With his best actor win for limited series “The Penguin,” Colin Farrell joins a small circle of just three actors who have earned a Golden Globe for playing comic book villains.
When asked in the Globes press room about joining the ranks of Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix, who were both previously honored for their portrayals of the infamous DC baddie the Joker in “The Dark Knight” and “Joker,” Farrell was effusive in his praise.
“You mentioned two actors who are, I think, for my money, two of the most extraordinarily talented and gifted and just brilliant artists in films that I’ve ever had the fortune to observe and be affected by. What Heath did in Chris Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ was extraordinary, and will will live on for future generations. And what [Phoenix] did with the Joker was as as exemplified by all the awards that he won, in the Oscars. It was extraordinary.
“It was so special, both of them. So to have your name just uttered in the same sentence as those performances, honestly, it’s lovely, but still I’m more of just a fan of it all! I don’t feel like I’m part of that pantheon. Jaoquin and Heath, just two extraordinary and honest great actors.”
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At the 2009 Golden Globes, Heath Ledger won a posthumous award in the best supporting actor category for “The Dark Knight.” And in 2020, Joaquin Phoenix took home the Golden Globe for his role in “Joker.”
Backstage, Farrell thanked the Golden Globes for having been “very good to me through the years. They really have been incredibly generous to me” — and then added a quip that might give the kudocast pause, given its troubled history: “One would think there was a fix. There’s one person that knows that saw the check,” he said, joking.
“We can all work as hard as we do given whatever opportunities we’re given in life, but there’s so many things that arrive us at those opportunities that are beyond our control that we will never be able to measure, never be able to quantify, never be able to prove the existence of — and so I think that’s why I don’t feel too much pride in myself,” he said. “Honest to God, I’m just very grateful that I get to go to work most of the time with people who I end up having real affection for. And bringing these scripts to life, it’s just such a joy. So many actors are unemployed. Unemployment rate is super high, so it’s just gratitude.”