Colin Farrell Opens Up About His Son James and the Inspiration Behind His New Foundation | INTERVIEW

Colin, my friend, I appreciate you for doing this, man. Thanks so much. Thanks for taking the time, man. I'm going to start out with a where were you question because I choose to believe that most people are good in this world and most people want to do good and they do whatever they can to make the world a better place. You by nature of what you do for a living, you're in a great position to be able to do it in a way that the rest of us cannot. Do you remember the moment you sort of paused and sort of realized, my name can do something, I can change this world and do better in a way that other people just can't do? I remember, and it's not the same as what you're saying, but it's a little bit like it. I remember the first time that the presence of what was clear to me was an enormous amount of good fortune in my life was made apparent and that was when my grandparents, I was doing a TV show in Ireland called Ballycus Angel, I was earning £150,000, it was before the euro came in, and my grandparents needed care that they couldn't get at home and it was time for them to go somewhere and I could pay, I think it was, Clá, what was it, £25,000 a year or something? It was £25,000 a year and I could, it was on me, and I have an extended family and uncles and aunties and all that and they all worked very hard all their lives, but I was in a position at the age of 23 to be able to take care of my grandmother, my mother's father and my mother's mother and that was just, that was an eye-opener for me at the opportunity that the work that I was getting in the earlier stage of my career as an actor. Since then, more directly to what you're talking about, yeah, I know that I have a platform, I mean, just that, I'm not big on, I'm not big on expressing my opinions on how people should live their lives, on how people should vote, on how, that's not my area of expertise or my area of interest, of course I have an interest in how society is run and governance and stuff like that, I'm raising my two children in Los Angeles, but I think the best thing that I can do, having been blessed with my first son being born with a condition that's quite rare, James was born with a condition called Angelman Syndrome, one in 16,000 kids are born with it, the best thing that I can do, I think, and the clearest thing, the most obvious thing, and maybe, maybe promote some change and a greater degree of light shed on the families that have not had the gross good fortune that I've had, is to use my voice and experience and that bit of platform that I have to try and shed that light on areas that need a lot of support that aren't getting the support that they need, so, yeah, that's why we're here and that's why I established the Colin Farrell Foundation, that's why we're having a chat and thanks again for doing this, man. Of course, man, you know, I'm always fascinated, the word success is subjective to people. Yeah, totally, yeah. The two most successful films I've ever done in my life, a film I did that Neil Jordan wrote and directed called Ondine and a film I did that Craig Gillespie directed called Fright Night, which is a remake of the original. I did that junket. Toby Hooper. Yeah. That's way back when and neither of those films did a nickel at the box office, but they're my two most successful films because the first film I met Henry's mother on, so my youngest son, Henry, who's 15, is in the world now because I did that film and the second film, Fright Night, my mother ultimately met her husband, not my dad, but her second husband as a result of me doing Fright Night. Even though those films, and that's the gospel truth, I'm not trying to be quaint, I'm not trying to be cute, those two films are the most successful films I've ever done. So success, yeah, is very, very subjective. I love that. See, to me, that's what's cool is we all have a different definition of what success is. You know, I would imagine that every actor wants and deserves a degree of privacy in their life, but by nature of this foundation and this cause that is so important to you, to a certain degree you have had to open up your personal life and invite us in to get to know your family better and to get to know your personal life in a way that a lot of other actors don't. So I'm sort of curious, for the success of this foundation, to what degree have you had to decide, okay, I'm going to let some strangers in to a place that maybe otherwise I wouldn't have let them in? Yeah, I mean, I've talked about, you know, again, James is a big inspiration for the establishment of the foundation, because as a result of his existence, I've also been involved with the Angelman Syndrome community for 14 or 15 years now. But yeah, we'll do the gala tomorrow, you'll be there. And then I'll go home Sunday morning and I'll have my head in the sand and I'll just be living a fairly normal life with me two kids. I will say that having People magazine doing that piece, which was the first time that I spoke about the foundation and I had to agree to be open in talking about James and his journey and what it's been like as a father of a child with special needs with intellectual disability. That was tricky for me, because I'm a lot more private than I probably present a lot of the times in these kinds of situations. I don't have much of an interest in being in the public eye. I am in the public eye a lot. I'm very grateful for it. I'm grateful that I have the opportunities in acting and how, as I say, going back to my grandmother and my grandfather, how it's allowed me to provide for those I love. I also do a job that I love doing. Like I'm so jammy, good fortune, but I don't have much of an interest being out and about. I don't want to be at the top of any pile. I have ambition, of course, but I'm not, yeah, I don't need to take over anything. So I had to have a moment of our house, our home, me and me two boys. It's very