Colin Farrell | Lost In Translation

Summary

The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

Episode: Colin Farrell | Lost In Translation

Release Date: October 29, 2025
Guest: Colin Farrell
Main Theme: A delightful and candid conversation with actor Colin Farrell covering his career, experiences coming to America, his latest film "Ballad of a Small Player," and the perils (and serendipity) of Hollywood.

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Late Show Pod Show features host Stephen Colbert in witty form, joined by acclaimed actor Colin Farrell. They blend sharp political satire, personal career insights, and hilarious anecdotes. The highlight is Farrell discussing his new film, "Ballad of a Small Player," as well as reminiscing about his early awkward days in America, his brushes with almost joining a boy band, and accidentally sealing an acting deal in a sauna. For anyone interested in the intersection of Hollywood, personal struggle, and offbeat luck, this episode offers both substance and many laughs.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Colbert’s Monologue: Political Satire and Social Commentary

• On Trump’s Visit to Japan (00:32–04:23)

  • Colbert hilariously recounts President Trump’s trip to Japan: “It’s like taking grandpa to the mall. Oh, no. Where did he go? Oh, no.” (00:40)
  • Jokes about Trump saluting the American flag, ignoring Japan’s, and giving the Japanese cherry trees for America’s 250th birthday a comically apocalyptic twist.

• Food Prices and Tariffs (04:23–05:34)

  • Colbert lampoons rising food prices: “The average price per pound of beef is currently $6.30... things have gotten so bad that Hamburger Helper is down at the bus station offering full body jobs…” (05:35).
  • Satirical take on coffee prices: “If you can’t afford coffee, try Celsius. You know their slogan — ‘Ow, my blood hurts.’” (05:16)

• Health and Cognitive Tests (06:12–08:33)

  • Colbert ribbing Trump’s bragging about a “perfect MRI”: “Scans are typically ordered for disease detection… Congratulations, Mr. President. You’re going to Vietnam.” (07:03)
  • Distinguishing cognitive tests from intelligence tests and mocking their simplicity: “I passed the cognitive. I also nailed the MCAT. They asked me if it was a dog, and I said, ‘mm, cat.’” (08:33)

2. Fat Squirrel Week: Levity in the News

• Colbert and Farrell riff on Texas’s “Fat Squirrel Week” and discuss the winning squirrel, Chunkasaurus Rex (09:35–11:49)
  • “Just remember, ladies and gentlemen, no matter how dark the world seems, somewhere... a squirrel has a very big butt.” — Colbert (10:03)
  • Farrell and Colbert banter about the lack of scientific rigor and the hilarious escalation to a “deep, nutty cover up.” (10:50)

3. Interview: Colin Farrell

A. First Impressions of America & Early Hollywood Years

• Arrival in LA (13:39–14:17)
  • Farrell recalls his loneliness upon arriving: “Loneliness was my first. I thought LA was a tricky place to meet people… wasn’t very inclusive.” — Colin Farrell (14:05)
  • He spent solitary nights at the Santa Monica pier winning teddy bears by himself: “You spend $15 to win a $2 teddy bear and you’re thrilled.” (14:17)

B. Early Career Break — Landing “Minority Report”

• Working with Spielberg & Cruise (14:44–15:39)
  • “It was a head beep because I grew up watching them lads… Tom Cruise and Top Gun and the one where he was in his socks.” — Farrell, referencing Risky Business (15:19)
  • Farrell describes one of his worst days on set (16:20): turning up hungover after pleading to not work on his birthday; failing to get his line right after “46 takes,” much to Tom Cruise’s displeasure.

