“We both left his trailer smelling like sh*t”: Colin Farrell Had the Most Unbelievable Experience When Meeting Steven Spielberg For Tom Cruise’s $358 Million Film

SUMMARY

• Steven Spielberg influences a whole generation of moviegoers with his wide variety of films ranging from sci-fi thrillers to World War II epics.
• Colin Farrell's awe and admiration for Steven Spielberg makes his first encounter with the director a memorable one despite their fishy bonding experience.
• Colin Farrell gets entrusted with the future of DC as the actor's HBO series sets a precedent for all of DC's R-rated projects to come.

Most people, born in or after the 1970s, have grown up watching the films of Steven Spielberg. As a definitive storyteller and the most influential director in Hollywood, Spielberg has unbridled access to the fantasies and imaginations of children and adults alike through films like Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, and E.T. But even legends of such great standing can sometimes have a peevish trait.

Steven Spielberg with Tom Cruise on War of the Worlds [Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures]

Colin Farrell, on his part, has no qualms about putting up with the extreme likes and dislikes of legendary men like Spielberg as long as he earns a memorable experience out of it. The actor, who has been at the heart of an incredulous Hollywood controversy (re: Elizabeth Taylor) and headlined some of the best films and television projects, reveals what it means to meet one’s childhood hero.

Colin Farrell & Steven Spielberg Bond Over Sardines

A sardine sandwich can be the ultimate deal-breaker for some relationships – or so believes Colin Farrell; and, on his first meeting with Steven Spielberg, the Banshees of Inisherin star made sure to let the director know of his reservations against fish on toast. Despite this memorable first encounter, both actor and director bonded over lunch – an experience that Farrell remembers vividly to this day.

Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell in Minority Report (2002) [Credit: 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks]

In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, The Penguin actor revealed:

Meeting Steven Spielberg for the first time… I was 23 or 24. He did a film called Minority Report about 20 years ago. And I met him. He was shooting something else. I was told, “Just sit in the trailer. Go out to this studio on this day. He wants to meet you maybe for a part in a film with Tom Cruise,” and I thought, “Jesus!”

So I went out and I sat in the trailer and then the door opened, and in walked [Steven Spielberg]… with a plate and two sardine sandwiches on the plate. Random. Kind of charming […]

I sat down with Spielberg for 20 minutes… and he gave me 50% of his lunch. He had two pieces of toast with sardines squashed onto them. And I ate a sardine sandwich, and he ate a sardine sandwich. And we both left his trailer smelling like sh*t, but I got the job. I got a job and a sardine sandwich out of it.

Afterward, Farrell landed a role in Minority Report alongside the inimitable Tom Cruise in Spielberg’s $358 million film. His part as Danny Witwer, a DoJ agent tasked with hunting Cruise’s character down, was heavily lauded as “outstanding,” a “genuinely threatening adversary,” and a “quicksilver talent.”

Colin Farrell Sets Out on a Mission to Rescue DC

Colin Farrell in The Penguin [Credit: HBO]

The quicksilver talent that caught the eye of Steven Spielberg shortly after making his Hollywood debut has now risen to the ranks of Hollywood’s prime A-listers. Colin Farrell has moved past the indies and the blockbusters and the sci-fi action thrillers. The Irish star now dives into alien territory with his Apple TV+ series Sugar and experiences the taste of superhero cinema with the neo-noir DC blockbuster, The Batman.

After establishing a formidable presence alongside Robert Pattinson‘s titular hero in the 2022 film, Warner Bros. rightly options a solo spin-off series based on his character as Oswald Cobblepot, the rogues gallery villain who has haunted the crime-infested streets of Gotham for the past 83 years ever since his first appearance in Detective Comics #58 on December 1941.

Now, Farrell brings the promise of a comic book renaissance with The Penguin as the R-rated HBO series can finally break the audience of their Superhero fatigue and ensure DC’s survival in the long run.

The Penguin premieres on Max on 19 September 2024.

Minority Report is available to stream on Paramount+.

Written by Diya Majumdar

Articles Published: 1808

Armed with a degree in literature and a love for pop culture, Diya Majumdar has over 1800 published articles on FandomWire. Her passion and profession both include dissecting the world of cinema while being a liberally opinionated person with an overbearing love for music and Monet.