Colin Farrell on Playing The Penguin in Batman II, Working with Tom Cruise & Riding in an F1 Car

Our first guest tonight is a three-time Golden Globe winner and two-time penguin who now joins a storied roster of LA TV detectives. Sugar returns Friday to Apple TV. Please welcome Colin Farrell. Hello Sarah Nimitz. She's great right? Wonderful yeah. Colin said hello Sarah. Guillermo's over there too. How are you? Good. You look great. You look great. You look fantastic. Where'd you keep the six pack today Guillermo? How you doing? I'm well. Yeah you um I was going to mention that I'm having a difficult week because we have you here and we have Will Ferrell here and um Farrell and Farrell. That was a shaky start to that that sentiment you were sharing there. It's a shake. I'm having a different week because you're here. Well but Will Ferrell. It has nothing to do with you. I know where you're going where you're going with this. Farrell Farrell. Yeah man it happens. It's confusing apparently if you have an act like you have a New York accent you have whatever. Colin Ferrell, Will Ferrell. It's the same. Now you say it it sounds exactly the same. Because I put on a little American accent because I'm an actor and that's what sometimes I do. Okay. Where's my dialect coach on speed dial? Um now I know it's Farrell. Which one? That's you. Farrell. That's how would I say Farrell. And then Ferrell. And then Ferrell. They're like grr. Like the ass the animal. Yeah like the raccoon that had its way with him in Elf. I wish I was Will Ferrell. I would love to have Elf on my CV. When we think of him we'll just think of a raccoon yeah with rabies. When he goes give it that hug. Have you been and I know this maybe this is racial profiling but because I know you're from Europe. Let's go there Jimmy. Let's go there. Have you been watching the World Cup? Yes. Yes okay. No I was trying I was in New York with my son this weekend so I just watched the highlights. You did? Yeah but we were there for the Knicks winning the NBA final. Oh you were? Yeah yeah. A lot of New Yorkers here in LA. You know it's a weird thing. Well first of all yeah there are a lot of New Yorkers here in LA. I'm one of them myself but um. Surprisingly you didn't cheer. You're the only one that didn't cheer. I cheered when I was internally. Yeah it was amazing to be there for it. Did you go out in the streets? No we're having a steak dinner but across the road was a bodega and they had a tv screen stuck to the wall outside and there was about 100 people there and they just lost their when they won. Yeah it was amazing but we didn't go. We stayed away from the uh the anarchy. Have you had a sporting event back home in Ireland that has been comparable to that? The reaction? Italia 90 the World Cup Italia 90 Ireland played and we got to the uh we got to the quarterfinals against Italy. We beat Romania in the second round um in a penalty shootout. It was bliss. The whole country went bananas. It was bliss. It was a long time coming. We didn't have much of a track record in the World Cup so. Italy was playing in Italy at the World Cup was in Italy. Italy were playing in Italy and we were playing Romania in the second round and it went it went it went 90 minutes without a goal. Penalty shootout. It came down to the last penalty and David O'Leary put the ball in the back of the net and the whole country was just up in arms and I was out in the streets in Dublin. When was I? I was 14. It was amazing. Yeah I remember jumping on at 14 in the town that I lived in the village that I lived in Castelnock jumping on the bonnet hood of a car uh as it was going by because there was people hanging out of it. I just jumped on the bonnet hood of the car but unfortunately there were green lights for the next two miles. So I ended up 11 o'clock at night of 14 in Blanchardstown the next town over. I mean it wasn't a long walk home and it was a somewhat joyful chaotic walk home. Did you have to jump on a car? There was no beatings. Nobody was getting stomped on and they let you know it was no school buses. No school buses. That's what I was going to ask you about. If somebody lit a school bus on fire would people have been disturbed by that? The churches would be full again. There'd be an awful amount of guilt on the island. I see I see. Awful amount of guilt. I see all right. Someone would be having a hefty confession. Hi Sarah Nimitz. I know you're a Formula One fan. I love the Formula One. What about you? Which is kind of a team sport. Not not that interested in it to be honest. Yeah but there's no team sport where the two team members are as vehemently competing with each other against each other. That is strange right? There is a time when when team orders come into play particularly if one driver is doing a lot better than the other driver in the team championship. You got to block guys out right? Yeah all that kind of stuff. You got to ride along in one of these vehicles. I did in Miami a few weeks ago. I went to the F1. It was the first time in 20 years I'd been and we did a what they call a hot lap. Yeah you'd never done that before. It's a lot scarier than that other thing hot wings I did a few years ago. Yeah yeah I never did it before. I've never been in a car when it's been driven right at the limit of its capability. I think you just came up with a great show idea for Sean Evans. He gets behind the wheel 180 miles an hour while eating wings. Yes I love this idea. But you brought a video and well this is what the show would look like. I did not bring this video by the way. The researchers found this video. Oh is that right? Somebody brought this video but enjoy it nonetheless. Oh my god you got him on the inside man. You got him in the apex. Good man. I mean that's just unbelievable. I feel like I'm gonna have a heart attack but in a good way. Oh my god man. Oh my good lord. Oh look at that. I've seen this on television so many times. Oh my god that was just extraordinary. Holy god. How old are you? I asked how old he was. Really good question. I was just gonna I was about to card him. It's a question I would have asked when I got into the vehicle. Yeah yeah. Have you got a driver's license? It looked like you were giving your nephew a driving lesson or something like that. That was a kid right? Terrified. Yeah he did look about 16 but I think he's doing very well in formula 2. Really? Yeah yeah. Terrifying. Yeah that seems even more terrifying. So this sport that you love you're you were scared to go along with it. Passenger seat. Passenger seat. If you were driving would that be more interesting? I'd give it a go. I mean the car would have been the first walled if I was driving. The