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.
Caitríona Balfe has seen it all when it comes to OUTLANDER fans!
The SENSE AND SENSIBILITY star shares the funniest, most unforgettable encounters with the people who`ve followed Claire Fraser`s journey for over a decade 😂
Watch now via 🔗︎ in bio!
BAD SISTERS creator @sharonhorgan strikes gold again!
Her new comedy, YOUTH, about a 50-year-old caught between her college-aged son and her aging parents is now on @hbomax.
Watch trailer via irishfilmtv.com.
She commands every room she walks into 🎭
Siobhán McSweeney, the BAFTA-winning star of DERRY GIRLS, is now the host of THE TRAITORS IRELAND, guiding strangers through a game of trust, suspicion, and deception where a single glance can shift the balance of power.
Watch now via 🔗︎ in bio!
Don`t miss Liam Neeson with @patrickielty on THE LATE LATE SHOW!
Big Liam joined campaigner Catherine Corless to discuss THE LOST CHILDREN OF TUAM, the most important Irish film of 2026.
Watch now via 🔗︎ in bio!
In theatres today!
Saoirse Ronan returns to the big screen in BAD APPLES. the dark comedy where she plays a teacher driven to extremes.
Watch Saoirse`s interview with @picturehouses via 🔗︎ in bio.
Irish eyes were shining in #Toronto this week 🎬
Monaghan`s own Caitríona Balfe hit the red carpet at TIFF for the premiere of TENZING — the incredible true story of Tenzing Norgay, the Himalayan climber history almost forgot, and his historic 1953 ascent of Everest alongside Edmund Hillary.
Watch now via 🔗︎ in bio.
Tea, reflection, and a very different kind of classroom drama ☕🎬
Saoirse Ronan opens up on A MUG OF LIFE about presence, growth, and calm — then goes full dark comedy in BAD APPLES, in UK cinemas from September 18.
Watch now via 🔗︎ in bio.
Meet Liam Neeson, the producer!
Enraged by a 2017 New York Times investigation into the Tuam mother and baby home scandal, Neeson has backed THE LOST CHILDREN OF TUAM, in Irish theatres on Sep 25.
Full details via link in bio 🔗︎
Andrew Scott could make Oscar history 🎭
His performance in ELSINORE — as an actor giving everything to one final role while his body fails him — is the kind you don`t shake off.
Watch Andrew`s @tiff_net "In Conversation" via 🔗︎ in bio.
