Colin Farrell: I Don’t Know How Justin Bieber Handles It

Colin Farrell has settled down a lot over the past few years, and he credits his son for much of that change. “The most significant aspect of my life lives far away from anywhere that the camera...
Colin Farrell: I Don’t Know How Justin Bieber Handles It
Written by Mike Tuttle
  • Colin Farrell has settled down a lot over the past few years, and he credits his son for much of that change.

    “The most significant aspect of my life lives far away from anywhere that the camera is needed,” Farrell told Men’s Health. “You play the part and you do interviews, but you don’t over extend yourself or put a mask on or change your name. Because when you get home, the only thing that matters is your son not eating his turkey sandwiches and he’s not into avocado anymore, so you have to find something new that you eat for lunch.”

    That level of responsibility is a far cry from where Colin Farrell seemed to be when he first hit America’s shores.

    “I had a very particular energy for the first five or six or seven years I spent in America,” Farrell admits now. “I was loud and gregarious and drunk most of the time, and my general mindset was ‘fuck this and fuck that and fuck the other.'”

    Now, Colin Farrell has a much more balanced view of things. And he wonders at how some young megastars handle everything.

    “What most people call success – which is money, fame, fortune, those things – it’s all an illusion, and I couldn’t handle it at that early stage. I don’t know how Justin Bieber has actually behaved as well as he has. You can get away with anything. It’s insane. So you really have to learn.”

    For Farrell, his crazy path was launched when he got booted out of high school. It may seem like an ignominious beginning to a career, but Farrell was happy to be gone.

    “What happened was, the study supervisor put his hands on me,” Farrell explains of his ouster, “and I kind of grabbed him and had a few words. And that was the last in a long list of seemingly small incidents that individually work that harmful or discordant.”

    “It was fucking great. I was so relieved. It was like that Shawshank Redemption moment where Tim Robbins escapes into the river. I was free. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I didn’t have to play by anyone’s rules. The plan was up to me.”

    Colin Farrell’s philosophy nowadays is simple:

    “Discomfort is a message bearer. Every feeling of discomfort is a moment waiting to be decoded. Something is being invoked inside you, and you need to learn to commune with it or it tends to swallow you up.”

    Get the WebProNews newsletter delivered to your inbox

    Get the free daily newsletter read by decision makers

    Subscribe
    Advertise with Us

    Ready to get started?

    Get our media kit