Los Angeles—Five foot, ten inch, international superstar, Colin Farrell, walks into a suite at the St. Regis Hotel in Los Angeles on a recent late Sunday morning for our scheduled interview, not with cup of coffee in one hand, cell phone in the other, as 'conventional' Hollywood types normally do. No. One of his hand's long, thick fingers is gripping a goblet of Merlot, the other is holding a half-burnt cigarette. The polite Colin doesn't ask if it is OK to smoke, he will smoke and drink where and when he damn well pleases, but kindly delivers the cigarette to his mouth and puts out an empty hand to shake mine, clenching the cigarette between his teeth, in order to utter some pleasantries. 'Nice to meet you, brother,' he chimes in the Dublin accent that he has no intention of ever losing. 'If it ain't broken, don't fix it, man.'
Farrell, who earlier this year starred as the sexually ambiguous Bobby Morrow in the gay film A Home At the End of the World ( based on The Hours' gay author Michael Cunningham's novel ) , is back, bigger and better than ever in the title role of Oliver Stone's three hour epic, Alexander, set for release by Warner Bros. this Thanksgiving.
What makes this Alexander different from previous incarnations, such as the Richard Burton, 1956 version, is Stone's and Farrell's willingness to portray Alexander as the sexual free spirit that he reportedly was. And not covering up Alexander's love of not one, but two lifelong boy friends, Hephaestion, ( played by Jared Leto ) , and Bagoas ( Francisco Bosch, in his film debut ) .
Twenty-eight-year-old Farrell has earned not only his paychecks but rave reviews for practically every movie he has starred in since his debut only four years ago in Joel Schumacher's Tigerland. For that, his first role, he earned the Best Actor Award from The Boston Society of Film Critics. And more importantly to those who are signing the paychecks, Farrell has won a plethora of accolades from the MTV Movie Awards and Teen Choice Awards. Is Oscar next?
Well, Alexander has yet to hit theaters and the Oscar race doesn't begin until Christmas, but don't be surprised to see Farrell sitting in the chair Tom Cruise was in last year ( for Warner Bros.' The Last Samurai ) , at the Awards, waiting to hear his name called along with four other nominees, for Best Actor.
Farrell, a confirmed heterosexual, had fun explaining to me why he chose two 'gay' roles in a row this year.
'It had to do with the characters, the movies and the scripts,' he answers. 'But to be honest, I didn't enjoy kissing the men any more than I am sure a gay guy would enjoy licking a woman's pussy,' he adds, matter-of-factly. 'I find it repulsive when a guy's stubble is pressed against my lip. But if it's part of the job, then who am I to complain? I just know that for me, being with a guy in any way sexual is not for me. However, Oliver Stone was 100 percent correct in wanting to and actually portraying Alexander as he was—a bi-sexual ruler of the world. He was married, to more than one woman, and got them pregnant. But he also had such strong relationships, including sexual, with his closest male friends. But back then, 400 years before Christ, that was life as they knew it. No man was married to just one woman. And if a man loved another man, he had no problem showing his love for that person in a sexual way. When Christ came to earth and Christianity evolved the dynamics of sex and marriage changed. You married one woman and being gay was a sin. If you loved another man, you were destined for hell.'
Farrell, who spent nearly a year and a half on Alexander, at the moment, is working on the reclusive director Terrance ( The Thin Red Line ) Malick's new film, A New World, as John Smith. Yes, the original explorer John Smith and Pocahontas. And he is sans Alexander's golden locks the day I sit with him. Instead, he has long, dark, red-wine/brown-colored hair. Or is it his hair? 'Here,' he says to me, taking my hand and putting it on his scalp. 'It's not my real hair. Extensions, man.' The fake hair, the long hair, is glued to his head and I can feel the plastic bubbles that knot on to his real strands. 'I can't fucking wait till this is over. I am constantly picking at it and they have to touch it up constantly.'
