Colin Farrell on Finding Joy in Gotham Again, Big Macs, and Late-Night Texts with Oscar Winners

For Colin Farrell and Fala Chen, collaboration isn’t just part of the job, it’s the heartbeat of their work. In Ballad of a Small Player, the two actors star opposite each other in a story as layered and unpredictable as the performances at its center. Directed by Edward Berger, the film explores identity, risk, and reinvention through characters who must constantly navigate the line between control and surrender. For Farrell and Chen, that meant leaning into trust, instinct, and what Chen calls “a throw-things-on-the-wall kind of energy” to see what might crack open a scene.

The story follows Lord Doyle (Farrell), a high-rolling British gambler whose life is unraveling among the chaotic glamor of Macau’s casino circuit. When Doyle encounters a mysterious compatriot, his desperate bid for redemption quickly spirals into obsession, danger, and an unsettling dive into the psyche of a man who has run out of luck.

Ahead of the film’s release, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff interviewed Farrell and Chen, where the stars reflect on the kind of scene partnership that reshapes performances, the confidence Berger gave them to take big creative swings, and the freedom that comes when a set feels truly collaborative. They also share the story behind one late-night text that ended up making it into the final film, and Farrell closes the conversation with a quick tease about returning to Gotham in The Batman: Part II.

Colin Farrell and Fala Chen on Finding Freedom, Trust, and “Throwing Things on the Wall”

“Your fellow actors kind of write your performance.”

PERRI NEMIROFF: I wanted to start with a somewhat sillier question, although it’s a pretty heavy element of the movie. Colin, what is your favorite meal scene you’ve ever filmed, and how do the buffet scenes in this movie compare?

COLIN FARRELL: Easy. The Recruit interrogation scene, Big Mac. That was fast. We had a Big Mac in the scene, which is used as a temptation device to get me to speak. Obviously, if you’re going to have something like that in the film, they bring the big dogs from the McDonald’s head office, and they had a little McDonald’s kitchen set up, and they made picture-perfect… The temperature, the aesthetic. I mean, it was better than an Ed Berger/James Friend-framed Big Mac.

So that Big Mac is going above these buffet scenes?

FARRELL: Yeah. I think I only took a bite or two in the scene, or not even at all. But I had about four Big Macs that day. But it was all of my own choosing. I wasn’t stuffing lobster tails and salmon, which they’re fine in certain measures.

Taking a little more of a serious turn, I love asking about the value of having a good scene partner. Can you each tell me something about the other as a scene partner that you appreciated, and maybe even helped you unlock something in your own character that you wouldn’t have been able to without them?

FARRELL: Just the same thing I always appreciate. Thanks for letting me jump in there and talk so that you don’t get to answer this, because I speak for four minutes. It’s just the openness. You do get a sense of when you’re seeing partner has decided things can be a certain way, and that’s going to be that way, and that’s fine too, and you adapt and you go with that. I’m not saying how anyone should act or perform, but with Fala, it was very clear that she had done loads of homework. She’s a bit of a square that way, a bit of a teacher’s pet. She loves research. She’s an incredibly, seriously trained actor. She went to Juilliard for four years, so she has a wealth of knowledge about the arts and the craft of acting and theater and film, but she remained open the whole time. I could see little adjustments in how she’d look at me or how she took the environment in, and that, of course, altered my performance.

More and more, as I said before, your fellow actors kind of write your performance as much, if not more, for you than you could ever write it yourself. You come in with a set of ideas, and you come in with a reality that you have conceived or imagined, and then the people that you’re working next to inform you so much. She was always so open and so generous with her energy and her interpretation that it was a joy.

Image via Netflix

FALA CHEN: Thank you so much. You can stop now. [Laughs]

FARRELL: Okay, you go. Keep it quick ‘cause we only have 10, 7, 4 seconds.

CHEN: Damn it! [Laughs] He’s just the best. No, but really, I felt that as much as we keep open to possibilities, I always feel like there is this meticulous articulation in the way that Colin works for his character. So much though. I’m a teacher’s pet, but you have your way of being very specific and doing all of that, meanwhile, I feel the sense of constant breaking of form and a throw-things-on-the-wall kind of energy, and that’s giving credit to Edward Berger, as well, that he allows us to give that space, and respect, in a way, for us to do that so we’re trying something different every time.

But at the end of the day, it’s the moment Colin walks into the room, and how infectious his generosity and his open heart are to everyone, not just to me, but it’s to everybody in the crew. That’s something really beautiful and moving that I learned a lot from.

