Colin Farrell has gained attention for his leading roles in mainstream and indie projects since the 2000s, rising to prominence. Having made his film debut in the 1998 movie, The War Zone, he got his breakthrough from Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi movie, Minority Report (2002).
Given that his filmography is filled with interesting projects, Farell has strangely credited his 2009 film, Ondine as the one which changed his life the most.
Ondine is One Project That Heavily Impacted Colin Farrell’s Life
In a recent interview with Lauren Veneziani for his series SUGAR, the 47-year-old actor gave an insight into his past projects. At one point, he reflected on which project has remained with him the most over the years, and to anyone’s surprise, it’s his box-office flop film, Ondine.
He shared,
“The one that’s stayed with me most is actually pretty obvious, it’s a film called Ondine that I did in the west of Ireland.”
Colin Farrell fathered his second child with movie co-star, Alicja Bachleda-Curuś in 2009, which is a great gift in his life.
He continued,
“I’ve met all the other four, and that’s cool. Henry, my son, who’s 14, Henry’s mom, and I did ‘Ondine’ together, so we have Henry from that film.”
He asserted that the 2009 movie “still has had most important effect on my life and has been the greatest gift in my life.” The pair met in 2009 on the Bere Island, west Cork on the movie set, which is how their short-lived relationship kickstarted. After welcoming a son together, their whirl-wind romance came to an end in 2010.
Whereas, the movie follows Farrell’s Syracuse, a struggling Irish fisherman who catches a mysterious woman named Ondine (played by Alicja Bachleda) and falls in love with her.
Her presence eventually brings a string of fortunate events, improving his ill daughter, Annie’s condition, who believes that the mysterious woman has magical healing powers. The story dives into the possible existence of the mythological selkie with themes of hope, redemption, and myth in the modern world explored.
Despite being one of Farrell’s special projects, it failed to win over audiences, earning only $557K at the worldwide box office against a production budget of $12 million, via The Numbers.
Colin Farrell Discussed About His Ondine Character
While the movie feels like a regular romantic project, it is far from that. The father of two reflected on why he chose to star in the 2009 project, before going official with his co-star in real life.
When asked what he liked about the movie story, Farrell told Salon.com that he connected with his character on a deep level.
“Sometimes you read scripts and you feel like you connect to them and you have an understanding of the character, and I just felt that way. Maybe in three or four films, over all the scripts that I’ve read the last 12 years, do I feel that I really have an understanding of the guy.”
He continued,
“And maybe the understanding is respect. You see something in a character that you wish you understood more of as a man. Syracuse’s lack of self-pity at many times is something that was just astonishing to me.”
Despite being surrounded with numerous problems, his character “didn’t carry himself in a woe-is-me way” which is what he loved about him. Hence, his character played a significant role in captivating his attention to the project, apart from its fairytale concept.
Ondine is available to watch on Peacock.
