Colin Farrell on Confronting His Own Addiction in ‘Ballad of a Small Player’ and Why ‘The Batman 2’ Script Left Him ‘Very Emotionally Moved’

Colin Farrell has always been hard to pin down. A Hollywood heartthrob one minute, an indie chameleon the next, Farrell spent the last 25 years running full tilt through the industry — from action blockbusters to intimate character dramas, and, more recently, under heavy prosthetics as DC Comics villain Oswald Cobblepot in HBO Max’s “The Penguin.”

But Farrell’s latest role in Edward Berger’s operatic drama “Ballad of a Small Player” might be one of his most personal yet. The Irish actor plays Lord Doyle, a washed-up British gambler stumbling through the neon-lit chaos of Macau, hiding from his past and slipping further into addiction. The film, adapted from Lawrence Osborne’s novel, is a kaleidoscopic departure for Berger, whose past works include the German war drama “All Quiet on the Western Front” and the religious thriller “Conclave.” Where those films were grounded and austere, “Ballad” is loud, saturated and surreal.