Oscar 2023: Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson and a boredom-proof friendship in The Spirits of the Island

They are the protagonists of a story that has been garnering praise and awards since it premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2022.

(46) and

(67) are as Irish as their characters.

And they are friends, as are Pádraic Súilleabháin and Colm Doherty, in

, Martin McDonagh's film nominated for 9 Oscars, including film, original script direction and performances by Farrell and Gleeson.

And the three of them, the actors and the director and screenwriter, have maintained a friendly relationship since they worked together on that wonder that was

(2008).

The interpreter of

,

and

and the one who was Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody in the

saga and who we will see in

, were born in Dublin, and they see each other from time to time, as they say in this exclusive interview with

.

The Spirits of the Island

is about Pádraic and Colm, two friends who live at the beginning of the 20th century in Inisherin, an island in Ireland, who frequent a pub, until the latter tells the former that he doesn't want to be his friend anymore.

Why?

Because he's boring, he tells him.

Brendan Gleeson is the friend who warns the other that he will cut off his finger if he bothers him again... Pictures Disney

And what's more: if he continues to speak to her, for every time he does, Colm warns him that he will cut off his own finger.

“Well, the biggest grievance my character has with her character is that her character doesn't like my character anymore.

Yes. That's it”, Colin Farrell begins by saying in the Zoom interview, which was before the Oscar nominations.

jokes and more jokes

Both will not stop joking, and laugh out loud.

It is obvious that they get along very well.

"The spirits of the island" premieres on Thursday, February 2 in Argentina.

-You probably get this question a lot with this movie, but sorry: have you ever tried to stop being friends with someone because you thought it was boring?

Colin Farrell:

-No.

I've lost friendships over the years, to be honest with you, but I've never lost them in a way that's as essentially healing as this kind of dissolution of a friendship.

Martin's intention was to write an incredibly painful, sad, and heartfelt breakup movie.

My character starts the movie happy and connected to the world around him.

And of course, that lasts about 30 seconds.

And then the film takes an abrupt turn in a direction that Pádraic never sees coming.

I've never had a friendship fall apart or end as quickly and without explanation as it is in the movie.

Brendan Gleeson was one of the Irish actors in the "Harry Potter" saga.

He was Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody.

Brendan Gleeson:

-The only thing that occurs to me is that a friendship can get old, when you thought things were happening that, in reality, were not happening.

Or the other person thinks that things were happening with you, that in reality were not so.

The idea that someone is boring… There is an aspect of someone that you have misunderstood.

My character just needs space.

It doesn't mean that Pádraic is boring at all, in my opinion.

CF:

-Sometimes, friendships end over time, or end, but less suddenly.

People just gradually start to disappear from each other's lives.

And then, you can realize what happens.

You just realize you're on divergent paths or something.

But I have no experience or anything to relate it to.

Colin Farrell with his Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical on January 10.

Photo Reuters

-In the film we meet their characters when their friendship is already, let's say, in danger, but I think it's quite easy to imagine them having a more than good time in the pub.

Did they work on it?

I mean, did you do any rehearsals to find the dynamics of your friendship?

BG:

-We rehearsed for three weeks to explore the nature of the relationship.

Why did they go to the pub together all the time?

They fulfilled a different need in each one.

My character had a darker view of the world.

There was a purity to the way Pádraic interacted with the world.

And to Colm, to his own tortured mind, what he had was not enough, and he had to explore music as a way to achieve that release.

So, he chooses to separate from someone with whom he did not fulfill the function that he needed.

And it's awful.

There is no doubt that it is horrible and there is no easy way to do it.

And the nicer you are in the break up, the more strongly the other person feels about it and gets the wrong message.

If you do it immediately and brutally, it's probably the kindest way… But even in that, it's cruel.

Martin McDonagh and the Irishmen Kerry Condon, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, in Venice.

All Oscar candidates.

ANSA

-And what was it like filming in that particular place?

Because it was shot on the islands off the coast of Ireland.

How important was it to film in that place and during that extended period of time?

CF:

-Yes, it was incredibly important to me.

I think it was the same for this guy (by Brendan Gleeson) and everyone else on the team, really.

And to be honest with you, there was a certain rhythm of life.

The wind picked up over the island of Inishmor, where we shot for three or four weeks at the start.

And then we went to Achill and we shot for five or six weeks there and finished the movie.

And I tell you: there was a certain sense of community, of the ancestors.

It was extraordinary.

I never felt… You often go, work on a movie and go home at the end of the day, either to your hotel or your own home, if you shoot where you live.

But most of the time, it's to a hotel.

If you're working on movies, on location, and you walk away from the story, you walk away from the script.

Both Gleeson and Farrell were born in Dublin, Ireland.

You have the opportunity to get away from the aesthetics of the film.

I never felt that we drifted apart at all.

I felt like I was trapped, happily trapped between the pages of the script for the ten weeks we were shooting.

Everything about it, the loneliness, the gift of experiencing it, and the beauty that surrounded me, 24/7.

I brought the energy, the beauty, the longing, and the melancholy of it to work with me every day.

And it was really extraordinary, it was magnificent.

I realize that as I get older, the longer the road becomes behind me and the shorter it becomes in front of me, the more I feel like my home country is calling me.

And he never used to say "I don't think too much about Ireland".