C. Career “Near Miss” — Failing the Boyzone Audition

• Musical Failure in the ‘90s (18:58–20:21)
  • “I didn’t fail the audition. I wasn’t as strong as I could have been in the audition. Yeah, you failed.” — Colbert, deadpan (19:05)
  • Farrell recounts auditioning for Irish boy band Boyzone: “They said, ‘sing Careless Whisper,’ so I sang it once... then they said, would you mind singing that again? Because I don’t think they could believe how bad it was.” (19:39)
  • After the rejection, he jokes: “I’m gonna go to the Hollywood Inn then in Santa Monica and I’m gonna forge ahead.” (20:21)

D. New Film: “Ballad of a Small Player”

• Plot and Setting (20:27–22:29)
  • Farrell details the film’s focus on addiction and searching for peace: “He’s suffering under the weight of addiction... and looking in all the wrong places for a sense of peace and belonging in his life.” (21:06)
  • Discusses unique setting in Macau: “The revenue for Macau is I think, 12 times what it is for Vegas... the violence of the contrast between this gambling mecca... and these older, sleepier parts of the town are really kind of beautiful.” (21:30–22:29)

E. Reuniting with Director Edward Berger — In a Sauna

• Serendipitous Deal-making (22:43–24:04)
  • Farrell and Berger (the director) reconnected by chance: “We were two men in shorts in a sex desert... both dripping sweat and shook hands, very slippery.” — Farrell (22:58)
  • Farrell shares that in Zurich saunas, you’re naked, but in London, you wear shorts: “In certain parts of Europe… I went into a sauna… with my shorts and everyone was [naked]... so I dropped trou.” (23:13)
  • Their spontaneous sauna chat led to resurrecting the project.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It’s like taking grandpa to the mall. Oh, no. Where did he go? Oh, no.” — Stephen Colbert on Trump’s Japan trip (00:40)
• “You spend $15 to win a $2 teddy bear and you’re thrilled.” — Colin Farrell (14:17)
• “I could be up with the band there... No, I was dancing in a nightclub called the Pod.” — Farrell, reflecting on almost being in Boyzone (19:21, 19:29)
• “We were two men in shorts in a sex desert.” — Colin Farrell on striking a movie deal in a sauna (22:58)
• “Just remember, ladies and gentlemen, no matter how dark the world seems, somewhere... a squirrel has a very big butt.” — Stephen Colbert (10:03)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:32 – Colbert Monologue (“Trump in Japan” and military satire)
• 04:23 – Food prices and tariffs comedic riff
• 06:12 – Trump's medical brag and MRI jokes
• 08:11 – Trump’s “cognitive tests” and Colbert’s clever mocking
• 09:27 – Fat Squirrel Week and Chunkasaurus Rex
• 13:38 – Interview with Colin Farrell begins
• 14:05 – Farrell describes loneliness in LA
• 14:44 – Farrell’s experiences on set of “Minority Report”
• 15:50 – Birthday mishap on Spielberg set
• 18:58 – Failing the Boyzone audition
• 20:27 – Discussion of “Ballad of a Small Player”
• 22:43 – Farrell and Berger’s fateful sauna meeting
• 24:19 – Episode close and show plugs

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Conclusion & Takeaways

This episode skillfully balances social satire, genuine reflection, and comedic storytelling. Colin Farrell proves both insightful and charming, sharing the oddball luck that charted his course. Viewers get a fresh look at Farrell’s journey, the nuances of his latest role, and the accidental origins of creative partnerships. Colbert’s sharp humor and warmth keep the energy up throughout.

For anyone interested in pop culture, actorly struggle, or just in need of a laugh, this conversation delivers.

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Transcript

[Stephen Colbert]

Hey, y', all.

[Shiloh Brooks]

I'm Shiloh Brooks, host of the new show Old School. Most book clubs are geared toward women. Old School's for guys who want to learn about the fantastic books that can help us become better men. The Old man and the Sea, the Leopard, down and out in Paris and London. If we want to be the strongest, most intelligent and interesting versions of ourselves, we should all be reading books like these. As a start, listen to Old School wherever you get your podcasts.

