75 or 80 that's one nineteenth of my whole life. You have an emotional investment in it. Hopefully people will respond and they'll go out and see it. I won't be making a phone call in the morning to find out what the figures are, but I'm sure my sister will call me and tell me! If she does, that's a good sign, if I can't get my sister on the f**king phone, I know I'm in trouble!
You're often hounded by the press – how difficult is it to live and work with that kind of media attention?
You're scrutinised all through your life – you're scrutinised by your family, you're scrutinised by society, your friends, in a certain way, shape or form, whichever way you look at it. Yeah, it's a pain in the a*se but the pros far outweigh the cons. One of the girls from our office – she was mental! She got these T-shirts printed up saying 'Leave Colin alone!' and she wanted me to wear one. I made sure she was fired! [Laughs] No, I didn't!
Do you have plans to work in Ireland again in the future?
I do intend to go back home and work – I did a thing called 'Intermission' in Ireland about two years ago. I'm always very aware of what's happening back there and intend to go back and do something with [writer and director] Jim Sheridan in the not-too-distant future.
You have to shake your stuff on a Cuban dance floor in the film. Does dancing come naturally to you?
Myself and Gong Li, they organised dancing instructors for us. It's pretty tragic seeing an Irishman trying to salsa-dance! But we did it for two or three months, a few times a week, and finally got what we needed.
'Miami Vice' is released in UK cinemas on 4 August 2006
