Colin Farrell Gives Us Details About His Now Sober Life
Posted on October 12, 2012 at 6:30 PM
Colin Farrell has sure come a long way since his bad boys when he stepped on to the Hollywood scene nearly ten years ago. Sober fox six years now, it looks like he has turned a new leaf and has a new lease on life as he talks very honestly about his past struggles in an interview with Details magazine. It’s a refreshingly honest read and it’s great to see Colin not holding back on any of his answers. Here are some highlights below:
On his boozing: “The bottom line is I ended up miserable. I’d done enough of a job of flagrantly abandoning myself in a very loud and public way that I began to fall apart, you know? There was a time when I needed to do three or four films at once. It was the best place for me to hide.”
He’s gotten time since he stopped drinking: “Honestly. I’ve got eight hours a day now that I didn’t have before, when I was drinking every day for 18 years.”
Becoming a father to son James (now 8): “When I had James, I made a decision not to change. I literally said, ‘I’m not changing! I’m gonna be his friend!’ Like a f–king 28-year-old drug-addicted drunk friend is exactly what my 6-week-old son needs.” After two years of substance-fueled fatherhood, he thought, “Why am I resisting?”
On why he didn’t stop drinking before then: “That was a whole by-product of fame… There’s a form of expat guilt,” he says. “I feared people at home would think I’d changed. So my Irish accent got stronger in America. This was me coming in and going, ‘I don’t give a f–k!’ But, of course, not caring is a form of caring.”
His idea of keeping it real: “I wore the same f–king pair of boots for 10 years,” he recalls, laughing. “From Cape Town to Tibet to L.A. to Dublin without laces. The same f–king grubber boots that I bought for f–king 20 pounds in a market in London. Initially I wore them because I didn’t want to care about how I looked, and then they became my identity. They became my character. And then I wouldn’t wear anything else—the idea of it put the fear of God in me.”
Stupid money: “I’d fly over loads of uncles and aunties. I think the most I brought over at one time was 30 friends and family. ‘Cause the money back then was f–kin’ stupid, man! It was so stupid.”
Colin Farrell has sure come a long way since his bad boys when he stepped on to the Hollywood scene nearly ten years ago. Sober fox six years now, it looks like he has turned a new leaf and has a new lease on life as he talks very honestly about his past struggles in an interview with Details magazine. It’s a refreshingly honest read and it’s great to see Colin not holding back on any of his answers. Here are some highlights below:
On his boozing: “The bottom line is I ended up miserable. I’d done enough of a job of flagrantly abandoning myself in a very loud and public way that I began to fall apart, you know? There was a time when I needed to do three or four films at once. It was the best place for me to hide.”
He’s gotten time since he stopped drinking: “Honestly. I’ve got eight hours a day now that I didn’t have before, when I was drinking every day for 18 years.”
Becoming a father to son James (now 8): “When I had James, I made a decision not to change. I literally said, ‘I’m not changing! I’m gonna be his friend!’ Like a f–king 28-year-old drug-addicted drunk friend is exactly what my 6-week-old son needs.” After two years of substance-fueled fatherhood, he thought, “Why am I resisting?”
On why he didn’t stop drinking before then: “That was a whole by-product of fame… There’s a form of expat guilt,” he says. “I feared people at home would think I’d changed. So my Irish accent got stronger in America. This was me coming in and going, ‘I don’t give a f–k!’ But, of course, not caring is a form of caring.”
His idea of keeping it real: “I wore the same f–king pair of boots for 10 years,” he recalls, laughing. “From Cape Town to Tibet to L.A. to Dublin without laces. The same f–king grubber boots that I bought for f–king 20 pounds in a market in London. Initially I wore them because I didn’t want to care about how I looked, and then they became my identity. They became my character. And then I wouldn’t wear anything else—the idea of it put the fear of God in me.”
Stupid money: “I’d fly over loads of uncles and aunties. I think the most I brought over at one time was 30 friends and family. ‘Cause the money back then was f–kin’ stupid, man! It was so stupid.”