Colin Farrell & Vice

“HELLRAISER” is a much abused term. In Hollywood you can raise Hell by smoking a cigarette, even a menthol one.

So we have always been little unsure what to make of Colin Farrell’s epithet. Would a young Irish actor who had a drink and a smoke be a hellraiser in the UK and Ireland, where binge drinking and casual sex are the norm?

We’d probably take more notice of him if he extolled the virtues of veggie burgers and smart juice.

And here is Colin in the Mirror. The “legendary boozer and womaniser” is revealed to be a “bright-eyed clean-living man”.

But he wasn’t always so. “I was burning the candle at both ends and the flames met in the middle,” says Colin dramatically.

“It caught up with me. It was a long time coming but I had my arse handed to me on a plate. Now I haven’t had a drink for six months.”

Colin has a rich way with metaphor, and having felt the burn of excess and dined al fresco on his own backside, he has taken a “metaphorical deep breathe” and reassessed his life.

Colin is now father to James, the result of a romance with Kim Bordenave. “I’ve found a new love I never thought I’d find with my son,” says Colin.

That changed him. And at the end of last year Colin looked at his life. “For the first time, I got to step back and have a good look at the life I had created,” says he.

Whether his was a metaphorical step back is unclear, and it was not without danger – while filming Alexander Colin stepped back, fell from a hotel window and broke an ankle.

But even this new Colin can raise Hell. The Mirror says Colin chain-smokes his way through the interview in Beverly Hills.

You can smell the sulphur every time he lights up…

Posted: 19th, July 2006 | In: Tabloids Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink