Roundtable Interview With Colin Farrell On Total Recall

We Got This Covered: Was it uncomfortable kissing the director’s wife?

Colin Farrell: Oh yeah (laughs). It’s one of the more unfortunate positions I’ve found myself in in fifteen years of doing this racket. And Len wasn’t even polite enough to leave the room. Thank god it barely touched first base.

We Got This Covered: Did you want him to leave the room?

Colin Farrell: No, not at all (laughs).

We Got This Covered: Most sci-fi projects see a pretty bleak future. What you think about the vision of an optimistic future as opposed to the ones commonly seen?

Colin Farrell: Sometimes, the best way to show a person where they are is to show them where they’re heading. Sometimes, people are too close to something to see how it is, but if they’re given a concept of how it might become, they can, through the reference of that concept, have a clearer picture of what stares them straight in the face.

I think science fiction allows a certain distance and a certain objectivity where you go “It’s in the future, so it’s not happening.” So, there’s not an immediate fear or defensiveness that kicks in. Whereas, if it was a criticism of something in the present, it’s too close. It’s too personal that it can’t be allowed to be something that’s actually happening.

It seems that science fiction has the prism of being unreal, a prism of being a future that doesn’t exist and is incredibly fictional. It allows certain things that are very topical and pertinent to be addressed in a way that is kind of subversive, that’s kind of secretive, that kind works on a more subversive level.

The things that Philip K. Dick wrote about are things that human beings have dealt with time memorial since when we were tribal races dotted all over the planet. The idea of power and autonomy and the collective society, the elder and the high priest or the presidents or the chancellors and a group of political aids taking care and representing the goodwill of greater people. The idea of a class system. The upper classes and the proletariat and all these things. So, I think that’s what Philip K. Dick’s writing will continue to be as relevant in eons to come as when he put pen to paper.

That concludes our interview but we’d like to thank Colin for his time. Be sure to check out Total Recall when it hits theatres this Friday!