[Stephen Colbert]

Welcome to the Late show, my friends. I am your host, Stephen Colbert, and I want to show Lexi fantastic you can lean against it. I want to start tonight by thanking the wonderful people of Japan. They have taken in our president for a couple of days so the rest of us can just have a little break. Today was this just today? Today their time, Trump met with Japan's prime minister and they walked through an elaborate ceremony. There's Trump with the prime minister. He stops to salute the American flag. Then she goes, hey, look at our flag. And he goes, nah, not really my type. Bye. And off he shambles into the distance. It's like taking grandpa to the mall. Oh, no. Where did he go? Where'd he go? Oh, no.

[Colin Farrell]

Oh, my.

[Stephen Colbert]

Go Victoria's Secret. Pop, pop. No Pop, pop. Don't salute the thongs. I hope that's saluting. Japan is trying to get on Trump's good side to escape his random tariff spree. So they gave him a couple gifts for America's upcoming 250th birthday, some fireworks, 250 cherry trees. Or as it will be known in history books, how Eric Trump started the D.C. wildfires, now I cannot tell. I cannot tell a lie. Trump also as commander in chief, Trump also visited with American troops stationed in Japan, this time on the USS George Washington, the big aircraft carrier. And he announced a new military target. And it's you.

[Donald Trump]

We have cities that are troubled. We can't have cities that are troubled. And we're sending in our National Guard. And if we need more than the National Guard, we'll send more than the National Guard because we're going to have safe cities.

[Stephen Colbert]

There he is in plain English, telling the military stuff like that is going to get you invaded. He's telling the military he's going to use them to invade America. But just a warning to the troops, that country is run by a madman, okay? It will take you years to install democracy at this point. And those American cities better watch out, because according to Trump, our military is set to go GI Joe.

[Donald Trump]

Nobody makes equipment like we do. Nobody makes the ammunition, the weapons, the missiles, the planes, none of it. And if they do, the American sailor stands ready to crush them and sink them and wreck them and blast them into oblivion.

[Stephen Colbert]

Inspiring words. Reminds me of Winston Churchill during World War II. We will fight on the beaches. We will fight in the landing grounds. We will crush them, wreck them, drop a grand piano on them, put a.

[Donald Trump]

Lit stick of dynamite up their butts, and then laugh really hard when their butt blows off.

[Stephen Colbert]

But God bless him. God bless him. But Trump doesn't love all of our military gear. He is big mad at our aircraft carrier's plane launch and catapult system that the Navy has upgraded from steam power to electric.

[Donald Trump]

They're spending billions of dollars to build stupid electric. I love the sight of that beautiful steam pouring off that deck with the electric. You don't have that. So, you know, we did the Ford and electric, the cost overruns, everything else, but, you know, I hope it's going to be okay. But I like steam. We're going to go back to steam.

[Stephen Colbert]

Now, that might seem a little weird for him to focus on, but I will remind you he's not the first American leader to get on a Navy ship and tell the service members to look to the past. Admiral, thank you for your shervice. Uniforms have changed a lot since the 80s. Now, one reason Trump's going around the world trying to negotiate down the tariffs that he made up is that these tariffs have led to food prices skyrocketing. Over the past year, there's been a 6.9% increase on the price of bananas. If only there were a word to describe how crazy that is that I could afford. And bad news for fans of consciousness, because roasted coffee has jumped by 18.9%. But that's okay. I know. No, you don't need to worry. Don't worry. If you can't afford coffee, try Celsius. You know their slogan, Ow, my blood hurts, but true.

[Donald Trump]

Wow.

[Colin Farrell]

Really?

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's how you know it's working. But things are worst in the beef zone. The average price per pound of beef is currently $6.30, the highest since the Department of Labor started tracking beef prices. Things have gotten so bad that the Hamburger Helper is down at the bus station offering full body jobs on his. I don't know what that means. I don't even know what that means. I love Hamburger Helper. On his flight to Asia, Trump took some time out to to go to the press and brag about his Health.

[Donald Trump]

We had an mri, and the machine, you know, the whole thing, and it was perfect. The doctors said some of the best reports for the age. Some of the best reports they've ever seen.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes, some of the best MRI reports they've ever seen. In fact, we here at the Late show were able to acquire a copy of Trump's mri, and it looks. It looks perfect.