As we know, Alexander, by age 25, conquered 90% of the 'known' world and by his death at age 33 he had marched his soldiers, ( always at the frontlines, himself ) , more than 22,000 miles and owned more than 2,000,0000 square miles of land, including all of Greece, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Libya, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India. Made king at age 20, immediately following the murder of his father, Philip ( Val Kilmer ) , he beseeches his mother, Olympias ( Angelina Jolie ) , for advice. The momma's boy that he was, took her advice to heart.
'Alexander was a man who would stop at nothing to achieve his dreams,' says Farrell. 'I do not think his conquests were based on greed. All his life, Alexander was looking for answers and I think he was looking for love all his life. Alexander had an almost insane passion for everything he did. He could have lived a fine life in Macedonia in his palace, taxing his people and enjoying the luxury befitting a king. But there was a hole in his chest that couldn't be filled, and his search for answers took him to the ends of the known earth,' explains Farrell.
Shot on location, Morocco and Thailand standing in for Cyprus and Egypt, etc., Farrell and the cast working hard all day, partied hard all night. 'I can work all day, drink all night, sleep for a couple of hours and be up and on the set the next morning, no problem, man,' explains Farrell. 'It must be in my Irish blood. Eat, drink, be merry and work. Work comes naturally to me. I don't need a lot of sleep.'
One of the big stories circulating amongst the media and Web sites is whether or not Colin bared all in either or both Alexander and A Home At the End of the World.
'I have no problem showing my cock,' says Farrell. 'In fact, I did go naked in A Home At the End of the World but they cut it out. During test audience screenings they were advised it was too distracting. I don't know. I see my cock every day and am not distracted. But, hey, who knows? Maybe you'll get to see it in the 'uncut' DVD version.'
Little did Colin know that later in the day, Angelina Jolie would inform me that he loved to pull his cock out on the set of Alexander.
'He was a fucking nut,' Jolie says, laughing. 'He was always wearing those djellaba [ togas ] . Where there would normally be a pocket in pants was a pocket in the djellaba. And he would go up to people, including me, and say, 'Will you help me get this out of my pocket?' And staring up at me was his penis. I got him good, though, once. I pulled and pulled and, haha, I stretched it so much it almost was pulled off.'
While we see no full frontal of Colin in Alexander, we do see his assets.
'I worked out a lot before and during Alexander,' reveals Farrell. 'My ass was the most toned part of my body, I think. Didn't it look good, man?' he asks me. I had to reply in the affirmative.
One of the secrets, or a little known fact, if you will, that Farrell reveals is that he was almost one of the members of the British boy group, Boyzone.
'I would have fucking done anything for money back then,' explains Farrell. 'I mean, I loved buying drugs and going to the bars. I figured if I had a job as a singer, I would have free drugs. Ecstasy, coke, whatever. I was a fucking kid. Thank fucking god, though, they threw me out on my ass, after I auditioned, singing George Fucking Michael's 'Careless Whisper' off key a couple of times. It wasn't in the cards, man. I guess I wasn't meant to be a teeny-bopper singer.'
When Farrell finally wraps on the John Smith movie, he will march straight to the set of the new Michael Mann film, Miami Vice. Yes, the big-screen version of the '80s TV smash. ( Season One is now available on DVD. )
'Yeah. It's true. I am playing Sonny Crockett. And we're going to do it in an updated format. None of those 1980s fucking pastels and loafers without socks. Nah, man. Michael Mann, who created the TV show Miami Vice, is a genius. In the '80s, pastels and shit like that were the style. This is going to be updated, though. A big, slam, bam, thank you ma'am movie. This is going to be the big summer movie of 2006. Wait and see. Trust me. It's going to be much better than S.W.A.T.,' ( which was also based on a popular television show, yet failed to attract a multiplex audience ) .
Wait and see we will. Co-starring with Farrell as Ricardo Tubbs, none other than another Oscar hopeful for next year, Jamie ( 'Ray' ) Foxx. And, of course, Michael Mann has not had a stinker since, well, ever. He is the man behind the hits such as the Academy Award-nominated films Ali, The Insider, Heat and Last of the Mohicans.
