Colin Farrell: I don’t feel part of pantheon of comic book Golden Globe winners
By Ellie Iorizzo and Charlotte McLaughlin, PA
Colin Farrell said he does not feel part of the pantheon of comic book villains despite joining Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger in winning a Golden Globe Award.
The Irish actor won his third Golden Globe for playing the Batman villain The Penguin in an HBO series of the same name.
He follows in the footsteps of Phoenix who won in 2020 for his role in The Joker and late actor Ledger who won in 2009 for The Dark Knight.
In the winners’ room, Farrell said the two actors are “for my money, the most extraordinary, talented and gifted and just brilliant artists in film that I’ve ever had the fortune to observe and be affected by”.
“What Heath did in Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight was extraordinary, and will live on for future generations and what Joaquin did with The Joker was as exemplified by all the awards that he won and the Oscar stuff – it was extraordinary.
“So to have your name thrown into, just uttered in the same sentence, as those performances – honestly, it’s lovely, but I still approach it all more from just a fan of it all.
“I don’t feel like I’m part of that pantheon, I don’t think I’ll go home tonight thinking I’m part of that pantheon.”
During his on-stage speech, Farrell celebrated his fellow nominees – including Andrew Scott.
The actor beat Richard Gadd for dark comedy Baby Reindeer, Ewan McGregor for Russian-set historical comedy A Gentleman In Moscow, and Scott for the remake of Ripley on Netflix to best performance by a male actor in a limited or anthology series or TV film.
He joked that he had “no one to thank” and “did it all by myself”.
To Scott, he recalled their first movie together, Drinking Crude, and said: “(Andrew) who I did my first film with 25, 30 years ago. You can’t even find it on Betamax. It doesn’t exist. But we go back that far.”
He added to Scottish actor Gadd, whose experience of stalking and sexual assault inspired the Netflix hit series Baby Reindeer, that “you broke my heart with your work this year”.
Farrell’s previous Golden Globe wins were for black comedy films In Bruges and The Banshees Of Inisherin, which were both directed by Martin McDonagh.
Recalling the three hours it took to fit him with prosthetics to make him the bloated villain in his latest film, he said: “In the morning, I drank black coffee, listened to 80s music, and I became a canvas for that team’s brilliance.”
Farrell also said: “Thank you for employing me. And yeah, I guess it’s prosthetics from here on out.”