[Colin Farrell]

Wait.

[Stephen Colbert]

Wait a second. What's that in his stomach? It's the Epstein files. That's where they were. I knew it. Good to see you guys are great people. Don't just get an mri. It's usually something you only get when the doctors think something's wrong with you. Scans are typically ordered for disease detection and monitoring or to detect bone or joint abnormalities. Wait a second. Bone abnormalities? If he aced it, that means his bone spurs are gone. Congratulations, Mr. President. You're going to Vietnam. Even though.

[Colin Farrell]

Leave it all.

[Stephen Colbert]

Leave it all. Doesn't matter. Even though Donald Trump bragged to reporters about his perfect mri, the White House declined to say white. That's not comforting. What were they looking for? That's like your Airbnb host saying, oh, you'll sleep great in these bedrooms. We had the snake guy come in three times last week, and he never found a snake, so there must not be one. Good night, sleep tight. Don't let the bed snake bite. Trump also took the opportunity to explain to the press that not only do he do good brain, he do brain better than lady Democrats. Take a look.

[Donald Trump]

They have Jasmine Crockett, a low IQ person. They have AOCs, low IQ. You give her an IQ test, have her pass, like the exams that I decided to take when I was at Walter Reed. Those are very hard. They're really aptitude tests, I guess, in a certain way, but they're cognitive tests.

[Stephen Colbert]

As a reminder, the cognitive test Trump took is not designed as a measure of intelligence or iq. And not knowing the difference between those two things is one of the reasons they make you take a cognitive test. The test Trump took is just a set of simple tasks, such as identifying animals, and Trump crushed it. I passed the cognitive. I also nailed the mcat. They asked me if it was a dog, and I said, mm, cat. That's it. What's this? I'm getting a breaking squirrel alert. Or Squillert.

[Colin Farrell]

Squirrel. Squirrel.

[Stephen Colbert]

Squirrel.

[Colin Farrell]

Squirrel. Squirrel. Squirrel.

[Stephen Colbert]

I think that could be longer. As I'm sure you're all well aware, last week down in Texas was Texas Parks and Wildlife's inaugural Fat Squirrel Week. Well, a chubby little winner has been crowned a squirrel called Chunkasaurus Rex. Thank you universe. This is the story we needed tonight. Just remember, ladies and gentlemen, no matter how dark the world seems, somewhere.

[Colin Farrell]

A.

[Stephen Colbert]

Squirrel has a very big butt. Chunkasaurus. Chunkasaurus Rex. Chunkasaurus Rex beat out three other Chunk Norris, Stanley the Texas Tank and Nutella the runner ups received an all expenses paid trip to your bird feeder to be hit with a rake by your dad. Now, like all contests, this is not without a little controversy because we were curious about the exact poundage of the winning squirrel, Chunksaurus rex. But this promotional contest was surprisingly short on scientific rigor. One of our crack researchers, Catherine, seen here thinking about fat squirrels, even messaged the home of Chunkasaurus, Dinosaur Valley State park, asking, hi, I was wondering, how big is Chunkasaurus rex? To which they replied, you know Chunkasaurus Rex isn't one to step on a scale. We just know Chunk is a hefty squirrel. What in the bushy tailed carnation? You won't give us a number? What are you hiding? Texas Parks and Wildlife's inaugural Fat Squirrel Week. This has gone from a cute rodent interest story to a deep, nutty cover up. Follow me down the squirrel hole to find out more in our inaugural episode of Stephen Colbert's Chubby Rodent Chonkstery. Welcome. We checked and there was no more to find out.

[Colin Farrell]

This has been Stephen Courbez Chubby Rodent Chongstory.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, we got a great show for you tonight.

[Colin Farrell]

Coming up.

[Stephen Colbert]

Colin Farrel.

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[Stephen Colbert]

Ladies and gentlemen, my first guest tonight is an actor you know from in Bruges, the penguin and the banshees of Inisherin he now stars in Ballad of A Small Player.

