\n<\/p>\n
Colin Farrell has said that he once showed up so drunk to a film set he needed almost 50 takes to convincingly get through a line of dialogue, angering co-star Tom Cruise.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Stephen Colbert on his late-night talk show, Farrell recalled \u201cone of the worst days\u201d he\u2019d ever experienced on set, both hungover and freshly intoxicated on Steven Spielberg\u2019s 2002 sci-fi drama Minority Report.<\/p>\n
In the film, based on Philip K Dick\u2019s 1956 novella of the same name, Farrell plays a Department of Justice agent who audits a programme using psychic technology to predict murders, while Cruise is a \u201cPrecrime\u201d chief accused of a murder he hasn\u2019t yet committed.<\/p>\n
Farrell had requested not to work on his birthday, 31 May, but instead had been issued with a 6am pickup time. \u201cI got up to all sorts of nonsense the night before,\u201d Farrell told Colbert. \u201cI remember getting into bed, and as soon as I turned off the light, the phone rang and it was the driver outside saying, \u2018It\u2019s 10 past six,\u2019 and I went, \u2018Oh shit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Even after an assistant director told Farrell that he couldn\u2019t work in his condition, the actor remained optimistic, saying: \u201cJust get me six Pacifico Cervezas and a pack of 20 Marlboro Reds.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span>Farrell in Ballad of a Small Player.<\/span> Photograph: AP<\/p>\n Fortified by more beer, Farrell went on set. \u201cBut it was terrible. I will never forget the line that I had, but I couldn\u2019t get it out. It was: \u2018I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve all grasped the fundamental paradox of precrime methodology.\u2019 That was the line that started the scene.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember one of the [crew] coming up and saying, \u2018Do you want to go and take a breath of fresh air?\u2019 And I remember thinking: \u2018If I go out and take a breath of fresh air, then I\u2019ll be under more pressure when I come back in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n After 46 takes, Farrell finally managed it. \u201cTom wasn\u2019t very happy with me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Three years after the incident, Farrell checked himself into a rehab centre to try to cure an addiction to drugs and alcohol, doing the same again in 2018 as a \u201cpreemptive measure\u201d.<\/p>\n In his latest film, Ballad of a Small Player, Farrell plays a high-stakes gambler hiding out in the casinos of Macau.<\/p>\n Farrell\u2019s character in Minority Report is meant to be entirely sober, but many actors have shot scenes in which they\u2019re meant to be drunk while actually<\/em> drunk, in an attempt at authenticity.<\/p>\n These include Fred Astaire, who shot his \u201cdrunken dance\u201d scene in Holiday Inn seven bourbons down; Robert Shaw, who was so intoxicated before filming his key monologue in Jaws that he had to be carried to the set; and Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, in which he plays a self-destructing alcoholic.<\/p>\n <\/span>Robert Shaw went method during Jaws.<\/span> Photograph: THA\/Alamy<\/p>\n Billy Bob Thornton, too, adopted method acting techniques while shooting Bad Santa, about a permanently intoxicated Father Christmas, saying: \u201cI drank about three glasses of red wine for breakfast \u2026 Then I switched over to vodka and cranberry juice, and then I had a few Bud Lights. By the time I got to that scene there, I barely knew I was in a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher forged a template for Farrell on the set of the Empire Strikes Back, arriving on set fresh from partying with Eric Idle and the Rolling Stones. \u201cI remember that we never went to sleep,\u201d said Fisher, \u201cso we weren\u2019t hungover \u2013 we were still drunk when we arrived in Cloud City the next day. We don\u2019t really smile a lot in the movie, but there we\u2019re smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n Cruise, meanwhile, is known for his strict work ethic and sober professionalism. In 2020, leaked audio of the actor berating crew members on the seventh Mission: Impossible movie for potentially breaking social distancing guidelines went viral.<\/p>\n <\/span>Happier days \u2026 Cruise at the Cannes premiere of Mission: Impossible \u2013 The Final Reckoning.<\/span> Photograph: Michael Buckner\/Variety\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Admonishing two technicians for standing too close to each other in front of a monitor in Leavesden, Cruise said: \u201cWe are the gold standard. They\u2019re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. Because they believe in us and what we\u2019re doing. I\u2019m on the phone with every fucking studio at night, insurance companies, producers and they\u2019re looking at us and using us to make their movies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are creating thousands of jobs, you motherfuckers. I don\u2019t ever want to see it again. Ever!\u201d<\/p>\n The actor later defended his outburst, saying that he wanted to ensure that production on the film did not shut down. \u201cI said what I said,\u201d he told Empire. \u201cThere was a lot at stake at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n In the UK, Taking Action on Addiction provides links to different support services. In the US, call or text SAMHSA\u2019s National Helpline at 988. In Australia, the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline is at 1800 250 015; families and friends can seek help at Family Drug Support Australia at 1300 368 186<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Colin Farrell has said that he once showed up so drunk to a film set he needed almost 50 takes to convincingly get through a line of dialogue, angering co-star Tom Cruise. Speaking to Stephen Colbert on his late-night talk show, Farrell recalled \u201cone of the worst days\u201d he\u2019d ever experienced on set, both hungover<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[11680,2735,13592,2553,2004,4852,2046,1394,3355,293,5332,1167,2286],"class_list":{"0":"post-31728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-colin","9":"tag-cruise","10":"tag-drunk","11":"tag-farrell","12":"tag-happy","13":"tag-line","14":"tag-minority","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-needed","17":"tag-report","18":"tag-single","19":"tag-takes","20":"tag-tom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}