Oscar nominee Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin) stars as a high-stakes gambler down on his luck and living on the edge in Netflix’s Ballad of a Small Player. Based on Lawrence Osborne’s novel and directed by Edward Berger, the psychological thriller follows Colin Farrell as Lord Doyle, a delusional gambling addict who believes he needs just one big jackpot to set things right.
Netflix recently hosted a press conference in support of the film’s limited theatrical release and October 29, 2025 streaming premiere. The following are highlights from the press conference.
On whether Ballad of a Small Player is a story of redemption or addiction:
Colin Farrell: “All of the above. I suppose it’s open, like any decent story, it’s open to piles of interpretation. I don’t know what it’s about. I honestly never really claimed to know what anything I’ve done has been about in the grand sense of the story’s purpose or its meaning. You know, you just focus on what you have to do, existing as a character within the world that’s being presented. And then you just kind of let it go and leave it open the audience’s participation and engagement, hopefully, with the story.
Different people find different things in every tale, of course. But yeah, for sure addiction is certainly not touched upon but battered, really. And greed, avarice, looking for meaning in all the wrong places. You know, I suppose we do, particularly the Western civilization that we all share, there’s an ever-increasing importance placed on achievement—and I’m not against achievement—but identifying one’s worth solely through achievement or through material acquisition and such things, and so I suppose that’s looked at as well in a very kind of, as the film is, operatic in a hugely unsubtle manner.”
On his own gambling experience and if he believes luck exists:
Colin Farrell: “I am not much of a gambler. I have gambled in my time, back in the day in my infant years in Vegas in my early 20s. But I was never much good at it. I never really cared for it much. Played a bit of blackjack. But, yeah, gambling never got its talons into me at all.
Do I believe in such a thing as luck? I mean, depends on the day. Some days I do, some days I don’t. Some days I say yes there’s a such thing as luck and chance, and other days I feel all things are connected and luck is what you make it. And, you know, as they say, opportunity multiplied by preparation is luck. So, I do not know, but I believe, I suppose, in synchronicity. I love things that some people might understandably call coincidence, and I’ll gladly refer to as a sign.”
On working with director Edward Berger on Ballad of a Small Player:
Colin Farrell: “I loved working with Edward. He’s an extraordinary storyteller and he has an attention to detail that is second to none. He’s got possibly the biggest engine. He’s got a huge engine. He can just go and go and go and doesn’t seem to let up. I mean, as is very clearly obvious by the amount of work that he’s doing now and, I mean, he did All Quiet, and that was coming out when he was shooting Conclave, and then we went and shot Ballad, and while we shot Ballad, he was flying on his own to promote Conclave and then back to Ballad. He’s just relentless, and he’s like that on the set as well.
His curiosity is something that I feel propels him forward with that energy that I speak of, that engine that I speak of. He’s super kind. Really bright. I just think he’s an extraordinary storyteller, and I loved working with him.
[…] He’s very wise. He surrounds himself with a wonderful cabal of artists that he trusts completely. But I had a blast. I felt like the two of us were hand in hand going through this what has been referred to as this kind of fever dream, this Macanese fever dream. And I felt we were in step with each other all the way.”
On maintaining and sustaining a high energy level for the duration of the shoot:
Colin Farrell: “Nervousness and anxiety has its own fuse and its own match, you know? […] It was just the nervous energy and the compulsion to kind of just turn up and honor the script. It’s the same kind of compulsion or the same worry or agitation, journey of curiosity that you have every time you go to work.
This one was fairly…the energy was—it’s a bit manic from start to finish. I was fairly raw by the end of it, I suppose. All things being equal, I find it hard to say, you know, ‘It was a tough time doing what I do,’ because I love what I do for a living so much. I really do. And I get so much from it, and et cetera, et cetera, truly, but I suppose it was as raw at the end of this as I’ve ever been at the end of anything, I suppose.
But yeah, just nervous energy feeding into itself. And loving it and buying into it and believe in it. And also, the energy you get, the juice you get, from just collaborating with people, actually. It’s a really extraordinary thing. I’ve been an actor for 25 years or something, and I am in no way inured to the magic of working really intensely with a bunch of people in a collaborative fashion with creativity on their minds and having a shared goal. You don’t always see eye to eye. It’s not to say you always see eye to eye, but it’s an extraordinary thing, whether it’s a film or whether it’s a TV show; it’s all one in the same, really. And it’s amazing. It’s a kind of a self-galvanizing experience.”
On past performances he drew on for inspiration:
Colin Farrell: “There was no particular performance or film I was aware of drawing from. But I said this when I was asked before, did this thing, The Penguin, and people would ask me, ‘Were you inspired by Jimmy Gandolfini in Sopranos or Bob DeNiro in Untouchables?’ and I’d say no. Like, not consciously. But I’m fully aware that everything I’ve ever seen or heard or felt or smelt is all part of the inner rolodex of your experience. It inevitably finds its way into every single time you go to work.”
On shooting in Macau:
Colin Farrell: “I didn’t find it as aggressive as I find Vegas, and I love Vegas. I go with the kids once a year, and we see a Cirque du Soleil show, get a steak dinner, and call it a day. But I loved it. It was strange living in a casino hotel for eight weeks. One only knows those environments for three days at a max, so eight weeks was a bit strange. But it was lovely as well in the same way, because you were constantly surrounded and within the environment that Doyle was inhabiting in the story. So, in a way, I’m sure it was helpful. You just allow your mind to go on flights of fancy sometimes and you’d see something in the casino and wonder how the character would see that as opposed to just you.
There were touchstones for the story everywhere, even when I wasn’t shooting or working around the set. I was on the set. I found that very helpful, whether it’s In Bruges or The Banshees of Inisherin or this, I love shooting somewhere where the place is a really significant part. You know, it’s overused now, Macau’s a character in the film. […] When that happens, it’s really lovely. I suppose it just helps you suspend your disbelief to a certain degree.”
This post was last modified on October 30, 2025 11:26 am