Colin Farrell sits across from his BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER co-star Fala Chen, and when the conversation turns to career-defining gambles, he tells a story that still seems impossible. There was a moment, right at the beginning, when he had to choose between security and the dream, between a guaranteed paycheck on a hit television show and a one-in-a-million shot at making it in Hollywood. Everyone around him thought he’d lost his mind. His friends told him he was crazy. His family couldn’t understand it. Here was steady work, good money, the kind of opportunity most actors would kill for, and he was going to walk away from it to chase something with no guarantees whatsoever.
But Farrell did it anyway. He turned down the money, left the show, and took the leap. It’s the kind of decision that either launches a career or ends it before it really begins, and for years afterward, that choice has defined everything that came after. Looking at where he is now, fresh off his transformation in THE BATMAN and his revelatory work in THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN that earned him an Oscar nomination, it’s easy to forget how easily it all could have gone the other way. One different choice, one moment of hesitation, and Colin Farrell as we know him might not exist at all.
In BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER, which hit select UK and Ireland cinemas on October 17th before arriving on Netflix on October 29th, Farrell plays a man who’s betting everything on games of chance in Macau’s glittering casinos, a character who understands something about risk that most people never grasp. During the interview, he and Chen discuss the film’s striking costumes, their personal good luck charms, and the greatest plot twists in cinema history, but it all circles back to that original gamble, the one he made decades ago when he was nobody and had everything to lose. That decision reverberates through his entire career, through every bold choice and unexpected turn he’s taken since, from PHONE BOOTH to IN BRUGES to his recent renaissance playing Penguin in Matt Reeves’ Gotham and a grieving man on a remote Irish island in Martin McDonagh’s dark masterpiece.
Sometimes the craziest decisions are the only ones worth making, and sometimes betting on yourself when everyone else thinks you’ve lost the plot is exactly what separates the ones who make it from the ones who always wonder what might have been.
When Emerald Fennell texted @alisonjoliver about joining WUTHERING HEIGHTS, the answer was immediate: yes.
"I just love her so much that I would do anything she was doing," Oliver says about reuniting with Fennell after SALTBURN.
The film is now in theatres, more at irishfilmtv.com.
Barry Keoghan has arrived.
The Dublin actor who made us unable to look away in SALTBURN is now going head-to-head with Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Halle Berry in CRIME 101 — and he`s not just keeping up, he`s stealing scenes.
This isn`t just another role—this is Keoghan proving he belongs among Hollywood`s heaviest hitters, taking his Love/Hate juice straight to LA and reminding everyone that sometimes the hungriest actor in the room is the most dangerous one.
More Barry at irishfilmtv.com.
One man. Eight characters. Pure theatrical magic. ✨
Andrew Scott`s VANYA won Best Play Revival at the WhatsOnStage Awards after its triumphant West End run at the Duke of York`s Theatre and now tops the list of best one-man shows of recent times.
More Andrew at irishfilmtv.com.
HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN FROM BELFAST drops Feb 12 on Netflix.
DERRY GIRLS star Saoirse Monica Jackson has been talking about the new series and her excitement is absolutely contagious.
Landing on Galentine`s Day feels perfect for this kind of ladies-celebrating-ladies energy.
Watch now at irishfilmtv.com.
Jamie Dornan is about to make you forget every role you thought defined him.
THE WORST, a pitch-black British comedy, casts him as Danny, a talent agent so pathologically addicted to self-promotion that he can`t stop name-dropping even as the dinner party around him combusts into spectacular social carnage.
More Jamie at irishfilmtv.com.
The awards season darling you`ve been hearing about is finally streaming.
Chloé Zhao`s HAMNET—the haunting exploration of grief, love, and the creation of Shakespeare`s HAMLET—brings together Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley in performances that have kept both firmly in the Oscar conversation.
If you missed it theatrically, now`s your chance to see what the buzz is about before Oscar night. This is the kind of film that reminds you why cinema matters.
More HAMNET at irishfilmtv.com.
Taylor Swift just dropped the OPALITE music video and it`s giving major Irish vibes ☘️✨
The nearly 6-minute visual sees Domhnall Gleeson starring as Taylor`s love interest, playing two lonely souls who find each other. But here`s where it gets even better: eagle-eyed Swifties spotted cameos from Cillian Murphy and Graham Norton, making this a full-on Irish affair.
Want the full breakdown of this transatlantic collaboration? Head to our blog for all the details on how this stunning video came together. Link in bio! 🔗
The creator of DERRY GIRLS just dropped a murder mystery set at an Irish wake, and honestly? It`s the genre mashup we didn`t know we needed 🕵️♀️
Lisa McGee is back with HOW TO GET TO HEAVEN FROM BELFAST on Netflix, and if you loved how she found humor in the Troubles (Protestants! Toasters! Cupboards!), you`re going to eat this up.
Three friends reunite for their childhood bestie`s funeral, only to realize her death isn`t what it seems. Cue an eerie adventure across Ireland that`s equal parts creepy and hilarious.
More at irishfilmtv.com.
British Vogue just put Jessie Buckley on their February cover and it`s not just a magazine shoot—it`s a coronation.
Shot by Jack Davison on the windswept Norfolk coast near her home, these images are pure cinema. Sky, sea, and a woman at the exact moment her entire life is about to change.
She`s the frontrunner for Best Actress. HAMNET is destroying audiences. She`s a new mother standing at the edge of the kind of fame that alters everything.
And Vogue captured it all—the grit, the greatness, the quiet mastery that got her here.
More Jessie at irishfilmtv.com.
