REALLY A STAR, NOT A STATISTIC –
March 14, 2023 – As Colin Farrell earns universal acclaim for his role in The Banshees of Inisherin, we must remember that the ‘Colinnaissance’ has, in fact, been years in the making.
The In Bruges checked into rehab for the first time in 2006, sharing later that his substance abuse had gotten “out of control” as he had developed a high tolerance over the last 16 years. “It accumulated to the point where I couldn’t put my foot on the brake anymore,” he told Craig Ferguson. He started drinking at 14 and never stopped up until that point; that’s when he realized that a change was in the cards and that he’d have to work hard to fight for his survival. “It was a tough life change, and I was dying. I’m one of the lucky ones,” he said. During the peak of his addiction, Farrell stated that he would engage in binge drinking with his companions, subsequently returning home to use heroin, smoke marijuana, and consume whiskey. He even admitted to having contemplated traveling to New York to acquire heroin and “shoot up” until his death.
The drug abuse wasn’t the only aggressor; it also facilitated an environment in which Farrell deliberately lied to his loved ones about his mental health. He was a roguish, bull-headed womanizer who would do quite literally anything to avoid accountability and blame. “The amount of energy you have to put in and the amount of lies you have to tell to keep a drug habit alive, it’s fairly significant. Your whole life is a lie,” he told Details magazine in November 2012.