mellow, safe spot. There's no, we all love movies, but there's no much talk about the business. There's no posters from films I've done up and about. I have one Fright Night poster, but it's the original Fright Night. Oh, come on. Yeah. That's a classic poster. And it's signed by Chris Aaron. Oh, come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that's, but that's about it really. I mean, I have one picture of me and Brendan Gleeson on the wall, but it's not from the film. It's a different. But like, that's a friend. That's not a co-star. Yeah, no, Brendan is a friend, not a colleague. Both, but friend first and foremost. So to bring a crew into me house, into our home that time was something I wasn't comfortable with, but I really did just have a moment where I thought, like, if I could ask James, and I do ask James questions, I speak to James like as if he's a typical 21 year old who has a perfect understanding of the English language, which I don't believe he does, and he's nonverbal. But I thought to myself, as I said in the article, if I asked James, are you OK with being on camera? Are you OK with me doing an interview? This could lead to helping other families who haven't had the breaks of good fortune to the degree that we have. James, would you like to, James would say to me, you know, why are you even asking me, dad? It's a no brainer. What is it, a crew for three hours? Yeah, bring the cables in, bring the cameras in. And they were very sensitive, the crew from People magazine, and she was wonderful doing the interview. And yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't, geez, I don't need this. I mean, you know, my ego doesn't need it. I don't, I'm not, but I don't understand the mysteries of life and the events and the happenings, the consequence, the, what do you call, coincidences that take place, the meetings. I don't understand how all these things coalesce to direct one person towards having this life and another person towards having that life. There is no definitive answers to why we end up where we do. There are certain steps and decisions that work out and don't work out and certain things and virtues and attributes someone's born with, and we can do a certain amount of digging and investigating, but there is also a certain amount of unanswerables. And it just seems that I know from being in the community for 14 or 15 years that there are a lot of families that are struggling for support and are struggling for care and are feeling like they're out in the left alone in the dark and they're tired and their children aren't being supported as they should be supported and not being supported in a way that I, because of being an actor and working as I have for 25 years, I've been able to support James in ways that other families aren't able to support their kids. So I'm basically on the right side of wrong, basically. I'm on the chosen side of a kind of an imperfection and an imbalance that has existed in every society around the world. I'm on the preferred side of a gross imbalance. I'm well aware of that. So yeah, if I can do anything at all now to raise awareness, to get more attention down the road, maybe to get some legislative change and talk to some politicians down the road, but just to get into the communities and hear people's stories and start to raise funds and give little pockets of grants to offer some relief and that kind of stuff. That's what we're going to do. But you casually mentioned something that I think, whether you realize it or not, solidifies exactly what you're talking about, which is that you've been involved with this for 14, 15 years. This is not a thing that you decided to do yesterday. No. You've been a part of this and a lot of people have not known. You've come to Chicago. Yeah. And a lot of people have not known. Yeah. No, and it's not for... Yeah. I've been lucky enough to be able to descend on the main coal streets of Chicago once a year, around this time, December, pretty much every year. I think I missed two galas over 13 or 14 years because I was working abroad. One of them, I ended up doing a... I was on the Zoom type thing and I wasn't wearing any... I was wearing underwear but no pants and I thought the thing, I thought the camera would stop and I stood up. Seriously, I stood up and there's me and me boxes in front of a room with a thousand people. But no, I've been lucky enough to be a member of this community for 14, 15 years now. And I just felt that it was time. My boys are growing up a little bit. I'm seeing how hard it is to try and figure out and organize the next chapter of James's life where he's going to live. He's ready for a more expansive life. He's ready for... He's ready to get out. He doesn't want to live with his mom and his dad. He's ready to have a greater sense of community and we're finding it hard to figure out. Dad's not cool. Dad hasn't been cool for a few years, man, if dad ever was. But he's... You know, we're trying to figure that out and we have means and if we're having the struggle that we're having to figure out what the next stage... It makes me think, of course, jeez, what are families who don't have the means that we have? Can you imagine how much they feel they're in a cul-de-sac? You know, there's just no way out. Turn around. I'd love to know... There are a lot of parents who are downstairs in the lobby. There are a lot of the kids who are downstairs in the lobby who are here. Because I'd imagine it's... They don't look at you as Colin Farrell, the actor. They're looking at you... You're right there with them. You're right there. I'd love to know your interaction with the parents. That's all I am, to be honest, here. The name is up in the Colin Farrell Foundation and all that, but we all know what that is. It's just a structure. It's just a social structure. And it's just a fame thing. And it can be used to your advantage. It can become a disadvantage in life. But yeah, no, I'm just here as a parent. I'm just here as a father