[Colin Farrell]

Look, I played my way into this mess. With the right backing, I can play my way out.

[Stephen Colbert]

Look, look, look.

[Colin Farrell]

I've had to run it by luck. I've tried all the usual creditors, but word gets round, I find myself in a bit of a bind.

[Stephen Colbert]

Please welcome back to the Late Show. Colin Farrell, Nice to see you again.

[Colin Farrell]

Good to see you, Stephen.

[Stephen Colbert]

You've been well? Yeah.

[Colin Farrell]

Good.

[Stephen Colbert]

Now, this is. This. This year marks 25 years, I understand, since you.

[Shiloh Brooks]

You.

[Stephen Colbert]

You pulled up stakes and flew out.

[Colin Farrell]

The hallways and darkened the doors of Hollywood.

[Stephen Colbert]

Exactly. Had you been to the United States before?

[Colin Farrell]

Never. My first trip was to a Holiday Inn on Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica. That's so blew up. Living it up at the Hollywood Inn was.

[Stephen Colbert]

What were your first impressions of the States when you came over here?

[Colin Farrell]

Loneliness was my first. I thought LA was a tricky place to meet people.

[Stephen Colbert]

That's an accurate description.

[Colin Farrell]

Yeah, I thought it was. It wasn't very inclusive.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Colin Farrell]

I still live there, so I have to be careful. Yes, I've grown to love it, but it's only taken, I hear, 25 years, but I've grown to love it. No, I do love it there and I've raised my two kids there, but I found it very lonely. I used to go down to the pier in Santa Monica there and play those games where you win it on my own. Where you win a teddy bear or you don't win a teddy bear by yourself. Yeah. You spend $15 to win a $2 teddy bear and you're thrilled.

[Stephen Colbert]

And you gave it to you.

[Colin Farrell]

All of a sudden, success is inevitable. Yes.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, you hadn't been here very long when you landed Minority Report. Oh, yeah, that's a.

[Colin Farrell]

That was huge.

[Stephen Colbert]

Big thing. Pretty much out of the gate for.

[Colin Farrell]

You, Steven Spielberg, you are here.

[Stephen Colbert]

The two of you are together. Right there. Yeah, There you go.

[Colin Farrell]

Yeah, that was.

[Stephen Colbert]

Were you able to keep your cool around these guys?

[Colin Farrell]

Total head. And I knew I was going to say the F word there, but I said, I shall do it anyway. And you may beep me. Good man.

[Stephen Colbert]

Exactly. You're trying to get me canceled.

[Colin Farrell]

Trying to get you cancelled early.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, yeah.

[Colin Farrell]

Pull the date forward a little bit.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Colin Farrell]

Happy Christmas. No, it was, though. It was a head beep because. Because I grew up watching them lads, you know, I grew up watching Tom Cruise and Top Gun and. And the one where he was in his socks.

[Stephen Colbert]

Risky Business. Exactly.

[Donald Trump]

And.

[Stephen Colbert]

And.

[Colin Farrell]

And then, of course, Steven Spielberg and John Williams kind of raised me really you know, in all their films. So, yeah, I also had one of the worst days I've ever had on a film set on that film.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, what happened?

[Colin Farrell]

And I didn't talk to you. It was my birthday on May 31st and we were shooting and I begged production of 120, who did I think I was of $120 million film if they would not have me working on my birthday? And. Yeah, I know, how sweet. And they went, yeah, we'll see what we can do. So, of course, my pickup was 6am on May 31, and I got up to all sorts of nonsense the night before.

[Stephen Colbert]

Oh, God.

[Colin Farrell]

And I remember getting into bed and as soon as I turned off the light, the phone rang and it was the driver outside said, It's 10 past 6. And I went, oh. And I got to the trailer and Dave Vengas, God bless him, he was the third ad. And I got out of the car and he went, you can't, you can't go to the set like this. I went, just get me. Get me six Pacifico cervezas and a packet of 20 Red. Now listen, it's not cool because two years later I went to rehab, right? So I just want to.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah, but it worked at the moment.

[Colin Farrell]

It worked at the moment. Exactly.

[Stephen Colbert]

In the moment.

[Colin Farrell]

All the holy people that we should look to for the answers on how to live a life would say, the present is all that counts. So by that note, I had a couple of beers, I went to the set, but it was terrible. I will never forget the line that I had that I couldn't get out. It was. I'm sure you've all grasped the fundamental paradox of pre crime methodology. That was the line that started the scene. And my sister, who's backstage here, she had to walk out of the. I remember one of them coming up and saying, do you want us to go out and take a breath of fresh air? And I remember thinking, if I go out and take a breath of fresh air, then I'll be under more pressure when I come back in to be better. And I went, no, we'll just go to it, do 46 takes. Tom wasn't very happy with me. Oh, no, Tom, my love, was not very happy.

[Shiloh Brooks]

This is what he did.

[Stephen Colbert]

He pulled a gun on it at the end of the tape right there. We have to take a quick break. Ok, we'll be right back with more. Colin Farrell, Everybody.

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[Stephen Colbert]

Back to the star of Ballad of a Small Player, new film with Colin Farrell. Now I understand. Okay. Road Not Taken. That you.

[Colin Farrell]

You.

[Stephen Colbert]

You failed an audition when you were younger that could have entirely changed your career.

[Colin Farrell]

I didn't fail the audition. I wasn't as strong as I could have been in the audition. Yeah, you failed. You failed.

[Stephen Colbert]

Well, tell the people what you failed.

[Colin Farrell]

Failed Misery. I sang Careless Whisper twice.

[Stephen Colbert]

But for what? What were you?

[Colin Farrell]

Oh, for a boy band called Boyzone who had an enormous amount of success.

[Stephen Colbert]

Right, right, right. Yeah, they were thing.

[Colin Farrell]

Yeah, we have some Boyzone fans. Yeah, it could have been very different.

[Stephen Colbert]

Wow.

[Colin Farrell]

I could be up with the band there.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah. Were you. Did you have a musical career? Is that how they found you?

[Colin Farrell]

I could be. No, I was in.

[Stephen Colbert]

You want to get up and dance? No one's gonna stop you.

[Colin Farrell]

I so don't. I was dancing in a nightclub called the Pod.

[Stephen Colbert]

Just with friends with mates.

[Colin Farrell]

Yeah. On a weekend. And Louis Walsh, who's the manager of Boyzone, came up to me and he said, listen, I'm getting this band together. It's gonna be huge. You've got a great look. I'd like you to be in the band. I was 17 or 18. Yeah, whatever, man. And. And they held an open audition and it was in the papers and stuff and my picture was in the paper. Anyway, I went and they said, sing Careless Whisper. And I sang it once and then they said, would you mind just singing that again? Because I don't think they could believe how bad it was. And I had. I sang it a second time and then I went home. And the next day Louis called. I'll never forget me, ma'. Am, said, colin, there's someone on the phone. Louis. Walter, it's cool. I answered the phone, he said, listen, it's not. It's not gonna. It's not. It's not for you. It's not for you.

[Donald Trump]

Wow.

[Colin Farrell]

And I said, well, I'm gonna go to the Hollywood Inn then in Santa Monica and I'm gonna forge ahead.

[Stephen Colbert]

The new film is called Ballad of a Small Player, directed by Edward Burger, which people might know from Conclave, his great director.

[Colin Farrell]

Yeah, Conclave and all quiet on the Western front.

[Stephen Colbert]

Tell the folks what it's about, if you don't mind.

[Colin Farrell]

It is about a man who is severely down on his luck and is running from his past to a place called Macau, which is just off the coast of mainland China and is known for being the kind of the Asian version of Las Vegas, the biggest gambling district. The actual revenue for Macau is I think, 12 times what it is for Vegas, literally. Obviously the math, you know, they earn in a month there, they gamble for real over there. But he's suffering under the weight of addiction, addiction to booze, addiction to gambling. And he's looking in all the wrong places for a sense of peace and a sense of belonging in his life. And it's the last kind of couple of days on his journey towards a potential redemption, I suppose.