And now I feel the growth, the love that I have for the place.

And much more often in recent years, I think a lot about home.

And I wanted to go back there, you know?

So, that was a response to that call that was so beautiful, so perfect, and to do it under this kind of opportunity.

Men in black.

Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell arrive on the red carpet for "The Spirits of the Island" in Venice.

EFE

BG:

-Yes.

I mean, for me too, there was something about the ocean crashing against the land, and that particular place that allows us to feel tiny in the universe.

And my character needs a bit of importance in his life, through melodies or music, just to feel like he leaves something behind.

Because the landscape itself is a bit overwhelming, the madness of the storms, the wildness of the ocean and the bleak harshness of the mountains, both on that island and on Achill, where we filmed a bit too, further up the coast.

So it was great to be there.

-I can see that you two are very good friends, and that you have a great relationship.

BG:

-We don't see each other much because we live 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometers) away.

And each time we do, we pick up where we left off.

So we kind of have a bond that was born almost immediately, and has been for the last 15 years.

And we don't have it too complicated.

So every time you meet the other, it's okay.

We haven't had any fights so far so I'm not looking forward to it.

"We don't see each other much because we live 9,600 kilometers away. If we only see each other once every two or three years, chances are we can continue to get along," they say.

CF:

-Yes, not yet... We believe that if we only see each other once every two or three years, it is most likely that we can continue to get along for the rest of our days.

BG:

-And that absence makes the heart grow more.

-Brendan, what does it mean to you to be Irish and to be in a film of these characteristics?

BG:

-I think it's a wake-up call, really.

I don't think it's a purely Irish thing, I would be very scared to look at some of the situations in the film in other parts of the world, and see the same thing recreated, where people fight over things that seem trivial and small, but are actually they have to do with their sense of self and identity.

For both Gleeson and Farrell the Oscar nomination is their first.

So from my character standpoint, I need to be someone who makes the most of my talent.

If I have any talent in this sense, to play or make this melody, it is essential for me.

So this fight is not about trivia.

It is something essential.

And I think the only way you can get past any kind of civil war (the background of the film) or any kind of dispute is to understand the meaning to the people involved of what they're holding on to.

So yes, historically, but also now, it's important for Ireland to remain aware of the sensitivities and the heart that's going on in the opposite place.

Farrell opposite Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report."

Photo File Clarín

-The loss of innocence of Pádraic Súilleabháin is very sad.

Do you think that in our contemporary world naivety is no longer so present and, in a certain way, it was the way to make you happier?

CF:

-Words have such meaning and have such weight and connotations.

And when you say naivety, I wonder what naivety feels like in my body.

Do I even consider naivety a bad thing, like an innocence that needs to be slapped?

I don't believe it.

I think we have not only lost our naivety, with the proliferation of social media, there is a danger that people will be asked to "grow" beyond themselves sooner than they should.

I look at what kids are exposed to now online, on the internet, and it's shocking.

And the Internet, obviously being as new and as powerful as it is, has not had a careful, "police" action as it should.

And so the implications are incredibly dire, sometimes with respect to the power that it has in people's lives.

In "Hiding in Bruges", his first collaboration with director Martin McDonagh.

Photo File Clarín

But as far as I'm concerned, naivety and innocence are things that are beautiful and part of the natural order, and being part of the natural order, there's also a timeline where naivety and innocence should never be. abandoned.

But we must learn how to nurture them and how to sustain them, and how to take them with us and when to call on them.

I hope to have a certain kind of naivete and a certain innocence for the rest of my days, which is not to say that I don't know how the world works, but that I also have a belief that could border on the idealistic, which is the belief in the good and the beauty of things

And that might be seen as naive, but I don't think it is.

I think it's just an extension of a naivete that is now the way an adult has.

Perhaps you have a bit of purity, or a bit of innocence, and you allow that to be maintained through the experience of a long, hellish life.

If I have another 20 or 30 years, I hope to keep it.

Pádraic and his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) at their home in Ireland.

BG:

Yeah, there's a kind of Garden of Eden thing that you can remain blissfully ignorant of.

It really is a matter of growing up.

And there comes a point where there's a big break in going from the naivety of childhood to a place where you have to deal with things.

-Did they need to read the script, or did they say yes when Martin told them about the film?

And what is it like to work with Martín, after so long?

CF:

-Well, we read the first version of The Spirits of the Island, I think it was seven years ago.

And it was very different.

As Martin says, only the first two or three pages were left in the new script… I was wholeheartedly willing to work with that first version, but obviously his standards are a bit higher than mine (laughs).

The scene where Colm tells Pádraic that he can't take it anymore...

And I will say that this last version that we ended up shooting was less plot driven, and much more character driven, and therefore there was depth and care in it.

And ultimately there was a kind of sadness, which the first version didn't fully explore.

But there is no one like Martin, someone who is a writer who has the skill, that feel with language.

Anytime you get a chance to work with someone like that, you jump right in.

And my second experience with Martin and Brendan, I want to tell you, it was a dream, a dream come true for all the reasons we mentioned earlier.

The location, the kind of some of the cultural minutiae in the script... But ultimately it's the humanity that draws you in and moves you.

Again, it was definitely a no-brainer to say yes.

BG:

Yes. I just said yes.

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