Colin Farrell Talks 'Absurd' New Gem 'The Lobster' and Gaining 40 Pounds for the Part

Colin Farrell photographed on May 9, 2016 (Associated Press)

The early favorite for Weirdest Movie Plot of the Year has to be The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos’s new dark romantic comedy-drama set in an alternate universe where people are forcibly transformed into animals if they don’t fall in love in a timely manner. Star Colin Farrell admits he had plenty of WTF moments when first reading the bizarre screenplay by Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou.

But the 39-year-old Irish actor had seen the Greek director’s previous work, the nearly-as-bizarre Dogtooth (which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film in 2011) and his similarly acclaimed (and absurdist) follow-up, Alps, which opened in the U.S. in 2012. So Farrell was all in. “He’s the most unconventional filmmaker I’ve ever worked with,” the actor told Yahoo Movies this week at The Lobster’s press junket in Beverly Hills.

Farrell packed on 40 pounds to play David, a sad-sack architect left by his wife. He’s sent to “The Hotel,” an institution where singles are given 45 days to couple up or else get turned into an animal of their choosing (the film’s title comes from David’s selection). However, the surreal synopsis can’t possibly due justice to Lanthimos’s visionary world-building, not to mention the perfect mix of black comedy and horrific drama that ensues. Here’s what Farrell had to say about The Lobster, Marvel movies, and his upcoming role in the Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Colin Farrell in ‘The Lobster’ (A24)

What was your initial reaction to this script? I’m sure it’s not every day you get one about people who are turned into animals if they don’t fall in love.
Such an unusual script. It was such an unusual and awkward script to read, and all the better because of it. I had seen Dogtooth and Alps, and so while this is a different entity, it exists in a similar kind of psychological plane as Yorgos’s earlier work. So I was kind of prepared for an unusual read, and it didn’t disappoint. And I can’t say that I wasn’t scratching my head when I was reading it. You come up on a line and it says, “This is my brother, Bob. He was here at the hotel 45 days and didn’t make it.” And he’s referring to a dog at his side. I was like, “What the f–k is going on?”

But I quickly came to find that even with the extremity of convention in the film and all the rules and how extreme a world it seems, it’s a lot more generically about who we are as human beings and how we relate with each other in society. And the nature and the fabric of love, and what it means, and our own loneliness, and how we cope with our loneliness, or if we’re even aware of the depth of our loneliness at times. So I found it a lot more relatable than I thought I would.

When you come upon a project like this that’s so original and out there, though, is there a part of you that goes, “How is he gonna pull this off?” Does it feel like a gamble?
For sure. The thing is, the gamble was shown as a smart bet to make based on having seen Yorgos’s previous work. I saw Dogtooth and Alps and I thought, “OK, this is not an accident.” The guy doesn’t frame like this, he doesn’t write like this, he doesn’t create these worlds and dynamics between characters because it’s an accident. There was no one actor that pulled those two films through with the strength of their performance. It was all about the filmmaker. The performances were great in both films, but it was really about the signature that this particular individual perspective created for the viewer. So with that in mind I completely felt like I was in good hands with Yorgos.

Having said that, I did go, “How the f–k do you say this s–t and be in these situations and have them be normal and not absurd?” But I had a bit of that with In Bruges as well. It was such extreme stuff and you’re going, “How do you inhabit this and make it seem like it’s run-of-the-mill or natural?” But it just ends up happening.

Did you guys come up with any sort of backstory for this world – why this bizarre law had come into play in the first place?
No, not at all. Never. I couldn’t tell you what happened at the end of the film… It’s as open to interpretation as anything I’ve done. The characters are so unusual and the situation is so unusual, but beneath the unusualness and beneath the absurdity of the film is this common core of human experience that I think is much more recognizable for me, certainly, to the world I live in now, than it presents itself with initially. But at the same time the way the characters move through space and the way they interrelate was so unusual that there was no point to doing a backstory and bringing my own personal [knowledge]. It was just about being present. You’re always trying to be present as an actor. Just sit down, be present, observe the world around you, and have very little opinion about it.

John C. Reilly, Ben Whishaw, and Colin Farrell in ‘The Lobster’ (A24)

And that’s apropos of your character, David. He didn’t have many strong opinions.
Absolutely. It’s a world of characters who have been disempowered and have no idea of their own ability to explore self-determination. It’s a very, very kind of draconian rule of law that they live under, to the point where they’ve all been disenfranchised of their own ability to have an individual thought or an individual expression of that thought. They’re just looking for somebody to fall in love with so they don’t get turned into an animal.

Does that still sound absurd coming out of your lips every time?
Yeah, two years later, still.

What was the physical transformation like? I know you gained 40 pounds to play him.
I just ate, and I sat — that was it.

What was that diet like?
Just H?agen-Dazs and cheeseburgers and pizza. Not as much fun as it sounds, though. The first two days were fun, then it was a drag. Because I only had eight weeks to put it all on.

Have you ever considered writing or directing?
Absolutely. There’s a thing I’m thinking about that I want to write. I’ve started writing a few things, I just have no f–king follow-through, man, I’m terrible with the discipline. You just get caught up in life, as we all tend to do sometimes.

You’ll start and write 20 pages and then never get back to it.
Yeah, I’ve done that a couple times. I got to 80 pages and then I took my eye off the ball and then four months went by and I literally couldn’t find the A4 pad. I literally was like, ‘Where the f–k did it go?’ But I’d love to write and direct at some stage.

You were one of the best parts of Daredevil when that movie came out in 2003. You haven’t done anything like it since, though. Do you want to revisit that genre and do another superhero movie one day?
I’m open to anything, anything at all, you know? It’s fun to do as many things as possible over the years, it really is.

Do you keep up with the Marvel world?
As a film fan? Yeah, I see all the stuff that comes out, it’s amazing. They’re just killing it. They’re so smart in the way that they introduce characters to the world, and the writing, and they always find the right director for the film. Their strike-rate is f–king ridiculous. It’s amazing. But really entertaining stuff. I really enjoy the Marvel movies.

And of course you’ve got a big blockbuster on the way with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. What can you say about your role in it?
Oh, very little. I play an Auror whose job it is to hold down security over the world of wizarding. And that’s it, pretty much. It was fun, it took quite a bit to shoot, about five months, and we wrapped in January. I haven’t seen a lick of it, so… I saw the trailer. It looks great.

The Lobster opens in select theaters Friday. Watch the trailer: