NEWSColin Farrell 'Thankful' He Didn't Develop Gambling Addiction During Substance Abuse Struggle: 'I Only Damaged My Body and Brain'
Colin Farrell said his addiction struggle never hurt his 'bank account.'
Sept. 25 2025, Published 1:49 p.m. ET
Colin Farrell dished on his past addiction struggles while chatting about his role in the upcoming thriller Ballad of a Small Player, where he plays a gambling addict.
During a press conference at the 73rd San Sebastian International Film Festival on Thursday, September 25, the actor noted, "It’s pretty well-chronicled now my history with addiction, but I don’t think you have to be an addict to play an addict."
Colin Farrell Dishes on His Role in 'Ballad of a Small Player'
Colin Farrell dishes on how he prepared to play his character in 'Ballad of a Small Player.'
That being said, the dad-of-two's experience did help him shape his character onscreen.
"He is somebody who doesn’t believe in his own worth, who is very self-centered to the point of being despicable," Farrell spilled, as reported by an entertainment outlet. "As far as preparations go, I suppose I have some form of OCD that is given good life in regard to acting because you get to obsess about the characters and maybe imagine their history, their own personal kind of origin story."
The Actor Never Dealt With a Gambling Addiction
The actor said his addiction 'damaged' his body and brain but not his 'bank account.'
The Irish star never dealt with a gambling addiction like his character, something he's "thankful" for.
"Gambling is one affliction that never really came near me," he shared. "I’m glad to say I only damaged my body and my brain, not my bank account."
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The Irish native has two sons with two different women.
While checking out casinos for research, he was shocked to see people gamble "very serious money."
"One day backstage, one of the floor managers said, ‘We had two players last night and the house did pretty well.’ I said, ‘What’s pretty well to the house?,’ and he said, ‘At the end of four hours of playing, we were up to 24 million [Hong Kong Dollars],'" Farrell recalled, which equals about 3 million USD.
Farrell said the 'sober world' was 'pretty scary' after coming out of rehab.
The Penguin star has gone to rehab before and remembered what it was like doing one of his first public events after getting clean.
"After 15 or 20 years of carousing the way I caroused and drinking the way I drank, the sober world is a pretty scary world. To come home and not to have the buffer support of a few drinks just to calm the nerves, it was a really amazing thing. And I remember being more nervous, and being more uncomfortable initially at the film festival than any others because I didn’t have any booze," he said of attending the Dublin International Film Festival in 2008.
“Having gotten through the initial discomfort and self-judgments and whatever tensions were created inside me, it was easily the most rewarding film festival that I’d had," Farrell raved. "And it was the one I could remember the most."
