We know Colin Farrell as one of the greatest actors in Hollywood. He’s done comedy movies, thriller movies, drama movies, and more in his career, and he’s still growing. For science fiction movie After Yang, director Kogonada was struck by how lyrical Farrell is, even when sending a simple message.
“He’s really a poet at heart, as maybe all Irish people are poets at heart,” Kogonada told The Digital Fix, “because you should see his texts. It’s like he’s just spinning out poetry.” That’s not surprising to hear, since Farrell has worked with filmmakers like Martin McDonagh, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Michael Mayer, all of whom are playwrights or theatre directors.
Farrell’s professionalism and craft left an impression on the director of After Yang, and his co-star, Justin H Min, who felt he was in the presence of a master. “You would see him do these different takes,” Min says. “There’d be the slightest adjustment to things that he would make that, maybe to an untrained eye would not seem like he’s doing anything different, but it was the smallest things that would make all the difference for each of the different takes that he gave.”
Over the last ten years, we’ve seen more facets of Farrell’s abilities than ever before. The Lobster, The Beguiled, Widows, Disney movie Dumbo, The Batman, drama series True Detective, it seems there’s no end to his range. Kogonada reckons the best may still be to come.
“I just think maybe we’ve not – it’s almost crazy to say – we’ve not seen the best of Colin, because he already has laid down so many incredible characters, but I feel like maybe we’ve not seen the best of Colin,” Kogonada states. “We’ve seen great Colin, but I just think he’s going to be one of those actors where it’s surprising every decade.”
In After Yang, Farrell plays a father, Jake, who’s trying to fix Min’s Yang, a family robot that malfunctions. Investigations into Yang uncover a mysterious past that stretches beyond what Jake, his increasingly estrange wife, and their adopted daughter thought they knew.
After Yang is out now in theatres and on Sky Cinema in the UK. Check out the best family movies if you’d like something a little lighter.