Colin Farrell Finally Opens up a bit more about True Detective Season Two

By Reuben Levine | Jul 3, 2015

We haven’t had a drought of True Detective related interviews for a while. We’ve seen multiple interviews with Rachel McAdams, Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, and a few with Taylor Kitsch. But most of those reviews have been light pieces since the actors weren’t really able to talk about True Detective.

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Now that True Detective season two is approaching its third episode, we’re finally seeing more meaningful content in the interviews. Colin Farrell talked with the Seattle Times and opened up about this character, Ray Velcoro. You know, the character that’s in somewhat of a precarious situation right now.

Farrell was quite candid about his character. Unsurprisingly, Ray’s not a guy that Farrell likes having around too much:

"“Ray is not the kind of guy I would find myself wanting to spend too much time with. But I had a fairly deep sympathy for him from the first time I met him. He can’t find his way back to that place where life still held some potential to be noble.”"

That’s certainly an elegant way to put it. Even though Farrell is not too keen on Ray, he understands him. That’s part of what makes an actor a good fit for a part, and right now Ray Velcoro is one of the best parts of True Detective season two.

Farrell also had a thing or two to say about creator Nic Pizzolatto, a man who is known to be a bit reclusive:

"“He’s the showrunner as well as the writer. He’s an animal! He’s so ambitious, so driven and willing to go to a dark place, I think, to render these characters.”"

There is a reverance for what Nic Pizzolatto has created, and also a subtle understanding that the character will never truly belong to Farrell. “But it wasn’t like I was ever going to get to tell Nic, ‘He’s mine now,’ Farrell said. The darkness of True Detective belongs to Pizzolatto, and this isn’t the first time we’ve heard this sort of appreciation and respect for his work.

You can read the entire piece over at the Seattle Times, in which Farrell goes into the creation of his character’s tone and feel. It also explains that bolo-tie, by the way. Farrell ends by talking about the hope that “hovers above the story” and says “it ain’t as over as you think it is.”

You can interpret that however you’d like.

Next: Was Ray Velcoro set up?

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