There are no guarantees in show business, and storied actors like Colin Farrell know that better than anyone. “It’s always kind of a risk,” the actor explained. “I’ve done things that were supposed to be guaranteed to have a certain success, and money was thrown at the budget … and they were supposed to find an audience and they didn’t.”
Joining a popular franchise might get your name out there, but a director with a strong vision — like Yorgos Lanthimos — can also elevate an actor’s career. Starring in “The Lobster” was an easy choice for Farrell because he was such a big fan of the filmmaker’s early work. “If anything, having seen ‘Dogtooth’ and ‘Alps,’ [‘The Lobster’] was less of a risk than the majority of films I’ve done, because his work is so strong,” Farrell concluded.
The actor was drawn to Lanthimos’ examinations of psychology and social structure. The writer-director is “somebody who is interested in the push-pull of what it is to be a human being,” Farrell said. “In the loneliness, in how we learn through example and through observation, in how we follow or break rules, in whether rules are a service or disservice to us.”
Films like “The Lobster” twist specific social conventions to examine their function in society, like marriage and relationships. Farrell adjusted to the dystopian world of “The Lobster” by thinking “about 1942, with Germany living under Hitler’s conformity,” he revealed to Awards Daily. He had faith in Lanthimos as a storyteller and surrendered control to the director.