Colin Farrell joked it was ‘patience’ that helped him establish his brotherly bond with Brendan Gleeson in In Bruges. “No, it was just easy,” laughed Farrell. “If the experience is shared in its kind of original intent, which is just the purity of trying to do a good job and tell a story well and render the characters with some level of honest, if you draw on that, that's a really good place to start. And then throw in Brendan's cool sense of humor, just his general affability... I mean, he's a really strong man, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't like to be on the wrong side of him, but he has an affable nature as well. Just lovely to be around.”
Ralph Fiennes, who plays the guy who sends the hired guns out on hits, also left quite an impression on Farrell. “He's just so all-around. He's very smart, incredibly erudite man and he's got great insight and just takes great care, great focus,” said Farrell of his onscreen boss. “Ralph was cool, man, great, fun, great actor.”
As for shooting In Bruges in Bruges, Farrell calls himself a hidden tourist in the city. “I was knackered after most days so I found a nice steam place to go to, like unisex steam place. No, no, no, it's all above board!” laughed Farrell. “It was great. I loved it. It's so puritanical [here in the U.S.].”
“They didn't know who the f--k I was, man, which made it even better,” said Farrell of his time spent in the city. “And all different body shapes and sized. It was beautiful and we all just sat together and talked sometimes and just steamed most nights. I liked Bruges. I did. I enjoyed it. It's a really beautiful city, but it was cold when we got there. It was the middle of winter and it was dark at four o'clock in the afternoon as I was saying, so there was kind of this sense of impending doom around the next corner, cobblestone streets. There was an eeriness to all that, which was beautiful.”
Although his character in In Bruges despises being a tourist, checking out different cities and countries is something Farrell does to unwind in between working on films. Farrell revealed his downtime is spent traveling, hanging out with mates, going out to dinner, and taking in a show. “I write a bit but I'm shyte at it. It's good for me just to have somewhere to kind of purge certain things, just all that kind of stuff. Love traveling, love getting out. I love even driving across America - just even that kind of stuff.”
