Over the years, Colin Farrell has starred in many kinds of projects. Range is one of his greatest specialties, as he can go from playing complex emotional characters to action heroes and even The Penguin in The Batman. Despite this, there is one aspect of a movie that stays consistent across most genres and films; romance.
In 2012, he starred in the reboot of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s classic film, Total Recall. While the film did not do exceptionally well, there was one aspect during filming that made it especially difficult for Farrell.
His co-star, Kate Beckinsale, proved to be a particularly difficult actress to kiss because of one predisposition.
Colin Farrell Was Put In A Tough Spot
In Total Recall, Colin Farrell’s Douglas Quaid was involved with Kate Beckinsale’s Lori Quaid. Since the two characters were clearly married, they had to kiss each other more than once during the movie’s filming. During an interview with Conan O’Brien, he revealed that this aspect of the film was especially awkward for him. The reason for this was the director of the movie, Len Wiseman.
While there is no denying that Wiseman is excellent at what he does, at the time, he was married to Beckinsale, and they had been involved with each other for over five years.
She’s actually the director’s wife. She’s married to the director. [It was] moderately uncomfortable.
This specifically put Farrell in a tough spot, as he was forced to kiss his director’s wife in front of an entire crowd of people. It is safe to say that the Banshees of Inisherin actor was not looking forward to this part of the shooting.
Things Got Worse
Although many actors have been put in tough spots like this, having to kiss their married co-stars, and knowing that they are eventually going to see it, it has been fairly normalized within the industry. It was not like Len Wiseman was not aware of what was happening. He perhaps had a hand in the intimate details of the scene. However, just when Colin Farrell did not think it could get any worse, it did.
It would seem that on top of Wiseman planning out the scene and being aware of all that was going to happen, he did something much worse. He was in the room when the scene was being shot.
Kissing her was a little bit dodgy ’cause the director, her husband, wasn’t kind enough to leave the room
During the interview, Farrell revealed just how awkward he felt, and it is safe to assume that this will go down in history as one of the most uncomfortable on-screen kisses of all time.