Interviews: Ballad of a Small Player

Right now, this is 2FM's Weekend Drive with Emma and Graeme.

Hello and welcome to 2FM's Weekend Drive with Emma and Graeme, the podcast. So this weekend, we welcomed Colin Farrell, Fala Chen and director Edward Berger onto the show to talk about their brand new film, which is called Ballad of a Small Player. multiplayer is available to watch on Netflix now and it is a psychological thriller based on Lawrence Osborne's 2014 novel of the same name. It follows Lord Doyle played by Colin Farrell who was a high stakes gambler hiding out in Macau.

past and deaths begin to catch up on him. As I said, I got the chance to sit down with Colin Farrell and Fala Chen to talk about their roles in the film before its release. Here it is. Congratulations on the film. Thanks. I was blown away by it. We left the cinema and every person who left the cinema from the screening was like...

Wow. I just wanted to ask, you know, like, you've had some incredible roles over the last few years, and are you somebody, you know, when you have a role like this in a movie that's so good, are you somebody who can sit with that and kind of...

Pat yourself on the back and say, that was great. Or like, would you be more critical of yourself? Ah, yeah. The second part. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, this is not a comfortable experience. I did see this once. I watched it once. One and done. One and done. Never again. But yeah, no, I'd be squirming. The obvious.

Too crazy. You know the way you hear your voice on a voicemail? Yeah, yeah. And it sounds... Does it sound like you or no? Yeah, well, because I'd hear myself on radio and sometimes I say things and I'm like... That doesn't sound like me because you have the acoustics when you speak, you hear this vibrational... So it's a similar thing when you watch yourself. You're just like, oh, God, no. So, nah, no, no, no joy in that for me. What about yourself?

She loves watching music. No, I don't. No, you don't. No, you don't. I know. I think most actors don't like to watch themselves. I've worked with a few who can watch the monitor like after every take. Oh, yeah. I've worked to go watch the monitor like, oh, that's pretty good. Like, fair play to them. They're right. I'm wrong. That requires a difference.

of skills yeah yeah yeah absolutely it's mine just lives in my imagination i don't want to ever see that again and i feel like every moment is new it should be fresh and but i do find watching this film i've watched it so far three times have you yeah three times but every time I go back I see something very very different and then I see the details that I I've left out or my brain was so busy watching things that I was critiquing and but then The third time, I really saw a lot more.

And it really moved me and touched me. You could take it in as a film rather than being hypocritical of your own presence. It just takes time. So you're saying I should watch it more. Five times at least. Can I ask you guys about your chemistry on screen is amazing. Did you guys kind of get together much beforehand to prepare for it? No, a little bit. Yeah, we didn't rehearse. There was no official rehearsal period or anything, but...

We got together with the script and we went through it and spoke about it and had thoughts and shared thoughts about our characters, backstories and where we met in the middle, because there is kind of an overlapping. They're obviously two very different human beings with very different cultural backgrounds. But there is a moment in the film where they.

kind of overlap and they find this commonality between the two of them which engenders a kind of a sense of peace particularly that one scene in the houseboat where I think it's the only time in the film where the artifice that they both live within completely drops away and they find themselves in a moment of grace, of honesty and safety, safety and tenderness. Yeah, absolutely. And vulnerability, you know, which is... I love that opium scene. Yeah, that scene. Yeah, it was lovely to shoot.

expert. We had an opium expert. We had an opium expert to come and teach us how to hold the thing, how to light the pipe. A lad who used to, back in the day when opium was prevalent, he used to sit in the dens and he showed us how he used to lie down on the ground.

and you do the thing yeah that's something I wouldn't have imagined that you guys would have like I wouldn't have even thought that you'd have to prep for something like that it's ridiculous business yeah yeah you have an opium lesson at two o'clock today well some people are like going through accounts you're like learning how to smoke a pipe

And there's a scene where you're speaking to Cynthia, who's played by Tilda Swinton, and you mentioned that we're both from a grey island and grew up eating lumpy mashed potato. And it made me laugh, sorry to my mother, because I grew up eating lumpy mashed potato every day. And I wanted to know, for you growing up in Ireland, what was your... favourite dinner? My favourite dinner was my mother used to make McDonald's, not McDonald's, not the burger joint but McDonald's with no D.

curry sauce. Do you remember McDonald's curry sauce? It's still floating around. It is. I got some on Amazon there a while ago. It's over and we covered it in Los Angeles. But it's just a really kind of standard powder.

curry that you mix water in and it's delicious oh wow and it's not too spicy but there's a little kick to it but it's really it's the kind of curry sauce that you have with chips from the fish and chip shop yeah perfect chip curry sauce so she'd make that with the chicken breast and she'd put it instead of rice around mashed with it

the mashed potato she'd make the hole in the middle and put the chicken curry sauce in the middle of the mashed potato have you not had that I've never had mashed potato with curry but I do love McDonald's curry sauce so I'm going to give that a go with mashed potato I'm going to try it next time I see it I'll let you know

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll call you on that. Guys, I have to wrap up. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Stay here for longer. Lovely to meet you both. Lovely to meet you. All the best. Thank you.

