The Dubliner, speaking after landing the award in Beverly Hills in the early hours of the morning, said he does not feel part of the pantheon of comic book villains despite joining Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger in winning a Golden Globe Award.
Farrell’s previous Golden Globe wins were for Irish black comedy films, In Bruges and The Banshees Of Inisherin, which were both directed by Martin McDonagh.
Recalling the three hours it took each day to fit him with prosthetics to make him the bloated villain in his latest film, he said: “In the morning, I drank black coffee, listened to 80s music, and I became a canvas for that team’s brilliance.”
Farrell also said: “Thank you for employing me. And yeah, I guess it’s prosthetics from here on out.”
He follows in the footsteps of Phoenix who won in 2020 for his role in The Joker and late actor Ledger who won in 2009 for The Dark Knight.
Colin Farrell in a scene from the series The Penguin (HBO via AP)
In the winners’ room, Farrell said the two actors are “for my money, the most extraordinary, talented and gifted and just brilliant artists in film 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 live on for future generations and what Joaquin did with The Joker was as exemplified by all the awards that he won and the Oscar stuff – it was extraordinary.
“So to have your name thrown into, just uttered in the same sentence, as those performances – honestly, it’s lovely, but I still approach it all more from just a fan of it all.
Colin Farrell poses with his award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
“I don’t feel like I’m part of that pantheon, I don’t think I’ll go home tonight thinking I’m part of that pantheon.”
During his on-stage speech, Farrell celebrated his fellow nominees – including Andrew Scott.
The actor beat Richard Gadd for dark comedy Baby Reindeer, Ewan McGregor for Russian-set historical comedy A Gentleman In Moscow, and Scott for the remake of Ripley on Netflix to best performance by a male actor in a limited or anthology series or TV film.
He joked that he had “no one to thank” and “did it all by myself”.
Andrew Scott was nominated for Ripley (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
To Scott, he recalled their first movie together, Drinking Crude, and said: “(Andrew) who I did my first film with 25, 30 years ago. You can’t even find it on Betamax. It doesn’t exist. But we go back that far.”
He added to Scottish actor Gadd, whose experience of stalking and sexual assault inspired the Netflix hit series Baby Reindeer, that “you broke my heart with your work this year”.
Demi Moore gave an impassioned speech about worth as she won her first acting award at the Golden Globes in a ceremony which also saw The Brutalist and Emilia Perez triumph.
Moore, 62, said she was “at kind of a low point” during her acceptance speech as she scooped the best actress in a motion picture musical or comedy gong for her role in horror The Substance.
Demi Moore’s daughters posted a video on social media showing their reaction to her first Golden Globes win (Chris Pizzello/PA)
The actress, whose win likely makes her a frontrunner for the Oscars, beat the likes of Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, Nightbitch’s Amy Adams and Challengers actress Zendaya to take home the award.
Immigration story The Brutalist was one of the big film winners of the night, taking home several major awards including gongs for actor Adrien Brody and director Brady Corbet.
Brody scored his first Golden Globe for best male actor in a motion picture drama win for the role as a Hungarian architect attempting to build a life in the US after the Second World War.
Accepting the award on stage he said: “The character’s journey is very reminiscent of my mother’s and my ancestral journey of fleeing the horrors of war and coming to this great country, and I owe so much to my mother and my grandparents for their sacrifice”.
Operatic musical Emilia Perez – about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender – was the big film winner of the night with four gongs, among them best motion picture for a musical or comedy.
Demi Moore’s daughters posted a video on social media showing their reaction to her first Golden Globes win (Chris Pizzello/PA)
Cast member Zoe Saldana fended off competition from her co-star Selena Gomez and Wicked actress Ariana Grande to win her first Golden Globe for her supporting role in the Jacques Audiard-directed film.
The Netflix title also won best original song for El Mal, and the category for best non-English language film.
During an emotional speech Moore, 62, whose character confronts the harsh reality of ageing in Hollywood in the body horror The Substance, said: “Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a popcorn actress and at that time, I made that mean that this wasn’t something that I was allowed to have, that I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged.
“I bought in, and I believed that, and that corroded me over time, to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it, maybe I was complete. I’ve done what I was supposed to do.
“And as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance, and the universe told me that you’re not done.”
The annual ceremony, held in Beverly Hills, was dominated by first-time winners, including film gongs for A Different Man’s Sebastian Stan, I’m Still Here’s Fernanda Torres, and in the TV categories, Shogun stars Anna Sawai, Hiroyuki Sanada and Tadanobu Asano.