FARRELL: Thanks, love.

Edward Berger Invited ‘Ballad of a Small Player’s Stars to Imagine With Him

Farrell also discusses finding a beautiful on-screen moment while late-night texting with the Oscar-winning director.

Image via Netflix

Fala, I wanted to follow up on something I read in our press notes that you had said about Edward. You mentioned that the sense of confidence he gave you really made you feel like you could embody the character. Can you tell me something you were able to achieve with this character only because you had a director who gave you confidence and also valued your voice and input when it comes to crafting the character?

CHEN: He just gave me so much trust. I’m sure that they looked at a lot of different actors and possibilities, and he was attached already, Colin, so that’s part of their job to imagine different possibilities. But the moment that we met, I felt something immediately — well, I was trying to get myself hired — this trust that he gave me that I just felt very safe, and I felt that he didn’t want to veer me into something that only he imagined, but he was inviting me to imagine that with him.

So, we started our meeting without reading the script. It was the first Zoom meeting, just like, “Hello. How are you? Tell me a little about yourself,” getting to know each other as human beings, and that was really important for me to have a jump-off point. Then we could talk about character and script and inspiration, all of it. But I really, really appreciate Edward for giving me that space.

Colin, I have an Edward question for you, as well, because one thing I read that you said is that you can text him at any time of night with ideas, thoughts, and questions. Can you tell us a particular late-night text that wound up being in the final film that people can see now?

FARRELL: I don’t know, but I know that it’s one of the dangers of working with me, apparently, is that you’ll get texts at all hours of the morning with certain questions, because I’m not great at sleeping at night. I haven’t acquired that life skill. But I can’t remember any particular thing…

CHEN: You texted the hand on the face thing. It was our last day, the sun was setting, and then you texted me, and then you talked to Edward. He was like, “How about we put a hand on the face, and we try that?” It was beautiful and made it into the film.

Image via Netflix

FARRELL: It is! It’s in the movie. Yay! Definitely confirmed one good idea. Some people I’ve worked with have not taken kindly to the texts that come in the wee hours of the morning, and someone like Ed gives himself so fully to the whole process. What you were saying about me, Fala, Ed is the same and more. He’s incredibly generous, and he’s very accessible to everybody.

Also, for someone as brilliant as he is and as focused and clear in his own vision as he felt to me to be, he’s incredibly inclusive with regard to other people’s opinions of what we’re doing, and not as a result of uncertainty, but as a result of actually caring about the input of his fellow collaborators. It even went down to the process of being in the edit. He was very inclusive with people. “How did you feel about that?” and “What did you feel about that moment?” And he would still follow his inner compass, but he would take on board what other people were saying in a really beautiful way, so that it really did feel like a family thing, like a huge collaboration.

Colin Farrell Can’t Wait to Return to Gotham in ‘The Batman: Part II’

“I was spoiled with eight hours on HBO.”

Colin, I have to wrap our interview with a quick question about The Batman 2. When the script for The Batman 2 came your way, what was something about it that made you say to yourself, “I have something to gain from returning to this role as an actor who is always looking to evolve my craft and challenge myself in new ways?”

FARRELL: Oh, I don’t know if I got all that from anything, ever, but just being part of that film, to be honest. I love that world. I mean, I loved it as a fan of film since Batman ‘66. I grew up watching that, and Burgess Meredith was my first Penguin, and then Danny DeVito was my second Penguin. Then Chris Nolan’s work, of course, was extraordinary in that universe. But to see how Matt [Reeves] has re-envisioned a world that’s unique enough and still honors the struggles of that city and the psychological struggles of the character of Bruce Wayne, and Batman, and who is the shadow of who — is Bruce Wayne the real guy, or is Batman? Just to be part of that world… Honestly, just to be in something that takes place in Gotham, where a character called Bruce Wayne and Batman exist, is such a joy for me.

So, it’s less about “what can I do.” I was spoiled rotten with eight hours on HBO. It’s less of “what can I do with this,” and more just to be in that world and be around Robert [Pattinson] and be around Jeffrey [Wright] again, and be led by Matt Reeves. It’s something I’m really excited about again, just to be around it.

Ballad of a Small Player is now available to stream on Netflix.

Release Date

October 15, 2025

Runtime

101 Minutes

Director

Edward Berger

Producers

Matthew James Wilkinson, Elle Gibbons, Mike Goodridge

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