of two incredible young men. One of whom, which at 21 now, James, was born with a very severe intellectual disability. And that's what I'm here for. And that's where I meet the parents. Not by any choice. It's all very organic, man. You'll see it tomorrow. It'll be bedlam. It'll be something to meet and greet. There'll be hugs and kisses and licks. I'll get a couple of punches every year from some... You know, you'll get me hair pulled, hopefully. It'll be gorgeous. It'll be beautiful. And there's such heart in this community. It's the kind of heart and the kind of love and the kind of sense of unity that, if you're fortunate enough to experience it, and you will experience it tomorrow, man, I'll be interested to hear what you think of it tomorrow after the event. I'm very excited. It'll be really, really moving. And it's a bunch of people who don't have politics on their mind. There's no opposing sides. Ideologies are thrown out the window. There's one focus, and it's how do we support each other and how do we give greater opportunity to our children who can't fend for themselves, who can't take care of themselves. Some of our kids, you know, can't dress themselves, can't feed themselves, can't go to the bathroom themselves, can't wash themselves. All of that stuff. Like, it's hard for these parents. And yeah, how do we make our children's lives better? How do we give them better opportunities and better care? And that's what it's all about. And these support systems evaporate when a lot of these kids turn 21 years old. Yeah, once they turn 21, the bottom falls out. There's really nothing there. I mean, we're not trying to reinvent the wheel with the foundation. There are countless people out there, charities, foundations, that are doing extraordinary work and trying to right the scales of imbalance. And I'm well aware of that, and I'm going to learn from them. This is really kind of, you know, it's uncharted territory for me. You know, so I'm here to learn, and I'm here to see how I can in any way be of assistance and in any way serve truly, and that's it. Talking about learning, I feel like whenever my mind goes to the pinnacle, the example of the celebrity who used his name for good, you used his name a lot, Mr. Paul Newman. Paul Newman, legend. Legend. Mr. Paul Newman, who filmed his final movie right here in Chicago. Oh my God, if I could just think of a beer, pasta sauce is out the window. Yeah, I'd love to know what you've learned from the generations before you in terms of actors who used their position for the greater good, and for the actors who are going to follow behind you. I always love that Jack Lemmon quote about sending the elevator back down. I'd love to know what you want that next generation to learn. From being on the right side of wrong. I don't know. I just, I don't, I don't know. What each person learns is it's up to them. We all have to figure out our way through life. This is my journey, and I don't know where it'll take me, and I don't know if I'll be any influence or be able to do the good that I hope I will be able to, and the board will be able to be a part of. Newman is a huge inspiration to me, sure as an actor, but more as a human being, as a man who wanted to make a difference and who just put his heart in his sleeve and wanted to, I think one of his quotes, apart from when he was talking about being married to Joanne and saying, why would you go outside the marriage for a cheeseburger when you've got a steak at home? Was that him? I think he did. Oh, that's fantastic. You'll have to fact check me on that, but I think he did say that. I trust you. I think he did. No, I don't trust myself, so I'll Google it when we're finished, but he just, you know, I think he was aware that, look, we all leave the world in greater or lesser measures. We all leave the world a better, we leave each day the world as a better or worse place than it was when we started the day, and we do it in really kind of minute, just undiscernable incremental ways, just by every interaction we have, and I'm not saying everyone has to move through the world smiling all the time and high-fiving each other. We all have our moods, we all agitate each other, I'll piss you off, you'll piss me off, that's part of the human experience, but also just to have awareness that the way you move through the world, the way we move through the world as individuals and as communities, it informs the person to the left of us, it informs the person to the right of us. We all inform each other's journey. So how do you want to inform, not just your own journey, but how do you want to inform the journey of your fellow man and woman and the children that you share the world with, you know? And so, yeah, Newman was talking about just leaving the world a little bit better than the world he came into, the world he found, you know, so I'd love that, that'd be great. I mean, but, I mean, think about that, I gotta say, whenever I, Paul Newman's one of my favorite actors, but when I think of Paul Newman, the first thing that comes to my mind isn't the roles that he played, it's Newman's own good, the good that he left with his role, Newman's own, it's the legacy he left behind. Huge. I mean, if your legacy... The hole-in-the-wall gang, yeah. Exactly right. I mean, this all started, I had a, like, the hole-in-the-wall gang, I, there was something that happened within our community, I won't get into it a few years ago, but it was, it was, there are a lot of parents who, and I've met some of them and spoken to some of them, who really, really struggle, who feel like they're letting their children down because they haven't got the finances, they haven't got the support systems, who are struggling with extraordinary fatigue, who are fearful of what the future is gonna look like for their children with intellectual disabilities, and when their children grow up, what's the world gonna look like when the parent dies, who's gonna take care of their children? I mean, the burden