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Colin Farrell is recalling the most demanding moment he’s had as an actor.
In a recent conversation with costar Margot Robbie for Collider, the stars of A Big Bold Beautiful Journey talked about the hardest moments of their careers.
“The hardest sequence I’ve ever been a part of was there was a battle scene shot for Alexander in the desert of Morocco way back when. We were four weeks doing the Battle of Gaugamela, and so it was four weeks coming in every day,” Farrell, 49, recalled.
When Robbie asked if it was the scene that included elephants, Farrell changed course, saying, “Actually, that was the most dangerous thing. Let’s go with the most dangerous thing I’ve ever been a part of.”
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He continued, “They would say action, and there was eight head of elephant, 200 head of horse, and 800 background, 800 foreground, 800 x, 800 Thai men who would move. Eight elephants, 200 horses and 800 men would go on action.”
“One guy broke his leg on horseback. That was it. Nobody died. It was a miracle. They wouldn’t do it now,” he concluded.
At the Golden Globes after the 2004 film’s release, Farrell applauded director Oliver Stone for rallying the troops, literally and physically, throughout the film’s making.
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“Oliver is an amazing director and an incredible man. He is somebody who suffers from an affliction that is not that common in today’s society, especially in respect to people that are as fortunate, as wealthy and as successful as he is; he suffers from pure honesty and complete integrity,” Farrell shared.
“He also has an inordinate amount of compassion for the human race, and not many people give him credit for this. He wonders why we do the things we do to each other every day, either in functioning first-world societies or places further afield in the world. He wouldn’t be able to make the films that he has made if he didn’t ask himself these questions, if he didn’t have that level of compassion.”
He continued, “Making this film was very much a journey of discovery for everyone involved, including and maybe particularly for Oliver. There was no doubt that he was our leader, and Oliver led by example, like Alexander; he pushed the crew and the cast extremely hard, and he didn’t push anyone harder than me, except maybe for himself. So, in that respect, he is an incredible leader; he’s a director that demands that you give as much as he gives.”
