True Detective star Colin Farrell insists he will be returning to Ireland in 2016 to be best-man at his brother’s gay marriage.
Farrell’s brother is in a same-sex relationship and married his long-term partner in Canada in 2009. However, after Ireland voted ‘Yes’ in the same-sex marriage referendum, they also want to have a ceremony at home.
Farrell said he will definitely be returning to Ireland for the wedding. He told the Irish Independent: “I have to talk to him about when that is. We have to organise it because so many of the family are over here (in LA) now.”
The Dublin actor even revealed that he felt a bit jealous that he couldn’t be in Ireland for the results of the same-sex marriage referendum in May: “If I’m honest, selfishly I’m sick I wasn’t at home. It nearly took the joy out of it for me.
“I was happy for everybody else but I was looking at the pictures online of Dublin Castle and was sick. I think in life sometimes you just want to be around good stuff.”
Farrell has lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade, but insists he doesn’t feel any less Irish. Several of his closest family members have joined him in America, so they help him feel close to his roots.
He said: “I love it here. Then I get home and I realise that Ireland makes sense to me in a way that no other place in the world ever will. Just because of my deep understanding and depth of love for the place that I come from.”
“I could be away from there for 50 years and I wouldn’t feel any less Irish. I’ve one place that formed me in this world for 20 years before I left and I’ve one that offered me the opportunity to make some changes in my life and to try and figure out what it is to be a man.”
Farrell was speaking at the opening ceremony for the Special Olympics. He has been closely involved with the event and the Irish team since Ireland hosted the Games in 2003.
He explained: “Ever since 2003, when we hosted the Games at home in Ireland it’s been something that has lived in me. What Eunice Kennedy Shriver did all those years ago in setting up these games was an incredible thing.
“She has given voice and purpose to so many people who for so long were polarised and lived in the dark. They didn’t have a way to be connected to society or to feel like their potential was allowed to be realised or have the fullest expression of itself.
“I remember in 2003 in Ireland how the country nearly fell apart under the weight of its own compassion and feelings of love and joy, and competition.”
Farrell is one of Ireland’s most successful actors in recent years. He has starred in films such as Phone Booth, Minority Report and In Bruges. He is currently playing one of the lead roles in US crime drama True Detective, along with Rachel McAdams and Vince Vaughn.