Colin Farrell Anything But Frightful at Comic-Con "Fright Night" Panel

Colin Farrell

Colin Farrell offered up more candor and honesty at the Comic-Con panel for Fright Night than the Hall H stage has likely seen in quite some time. After keeping quiet — and sobering up — over the last few years, Farrell is becoming a regular face at the multiplex again, with Horrible Bosses currently in theaters, Fright Night due next month and Total Recall out next year. He told the San Diego crowd that the change is due to reconnecting with what made him want to act in the first place.

"I came to success really quickly, the idea of coming up fast and the chaos around you — it was insane,” Farrell said. “And I personally lost sight of why I went to my first acting class when i was 17 in Dublin. So the last six years I reconnected with the Colin who was 17 and didn't know anything, because my lack of understanding bred curiosity. I reconnected with the mystery of the whole thing. It's a lot of fun."

Part of the fun of playing the vampire, Jerry, in Fright Night was putting on an American accent, an ability Farrell said he’d developed early thanks to American entertainment — though he admits the programs on offer weren’t really up to him. “I grew up watching American television,” he said during a panel later in the afternoon for Total Recall, his other remake at Comic-Con. “A-Team, T.J. Hooker, Little House on the Prairie — gay brother.” The aside was a reference to Eamon Farrell Jr., the actor’s gay brother. The brothers are close with Colin being best man at Eamon's wedding in 2009 and having been publicly supportive of gay issues.

Farrell was quick to identify himself as a long-time fan of vampire movies in general, so naturally he has to have an opinion on the Twilight phenomenon. "If they were fighting for a lump of meat, Jerry," said Farrell, comparing his Fright Night vampire to Robert Pattinson’s Edward Cullen. "If they were fighting for the love of a woman, I'm afraid Cullen would have me."

Farrell as Jerry in Fright Night

It was specifically his love of vampires that initially gave him pause when it came to taking on a Fright Night remake, with Farrell admitting: "When I heard they were making it, I was dubious at first. ‘Oh, here we go, Hollywood and its originality,’” he said. “But I really liked it. I'd done three or four films that were serious, and I wanted to have fun. There was enough homage to the original and enough that was different, it had a new direction."

And while Farrell was more than happy to be in San Diego for Comic-Con (he was also promoting his next remake, Total Recall), don’t expect him to pull on tights for a comic book movie anytime soon. "I kind of played the superhero when I played Alexander, and it didn't pan out,” Farrell said with a wry grin, referencing Oliver Stone’s panned Alexander.

Besides, he’s already had an outing in a panels-to-screen adaptation, as the villain Bullseye in Daredevil, and that didn’t turn out so great either. But past failure isn’t what’s keeping him from the comic book world. “Some of it's cultural, but I didn't grow up in the world of comic books or the lore that comic books represent. I don't know the backstory,” he said.

Farrell finished off the Fright Night panel by signing his media pass for one lucky fan who couldn't believe her luck.

Here are more pictures from the Fright Night panel including Farrell's costars Anton Yelchin,
Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Imogen Poots.  (All pictures courtesy of Getty Images)