ELLE’S SEXIEST IRISHMAN ALIVE TANTALIZED AUDIENCES WITH HIS PORTRAYAL OF THE GRUESOME CRIMINAL KINGPIN IN 2022’S THE BATMAN, SPURRING LAST YEAR’S SPIN-OFF SERIES THE PENGUIN ON HBO, FOR WHICH THE PROSTHETICS-DONNING FARRELL NABBED A GOLDEN GLOBE. MANY ARE PROCLAIMING THE ACTOR’S CURRENT TEAR A CAREER RENAISSANCE, AND 2025 IS ALREADY SHAPING UP TO BE A BANNER YEAR WITH SEVERAL PREMIERES IN THE PIPELINE

BY WILL HARRIS.

It’s a sign of a strong actor when they can be said to have disappeared into a role, but it’s decidedly easier to perform such a disappearing act when the performance involves prosthetics. That said, Colin Farrell recently managed to earn some extremely well-deserved critical acclaim for his work as Oswald “Oz” Cobb, the titular character in the HBO series The Penguin, picking up a win for Best Actor Miniseries or Television Film at this year’s Golden Globe Awards despite being so completely encased in prosthetics that it’s virtually inconceivable that anyone who didn’t already know it was him could ever have identified him.

Burying himself under the Penguin makeup was a bit of an unexpected maneuver for a guy who, in 2023, was named by Elle as the sexiest Irishman on the planet, describing him as “The Socially-Active Irish Hottie” for staking out a spot on the picket lines to support the union strikes, “All while wearing a SAG-AFTRA T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up just so.”

Elle further described the actor thusly: “His hair slicked back with a matching black headband, he is perhaps one of the only men in the world who can pull off this hair accessory with aplomb Farrell, who was born in Castleknock, Ireland, confirmed once and for all that famous Irish guys are having their best summer ever.”

As for Farrell himself, he’s been having what might reasonably be called a career renaissance over the course of the past couple years, although it’s fair to say that he’s never actually been away for any significant length. He’s been working steadily since the late 1990s, having kick-started his career with a role in the BBC drama Bally kiss angel and then finding fame in Hollywood in the early 2000s thanks to a series of small-to-massive box office successes, including Tigerland, Hart’s War, Minority Report, Phone Booth, The Recruit, and Daredevil.

Those early years certainly kept him moving at a brisk pace, but when interviewed by IGN circa the release of the aforementioned Minority Report, Farrell shrugged off the suggestion that anything had changed dramatically for him despite the workload.

“You know what? Apart from these two-, three-day things, which are just go, go, go, it doesn’t really feel any different to me,” he said. “I’ve been doing the same job that I’ve been doing for eight years. I’m just doing a lot of higher-level in respect to the public forum than I ever was before. So I feel like I’m moving at the same speed, but everything around me has kind of gone [like a rocket ship]. Being at the eye of the storm, you know?”

FROM TOP: SUGAR (2008) THE GENTLEMEN (2019)

As the 2000s continued, Farrell’s filmography increased significantly, as did his critical acclaim…alongside the occasional bit of criticism as well, such as his 2005 Golden Raspberry Award nod for Worst Actor in Oliver Stone’s Alexander. Two years later, however, he pulled a Best Actor nomination at the Irish Film and Television Awards for his role in Michael Mann’s cinematic adaptation of his NBC series Miami Vice, followed by a 2009 Golden Globe win for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for In Bruges. (He would go on to win the award again in 2023 for The Banshees of Inisherin.)

Throughout the 2010s, Farrell really mixed things up in a big way, trying his hand in comedy (Horrible Bosses), tackling remakes (Fright Night and Total Recall), big-budget fantasy (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), biopics (Saving Mr. Banks, with Tom Hanks), ensemble comedies (Seven Psychopaths), and a Tim Burton-directed live-action adaptation of a classic Disney animated film (Dumbo). In the middle of the decade, he also ventured onto the small screen to co-star alongside Rachel McAdams in season two of True Detective.

It’s definitely fair to say, however, that his decision to join the cast of Matt Reeves’ The Batman as the infamous Oz Cobb was one that set his career back onto a high-profile path, particularly when it led to the HBO series that spotlighted his character.

Mind you, for as much as the role served to raise his profile again, Farrell was more than a little bit tired of playing the part of the Penguin by the time production ended on the series, however.

“Don’t get me wrong I loved it but it got in on me a little bit,” he told Total Film in 2024. “By the end of it, I was bitching and moaning to anyone who would listen to me that I wanted it to be finished. I tried to remind them that I had ‘grumpy gratitude.’ I was still grateful and still honored I grew up watching Burgess, and then Danny DeVito was my Penguin so being a part of the lineage of that storytelling, I really did feel privileged. [But] when I finished I was like, ‘I never want to put that suit and that head on again.’”

After season one concluded, however, Farrell backpedaled on that remark, telling the Hollywood Reporter, “If there’s a great idea [for season two], and the writing was really muscular and as strong or stronger on the page than it was the first season, of course I would do it.”

And until then, Farrell has plenty to keep him busy: in addition to the impending release of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, a romantic fantasy co-starring Margot Robbie that’s set to hit U.S. theaters on May 9, his Apple TV+ series Sugar was renewed for a second season, and he’s got a Netflix movie a psychological thriller-drama with Tilda Swinton dubbed The Ballad of a Small Player that will hopefully hit the streaming service by year’s end.

g service by year’s end. “Honest to God, I’m just very grateful that I get to go to work most of the time with people who I end up having real affection for,” Farrell told the press room after winning his Golden Globe for The Penguin. “And bringing these scripts to life, it’s just such a joy. So many actors are unemployed. The unemployment rate is super high, so it’s just gratitude.”

FROM TOP: THE LOBSTER (2015) THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN (2022) MIAMI VICE (2006)