Colin Farrell weighs in on the Irish takeover of Hollywood

Ireland is having something of a renaissance in Hollywood. The country racked up multiple nominations at the 2023 Oscars and followed it up with Cillian Murphy becoming the first Irish performer to take home the Best Actor trophy at the 2024 ceremony. In addition to Murphy, several other stars from the Emerald Isle have given breakout or career-cementing performances in the last few years, including Saoirse Ronan, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley, Andrew Scott, Ayo Edebiri (on an honorary basis), the entire cast of Bad Sisters, and of course, Colin Farrell.

Farrell, who was nominated for Best Actor in 2023 for The Banshees Of Inisherin, recently spoke to Entertainment Tonight about the “amazing” talent of his native country. “I mean, we punch so far above our weight, you know?” he said. “We’re only a country of five million people and I don’t know, Irish people—just whether it’s through music, the written word, whether it’s prose of poetry, film, theater of course, we just—we have a deep connection to… I think just to the importance of story and to leaning into stories and meanings with which we understand ourselves and the world around us.”

Last month, Pierce Brosnan—one of those interviewed for the recent documentary Quintessentially Irish—shared a similar sentiment with the BBC. “We come from a landscape of poetry,” he said of the wealth of talent coming from Ireland. “They’re great storytellers.”

Ros Hubbard, the Irish casting director credited with discovering Farrell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, among others, has her own theory about the Irish renaissance. “I think everyone wants to portray feeling and character but our actors are not overburdened with too much ‘poncey’ [pretentious or affected] training. Most of their work is through film. You are getting a genuine truthful delivery in their acting,” she said earlier this year, via the Belfast Telegraph. “I can’t even think of one Irish actor who would irritate me. They are just natural-born actors and the difference between them and me is that they know how to bring it to the next level which is showing people what they mean. Absolutely bringing the script to life the way they do.”

Ruth Barton, a critic and film studies professor at Trinity College Dublin, spoke to Slate last year about the pipeline for Irish talent, which is bolstered by state-subsidized theater. Young actors can start their training on stage, graduate to Irish TV, and then aim for bigger projects. And it’s a pretty smooth transition to Hollywood, where “they’re getting pretty accomplished actors coming in who know what to do, who speak English, and who don’t have to deal with the kind of cultural adjustment either because, you know, we can see American TV here.”

All of these theories explain why Irish talent has exploded in recent years, but not why those stars have become so beloved. Of course, being hot and gifted goes a long way, but the Internet has particularly embraced Ireland. For that phenomenon, Barton has another theory: “Ireland stands for nothing on the world stage,” she mused to Slate. “We’re not an aggressor. We’re not a colonizer. The Troubles are over. We actually live in one of a few countries with a fairly stable democracy. We don’t have crazy leaders. It’s a benign kind of identity, Irishness.” In other words, it’s just good craic.