'He's not the sharpest tool in the shed'

A LOT has happened since Colin Farrell last worked in his native Ireland four years ago. Then, as a fresh young actor from the BBC series Ballykissangel, he was merely a supporting player in Ordinary Decent Criminals.

When he returned to star in Intermission, he was a fully-fledged Hollywood star with roles in Phone Booth, Minority Report, The Recruit, Hart's War and Daredevil to his credit. Since then, he's gone on to star in the title role in Oliver Stone's epic Alexander the Great, currently shooting in Morocco.

Farrell, who's become known for his hellraising lifestyle as much as his acting, is as amazed as anybody by his rapid rise to fame. "I have to pinch myself sometimes to remind me that it's all happening," he says.

"I know how lucky I am and I'm enjoying it enormously. It's just been brilliant".

Intermission is very different to his Hollywood work. It's a small budget Irish comedy thriller, but Farrell was determined to lend his support to first time director John Crowley.

"I just thought it was a brilliant, brilliant script and when I met John I knew I wanted to be part of it," he says. "He's got a lot of experience in the theatre and I know that this is his first film, but that didn't matter to me. I knew he'd do a great job."

The chance to work again in Dublin was a big plus. "Being back in Dublin was great. Very, very special. Being back there any time - and it's still my one and only home - is great, but being there and making a movie like this was just brilliant," he says.

"A good days work and a few pints down the pub after you've finished, there's nothing like it."

His character in Intermission is not the most endearing he's played. Lehiff is a small time criminal, a thug with big plans and a violent nature. Farrell's exact description, along with much of his expletive-riddled conversation, is unprintable in a family newspaper.

"He's a scumbag, he really is," says the actor. "A petty criminal who thinks his mind is a lot faster and more toned than it actually is. He's not the sharpest tool in the shed, that's for sure. He's the bluntest. But he thinks he's great and has this scam that he's organised in his head."

He reckons to have met men like him, who'd step over their mother to get the next fix or the next tenner. He did it for the same reason he did comic book caper Daredevil, because he was a baddie.

"I mean that he was a ridiculous baddie. He was over the top and good fun to play. He's the kind of character you could meet in a pub, get drunk with, have a few pints and make one poxy joke, and the next thing you know there's a bottle sticking out of the side of your neck."

He believes that Ireland is rich with talented actors, writers and directors but the movie industry hasn't really taken off. There was a time a lot of stuff was being made there, then the tax incentives were removed.

"It's a business, they are business people who makes these movies and they decided not to take the movies to Ireland any more, or at least not so many. Even Waking Ned was shot on the Isle of Man, so hopefully this will inject a bit of life into it now."

One day, he'd like to work again in Ireland. Maybe produce, even direct a movie there. For the moment, he doesn't see himself as a star with that sort of power.

"I still feel very much like I'm in my infancy. I don't feel like a big name, I really don't. I don't feel like a big star. I feel neither the pressure nor the grandeur of my situation," he says.

"I'm still trying to find my feet as a film actor. I'm trying to figure out what it is and I know it ain't brain surgery and it's never going to change the world.

"But it confuses me and keeps me awake at night, acting does. It comes between me and my sleep a lot."

*Intermission (18) opens in cinemas tomorrow

Published: ??/??/2003