When you’re deep in the process of creating something, it can be hard to tell if what you’re making is good. The final results don’t always match the effort and enthusiasm that went into the production. When Colin Farrell was shooting Alexander with notable director Oliver Stone, he was convinced that the movie would be a huge hit that moviegoers would love.
But the movie ended up being a critical and commercial flop — one of many box office bombs that sent Farrell into a tailspin. He rebounded from a difficult time in his career to star in several excellent films in the past few years.
War-adventure film ‘Alexander’ was an expensive failure starring Angelina Jolie and Colin Farrell
Alexander is a 2004 historical epic telling the story of the ancient king’s life. Farrell played the titular character. The rest of the cast is full of big stars: Angelina Jolie (who played Alexander’s mother Olympias despite being only one year older than Farrell), Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, and Christopher Plummer.
Stone’s rendition of ancient history was controversial and drew ire from scholars, historians, and bad-faith critics. Some took issue with the depiction of Alexander as a bisexual man with romantic feelings for Hephaestion (Leto). Others were disappointed in the stereotypical portrayal of the Persian armies as unintelligent and disorganized compared to their Greek counterparts.
Whatever the reasons, Alexander failed to generate an audience. Most of the people who saw it were distinctly unimpressed. The movie has a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is projected to have resulted in a net loss of $71 million, according to Insider.
Stone frequently defended Alexander in interviews. But he also felt the movie could improve if he returned to the editing room. Four versions of Alexander are available, all re-edited by the director and generally considered better than the 175-minute theatrical cut. The final version, Alexander: The Ultimate Cut, is 206 minutes long and released in 2014.
Farrell was heartbroken by the movie’s poor reception
None of those revisions did much to repair Farrell’s embarrassment about Alexander‘s initial reception. During The Hollywood Reporters’ annual Actors’ Roundtable, the actor revealed how much the criticism hurt him (beginning around 5:22.)
When he shot the film, Farrell was a fresh young star brimming with the over-confidence of someone who had yet to star in a flop. The director’s pedigree and the nature of the project convinced him and most of the cast that Alexander was a surefire hit.
Read Related Also: Texas parents arrested for tattooing their children — then cutting kids’ skin to remove ink
“We all had our tuxedos ready. We were all like, ‘Alright lads, we’re off to the Oscars, this is a sure thing’ because we had Oliver Stone, we had a story of that magnitude, we had a script that was really moving and really kind of brilliant and so muscular,” Farrell recalled. “And then it came out.”
He was in Toronto when he got the news from his sister and publicist that the movie was fit for mockery rather than praise. Farrell was so ashamed about providing such an underwhelming experience that he wanted to personally apologize to everyone who saw Alexander.
The Irish actor got caught up in a negative cycle where he convinced himself that he was a “shite” performer who got by on Irish charm alone. This mood followed Farrell into the production of Miami Vice, another poorly-received blockbuster. (Farrell went to rehab as soon as the movie was released.)
To get out of the spiral, he had to rediscover the curiosity that led him to take acting classes as a teenager.
Colin Farrell’s recent renaissance could lead to his first-ever Oscar
The Oscar Farrell thought he’d receive for Alexander may come this year. He’s been delivering terrific performances in captivating movies like The Lobster and Widows. But 2022 is the best year of his career yet.
The 46-year-old transformed himself to play the Penguin in The Batman and also put in good work in After Yang and Thirteen Lives.
Farrell’s great run culminates in The Banshees of Inisherin, his third collaboration with Martin McDonagh. The movie is one of the frontrunners for Best Picture. Farrell’s portrayal of the well-meaning simpleton Padraic makes him one of the favorites for Best Actor.
