NEWSColin Farrell Talks Sobriety: Booze, Fame and Addiction "Gets Old"
Oct. 12 2012, Published 3:15 p.m. ET
There was a time when Colin Farrell was Hollywood's "It" bad boy and you could nary read an article about the actor without a tale of public drunkenness in there somewhere, too.
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However, a stint in rehab and a few years staying out of the spotlight turned the Irish actor into the poster boy for sobriety, and he now talks about clean living with the same passion as he once did Jack Daniels.
“Honestly. I’ve got eight hours a day now that I didn’t have before, when I was drinking every day for 18 years," he tells the November issue of Details. "It was part of my brand, and it’s hard for me to talk about the last 20 years and not have fame and addiction be a part of it. But it kind of does get old...”
Colin is promoting his latest flick, Seven Psychopaths, where he plays a struggling screenwriter who becomes entwined with the underground L.A. crime world. It's a far cry from the big budget blockbusters like Alexander that he used to churn out at the height of his fame...and addiction.
"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?" he explained. "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 talks about his aversion to relationships (he hasn't been in one for over two years) and how he's finally learned to be a father (he has two sons from previous relationships).
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"When I had James, I made a decision not to change. I literally said, ‘I’m not changing! I’m gonna be his friend!'" he recalls about the birth of his first son. "Like a f***ing 28-year-old drug-addicted drunk friend is exactly what my 6-week-old son needs.”
Mostly, however, Colin has become increasingly philosophical in his old age and spouts off a the hip about how he views life these days.
"Life is change, life is evolution, growth," he says. "Life is apogee, apex, decline, life is death—and everything else is open to discussion.”
Seven Psychopaths opens on Nov. 2.
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