FRIGHT NIGHT Exclusive: Colin Farrell Interview
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- Last Updated: Tuesday, 12 November 2013 06:30
- Written by Lupe Haas
CineMovie sat down with Hollywood bad boy Colin Farrell who said he originally hated the idea and thought it "ridiculous" to remake FRIGHT NIGHT, a childhood favorite he watched over fifteen times. Then he read the script and was sold on playing Jerry, the vampire who moves into a suburban neighborhood, terrorizing his next door neighbor Charlie Brewster played by Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Terminator Salvation).
However, he was disappointed his modern take on the character had less power over women with mind control than in the first FRIGHT NIGHT. Colin said he was "hoping a little of that was in there." In one particular scene in the "disco", according to Colin, it called for him to carry a woman over his shoulder and ravage her on a fireman's lift. He asked "why do I have to carry her? I'm a vampire. Can I just go..." He motions with his hands as if doing a magic trick. He attributed that to his ego. "I wanted to f**** have a little more sexual omnipotence," he told CineMovie.
Chris Sarandon's Jerry also "had a sense of longing, loneliness, and isolation." He added that character was looking for his lost love. In director Craig Gillespie's revamp, "his emotional life is not there." He eventually resigned himself to playing a monster as it had been written in the script.
"I just had to put that to the side then and just engage with the character as he is designed in here. He was designed in a very brutal way. A sexual predator," said the FRIGHT NIGHT star. "He's a survivalist with little or no emotional life. That was fun. It became liberating."
An important element from the first film that did carry over to the remake was the cat-and-mouse game between the Charlie and Jerry. Colin found that aspect of the story the most interesting. Colin attributed Jerry's savage ways to boredom so the chase becomes a welcome departure. Charlie is that challenge which keeps him alive because it's all about the chase for Jerry. Its a natural instinct that Colin attributes to the dating scene.
"As human beings, it plays into how a lot of us operate in society on a Friday or Saturday nights. It's all about the chase. If a person were to lay down before him and offer up their neck, he'd be disgusted. He needs to feel fear. He needs to feel resistance. And so in that sense, he's probably saving Charlie until the very end."
Colin gives us a clue about the new Jerry in FRIGHT NIGHT, but perhaps he's giving us an insight into his own love life as well. So beware girls! Don't offer up the jugular so quickly. Maybe just a taste of the wrist would do to wrangle up this hard to get Irishman.
FRIGHT NIGHT is in movie theaters August 13, 2011.