Movies - TV
Why Colin Farrell Felt The Lobster Was One Of His Least Risky Films
By SHAE SENNETT
Colin Farrell has achieved huge success in nearly every rung of the industry, but he never shies away from a challenge. He has played difficult roles like Stu Sheppard in “Phone Booth” and Captain John Smith in “The New World,” but surprisingly, Farrell was actually most confident about one of his least conventional projects — Yorgos Lanthimos' 2015 film, “The Lobster.”
Farrell trusted Lanthimos as an artist after seeing the writer-director’s breakout movie “Dogtooth,” but Lanthimos also took a unique hands-off approach that gave Farrell lots of room to work. The actor told IndieWire that his experience of working with Lanthimos “was very liberating” because he “didn’t have to worry about the backstory.”
Farrell added, “The best way to serve the story was not to try to paint it with any of my own particular perception or opinions.” Lanthimos' directing style relies very little on the actor's performance to carry the film, which also means that the finished product might resemble the written screenplay more closely than something made by a more improvisational director.