of these considerations is so monumental, and there was one parent I spoke to, and something had happened that was so horrific, and it was as a result of parents being at their wit's end, and it made me think of, it made me think of not just supporting our children, but supporting their families as well, and because it is a familial concern having a child with an intellectual disability, and it should be a community concern, and it should be a national concern, it should be a global concern. Parents need so much support, absolutely, so that they can better support their kids, and so that they can have some of the shame lifted, and some of the fatigue cut into, and so I wanted to do a camp, I had an idea for a camp, and I could see it very clearly in my head, I could see, say if it was 40 acres, there'd be the commissary where everyone would share their meals, there'd be an out blow-up screen, movie screen, an outdoor cinema on bean bags, there'd be a couple of saunas dotted around the property that the parents could use, there'd be a massage room with three or four tables, parents could have massages as their kids were playing games and playing sports, say there would obviously be great nursing care, and so these kinds of camps exist, by the way, I found out subsequently, but I was just thinking I would love to do that, that was a dream of mine, and it still is, and it was that that kind of led to the idea of establishing the foundation, so the camp has kind of put a little bit on the back burner, now we're getting just, trying to get to grassroots level and listen to as many communities as we can and see how we can through the giving of grants, whether it's 10 grand here or 20 grand there, depending on what we bring in, in regards to funding, and learning more about the different legislative processes that are in place to support, that aren't really in the place that they should be to support the families that need the support, that are just struggling under the weight of not having the support they need, and so that'll be the mission going forward. Well that leads into my next question, a couple more and I'll cut you loose, there are a lot of people who are going to see this who are not going to be able to make it out tomorrow night, and maybe aren't even personally impacted by this cause, but they see it and they go, what can I do? I want to help. We have a lot of great people right here in the city of Chicago, for someone who is watching and thinking, I don't really have an involvement in this community, but it's something that I think I'd like to help with, what would you say is, what's step number one? I mean to be honest, I take the attention off the column for our foundation to say that the Special Olympics is an extraordinary organization. We have a great Special Olympics Illinois right here in Chicago. You do, I mean it's just extraordinary, the work that they do and have done for decades now around the world, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver should be sainted, you know? So that's a good place to start, and then from there there'll be an enormous amount of information where there could be other outreach programs that you could get involved in. The sound I wish you could hear that I make every year when I have to run out into Lake Michigan in February, for the polar plunge. Oh do you do, where does it happen, at the lake? Well they do it, they do one right there on the lake and then one a little bit further up the north. Is the lake totally frozen over in February? It's year to year, but I'll never forget one year they had to bring in the backhoe to break the ice. Now, I always just do it one time, I do it once a year, but they have a group of people that do it every hour for 24 hours. The Polar Bear Club, every, wait a second, they get in every hour for 24 hours? 24 hours, there's like a tent and they- They get in for what, three minutes? Yeah, a couple of minutes. A couple of minutes. And they are, like they don't dip in and run for 24 hours, and then every team raises money for it. And there's fucking ambulances waiting there. Oh yeah. With oxygen and tinfoil. And I can only do it once, I only got one time in me, man. That's too rich for my blood, man. That's way too rich for my blood. I only got one time in me. You're talking 32 degrees, just north of. It's a pain that I did not know existed. Good on you. But hey, good on them, they're the ones that, they do it far more than I do. I'm going to cut you loose on this, you and I have done this a lot, you know I don't ask personal questions. But I would just like to ask one question about James, and I know you've talked a lot about the way he has changed you as a person. What do you hope he's learned from you? What do you hope he's gleaned from you? Oh, I don't know. Nothing. He's better than me. Both of me are young men. Me boys, James and Henry, are better human beings than I am and will ever be. I have no idea. Learn from me. See, that's the way I honestly think of it, and again, I'm not trying to be quaint or cute, but my boys have raised, whatever version of a man I am, my boys have raised me to be that. You know what I mean? By putting my feet to the flames, without even knowing they were doing it, just by the needs that children have, and observing them, and failing at times miserably, but trying to just be there and be present. So, I have learned more from them about my own childhood, observing them, and about what I feel about certain things now, and the kind of world that I would like to inhabit more and more. I have learned, through my love for them, more than any expectations or any understanding of what they may have learned from me. I love that. Colin, from the bottom of my heart, man, I appreciate you always coming back to Chicago. Thanks, man. I appreciate you this time, and I'm excited for tomorrow night. Thanks. I'm so glad you're here, brother. Thank you so much, man. Yeah, you too. Thanks, pal. Thanks very much. You too, pal. Thank you.