I want to visit India some day: Colin Farrell

Hollywood star Colin Farrell dreams of having tea in Darjeeling.

Would you like to visit India someday?
I wouldn’t really mind having tea in Darjeeling. Tea there is very popular, since it’s nice and pleasant, but unfortunately according to the script I didn’t get the chance.

Tell us something about your film The Way Back and your character in it?
The film is a war drama about a group of prisoners who escape from a Siberian Gulag camp during World War II. I play Valka, who grows up as an orphan on the streets and has been institutionalised for most of his life. However, he has a penchant for playing cards, and, more problematic, losing at cards. So even though he is himself a dangerous man, he’s increasingly consumed by fear of reprisal over his substantial debts.

How was it working with director Peter Weir?
I was excited that Peter was directing it, because he doesn’t come out that often. After re-reading the story, I saw how integral my character Valka is to the group while still remaining on the outside. He’s an indicator of something bigger, of the fallacy and tragedy of this corrupt, despotic system. I realised the story was bigger than the sum of its parts, and was just hoping Peter would give me the opportunity to be involved.

Was it nice to have actor Saoirse Ronan on the set?
Yes. It was nice to have a female energy join the gang six or seven weeks into the shoots. We were kind of sick at looking at each other at that stage and it was a welcome relief to have Saoirse come on. It was an absolute treat having her there.

What were the main challenges of the shoot for you?
I didn’t have to deal with the heat, it was just freezing cold in Bulgaria. We were there right in the middle of winter. The whole city (Sofia) was covered in two or three feet of snow. We started off shooting in the Gulag (labour camp), which they built to extremely painful detail, it was just stunning-looking, but incredibly harsh and incredibly foreboding. The environment certainly did a lot of work for you. A heater and a cup of tea was always within walking distance, but it was very harsh.

The tattoos that you sport in the film are a big part of your character…
There’s an incredible significance to every single drop of ink that appears on any of these men’s bodies, more than the couple of drunk markings, I have on my body (laughs). Each tattoo references either a crime committed or an amount of time done. Again, it was just something that was very foreign to me,
that was very exotic, as was the accent and the language.

How long did it take to apply your tattoos?
Peter gave me a couple of books that had a lot of the tattoos that were used, some photographs, some drawings. I went through them and designed Valka’s torso. It took about an hour-and-a-half to apply at the start and by the end Mike (make-up artist) had it down to about 25 minutes. He was pretty handy.