Guess How Many Takes Drunk Colin Farrell Needed for One Line
For many, just being around the ever-charming Colin Farrell would be a dream. Tom Cruise is not “many people.” While promoting Ballad of a Small Player on October 28, Farrell regaled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert with the story of how he showed up drunk on the set of their film Minority Report, to Cruise’s chagrin. The issue began when the film didn’t let Farrell off for his birthday, despite him asking for the time. “I got up to all sorts of nonsense the night before,” Farrell said. “I remember getting into bed, and as soon as I turned off the light, the phone rang and it was the driver outside saying, ‘It’s 10 past 6,’ and I went, ‘Oh shit.’” He was, unsurprisingly, hungover. To get over the sickness, Farrell says he told the team, “Just get me six Pacifico Cervezas and a pack of 20 Marlboro Reds.”
But Farrell’s character in Minority Report, a hypercompetent agent at the Department of Justice auditing Cruise’s “Precrime” unit in 2054, was not a good match for his stupor. “I will never forget the line that I had, but I couldn’t get it out,” Farrell recalled. “It was: ‘I’m sure you’ve all grasped the fundamental paradox of precrime methodology.’ That was the line that started the scene.” To be fair, that’s a hard line even for a sober person. With a hangover, it took him “46” takes to get it right. “Tom wasn’t very happy with me,” Farrell threw in. At the end of the day, Variety said Farrell’s performance was “outstanding” and called him a “quicksilver talent.” It’s just his method.
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