I also got the opportunity to sit down with the film's director, Edward Berger, and here's our chat.

So firstly congratulations on the film and I left the cinema so I went to watch the screening last week and there were a few members of press there and we all walked out and everyone was like like just yeah it was incredible oh that's great I really mean that oh fantastic thank you so can I ask for you you know what you know the story of Ballad of a Small Player what was it about it that made you want to get involved and direct it

To me, it felt like an opportunity to take you on a wild ride, you know, into an operatic world that is adventurous, that I don't know nothing about. And that is basically a story about, you know, where, you know, a man... Colin Farrell finds that maybe happiness is not going to come from fulfilling his greed, but from love and redemption.

And what was it about Colin? Because he played the part so well and you could really feel all the emotions that he was going through throughout the film. So what was it about him that you were like, yeah, he's got the qualities of the star for this one? Exactly that, that he's so open. He's an incredibly generous person. I don't know if you've spoken to him. Not yet, no. But he's a very generous, kind, open-hearted person. And you see in his eyes.

what his vulnerability is. He's so sharing with that. He's so open with that. And this character is a scoundrel. He says of himself, I'm a liar, I'm a thief, I'm a fraud. And those are not necessarily likable. qualities. So you need someone like Colin

who we all love, because he's so kind. And you see that in his eyes. You see his kindness and his vulnerability in his eyes. And he shares that with you. So we need someone like that to take us on that ride into the abyss. And if you don't have someone.

like that we're not going to go along for that right so I didn't know the twist before I went in and there's an opening scene this isn't giving any spoilers away but there's an opening scene and he says bollocks and whatever way he says bollocks I was like

is he meant to be Irish in this, you know? You can kind of like, as an Irish person... Yeah, yeah, there's a little bit. He's private in that moment, so he can share his real identity. Yeah. And so as an Irish person, you'd probably go, wait. Yeah. I was so confused. I was like, hang on. But that's great. You know, it makes you sort of want to answer those questions. It makes you...

keep watching the movie, hopefully. And you've had huge success, you know, with the Academy Awards and All Quiet and On the Western Front and Conclave. And now when you're making a film, is that something that you strive for? Like, is it in the back of your mind, like, I want to make award-winning films?

Or are you just kind of able to let go of that and just enjoy the process? You know, it's beautiful that I'm absolutely able to let go of it. I want people to enjoy the movie. I want people to watch the movie. I want them to have a good time and be entertained and maybe take something away. And whatever comes after, that's just the after. It's always nice, you know, when...

our work gets recognized, when my colleagues, when Colin, you know, if things like that get recognized, it makes us proud and happy. But it's not necessary, you know, like it's a wonderful... gift to be able to make movies and if the audience embraces it, that's the biggest one. Yeah, because people are saying now that this, you know, could be a contender for, you know, awards season and, you know, which I'd imagine is exciting as well, though.

Oh, it's always exciting. Yeah. I mean, you want to be, you know, that just means a wider audience. Yeah. And that more people watch it. And the more people watch it, the happier I am. And I have to ask about Nick Emerson. So Nick Emerson was the editor on this and he also edited Conclave and he's from Belfast in Northern Ireland. So what was it about him? Were you eager to work with him again after Conclave? Very. I'll be eager to work with him for the rest of my life.

He's a great collaborator of mine. He's a great friend of mine. And I just like spending time with him. You know, with an editor, you sit for a long time in a room, for months and months and months, and it's just you and him or her. And so you need to...

love spending time together and inspire each other and Nick is just really precise very inventive with ideas and great with coming up with You know, when you get notes from your audience, from your producers, from Netflix, from the distributor, whoever watches the movie, you know. Nick is great in implementing them and understanding what they really mean and finding new ways to cut a movie. Thank you so much for speaking to me today. Thank you so much. Very kind of you to come in.

Edward Berger talking all about his brand new film Ballad of a Small Player which is available to watch on Netflix now and you can listen to 2FM's Weekend Drive with Emma and Graeme every Saturday and Sunday from 3 till 6. Right now, this is 2FM's Weekend Drive with Emma and Graham.