control he had was astonishing. I mean it just felt very very awkward. It felt like the car was about to fall apart but he was in complete control the whole time. Even when it felt like we were skidding out of control he was just adjusting and going back the other direction and it was mad. Yeah I mean you put a lot of trust in that 13 year old boy. Well we're gonna take a break. When we come back we're gonna see a clip from Colin's show Sugar. Colin Farrell is here with us. We'll be right back. Maybe someone else stayed behind. Second group third wave California. John Sugar. I'm still here if anyone else is. It'd be it'd be nice to talk to someone. That is Colin Farrell in Sugar. Which you can see on Apple TV. Season two premieres on Friday. Sad alien. Sad alien. Now you said alien so I I didn't want to say alien in case people have not caught up but you've said it and so now let's go with it. Hat's out of the bag. That was the twist in the middle of the first season. Yeah. That uh big wooden character who's like a traditional LA detective. Yeah. It's seen it would have seemed is actually an alien. From a distant distant planet. But still doing his job here. Still trying his best man and loves human beings. I mean what's not to love. It's very interesting. Just turn on the news. What's not to love. Yeah. So good to each other. But he does that's one of the lovely things about playing him is that he um he's an eternal optimist in a way. He does love he sees all the ugliness and all the cruelty and all the violence but he also sees the extraordinary generosity and decency and compassion and tenderness that human beings are so capable of as well. Which is why it's so crushing when he encounters its opposite you know. But that's that's one of the lovely things about playing the character. It really is going to work and like as opposed to Penguin and I know it's acting and **** but you take it home with you a little bit. And Penguin who was so kind of wickedly wickedly uh psychopathic and and an absolute malignant narcissist. This guy is just kind to his core. When you say you take it home with you. You ever keep the penguin makeup on and like go somewhere? The first time we did a makeup test I went to Starbucks. Yeah. Oh you did? Yeah. Yeah. And did people look at you funny? You know soy latte and all that kind of thing. They they yeah yeah I got a few I got a few looks. Yeah for sure. What name did you get? I mean nobody knew nobody had a reference because it was before the first film so it had never been put on screen or anything. But uh no I said Oz. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah yeah yeah. And what's the name sir? Oz yeah. And I waited for a minute. They spell it right? They get it right. Yeah they did. They did yeah. Yeah they did. Pretty easy. Penguin's gonna be in the Batman movie the new Batman movie right? That's exciting. Yeah I've only got a couple of scenes but the script is script is amazing which is great that I only have a couple of scenes because it means the film isn't ruined for me. I can watch it now as an audience member. So you you did you read the whole script? You read the whole script they were kind enough to give me the whole script and not just the pages I was in yeah and it's extraordinary. Is it an assortment of villains or is there one main? That I can't now there that's when I get fired yeah yeah yeah yeah. So I'll just say it's really really good. I was already surprised you told me how much you're in it. Yeah I know yeah. I figured I'd go for a little bit more if I could. It's so slutty. I know that you um uh you oh first I want to mention this photograph because you were with. Oh yeah. Uh screen you're at a screening that Tom Cruise put together for Steven Spielberg's movie Disclosure Day and there's you Dakota Fanning and Tom Cruise and this while it may look like um Steven it is a popcorn bucket. Where Steve the popcorn was in Steven's brain. Is it supposed to be Steven because it looks like he's away on holidays like he's very tan. Yeah he's a tan Steven but he's filled with you know he's filled with popcorn so that'll heat you up a little bit. Is this did Tom actually eat out of this thing? He did yeah he loves his popcorn when he goes to the cinema he loves the whole experience. How do you know Tom from working together? We did we did Minority Report lifetime ago. Right. Yeah like years ago. Does he did he make a big impression on you when when you met him? Oh yeah he's an animal. Yeah oh my god what an engine. He is something else. What an engine honestly he's such an impressive human being. I mean he's an extraordinary actor and I I had a friend a few years ago that was in uh that was only 23 or 24 and they only knew him from the Mission Impossible films and I was fortunate to get to show this friend some of his earlier stuff like Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July and he's just Tom's an extraordinary actor who has who's chosen to veer into more popcorn multiplex suited fare like Mission Impossible but it's a conscious but he's he's just brilliant anything he turns his hand to he's extraordinary and working with him I mean he's healthily competitive as you can imagine you know he'd walk onto the set and he remember one day he walked onto the set and he said is this an action movie why don't I hear action I was kind of like all right let's go oh yeah yeah he's like he's uh he's one of the most positive energies I've ever been around. Yeah well he's been here on this show and I distinctly remember them telling us hey Tom we got to make sure we're on time because Tom's got to get out of here he's got to go do this thing whatever I'm like yeah yeah yeah no problem and we went to a commercial break he went out in the audience and 30 minutes later he came back to his seat. Really? Yeah he was out talking to every single person in the audience. He's amazing isn't he? Yeah you're not going to do that tonight. No I just want to keep everyone away from me with my security. Listen there's only one Tom Cruise. Yeah yeah yeah yeah thank god it's great to see him I hadn't seen him in a long time lovely. How'd you like that disclosure day? Brilliant I mean I just love Spielberg I was raised. As an alien you approved? As an alien with blue eyes uh-huh like Colin Firth using the alien tech I know Colin's human and Colin Firth Will Ferrell Williams it's all very confusing um but yeah yeah yeah I was raised you know on Steven's stuff and I just love his work and I was thrilled to see the film loved it. Well it's great to see you. You too Jimmy. Congratulations on the show it's Sugar it's season two premiering Friday on Apple TV talk with Jessica Williams.