[Stephen Colbert]

Had you been to Macau before?

[Colin Farrell]

I had never been to Macau. Fascinating place.

[Stephen Colbert]

I was gonna say.

[Colin Farrell]

I've never been.

[Stephen Colbert]

Yeah.

[Colin Farrell]

Really beautiful. The gambling district, which is just extraordinary. And as you can imagine, it is like Vegas. They have a Londoner hotel which has, you know, a half scale model of Big Ben. They have the Parisian, that's a third scale model of the Eiffel Tower. I stayed in the Wynynn Hotel for two months, which was just. Which was beautiful, but all marble and gold and very. As per my contract and very. No, no, no. And very strange, you know. And celine Dion at 7am pumped over the speakers, fountains everywhere. But then that was built in 2006. They dredged the sea floor. It was previously just two islands that were known as Macau. The old town Macau. And then another island called Kalawan, which is a small fishing village. And they dredged the sea floor in 2006. And the Chinese don't mess around. So in the space of a weekend, they built this gambling strip and they joined those two islands. So it's one long. But the older parts of it are really interesting and the kind of the violence of the contrast between this gambling mecca, which as I said, is so overwhelming, and then these older, sleepier parts of the town are really kind of beautiful.

[Stephen Colbert]

I understand that you and Edward Berger had talked about this idea for a while, but then it kind of gone away for a bit. And you reconnected, unsurprisingly in a. In a place you hadn't expected. Where did you reconnect?

[Colin Farrell]

In a sauna?

[Stephen Colbert]

Yes.

[Colin Farrell]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Was this a planned meeting or you just.

[Colin Farrell]

It was a very bored, very PG sauna. There Was no.

[Stephen Colbert]

No one saying otherwise.

[Colin Farrell]

No glory holes.

[Stephen Colbert]

No one. No. Now you really are gonna get me canceled. You know, friendo?

[Colin Farrell]

We were two men. You better have a job for me. We were two men in shorts in a sex desert.

[Stephen Colbert]

Sure.

[Colin Farrell]

Having.

[Stephen Colbert]

But did you plan this meeting or was it a surprise?

[Colin Farrell]

It was totally spontaneous. Total surprise.

[Stephen Colbert]

A man in shorts. Not naked.

[Colin Farrell]

And Edward came in.

[Stephen Colbert]

Saunas are always naked, though they are.

[Colin Farrell]

In certain parts of Europe, which I just found out because I was in Zurich and I went into a sauna in Zurich in a fitness club, and I walked in on my shorts and everyone was. And I thought, all right. Then I dropped trout and put me short. Yeah, but in a. In London.

[Stephen Colbert]

In London, you don't.

[Colin Farrell]

You gotta wear your shorts.

[Stephen Colbert]

I didn't know that.

[Dr. Mary Claire Haver]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

It's good to know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.

[Colin Farrell]

Yeah. We'll have a lot of time off coming up, I believe.

[Stephen Colbert]

Exactly.

[Colin Farrell]

You're going to take trip to London.

[Stephen Colbert]

Exactly.

[Colin Farrell]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

No.

[Colin Farrell]

So we just had a chat and we were both dripping sweat and shook hands, very slippery and.

[Stephen Colbert]

And like, oh, let's do it.

[Colin Farrell]

Let's do it. Yeah. That's fantastic. I mean, we had talked about it for about three years before that, but that was kind of. He was on the trail with all quite on the Western front doing the Oscar run. And we were around Banshees at the time. So we were crossing paths various different things, but that was the first time and the last time we crossed paths in a sauna.

[Stephen Colbert]

There are worse places to strike a deal for sure. Yes.

[Colin Farrell]

Yeah.

[Stephen Colbert]

Tommy had a rap over there. This has been so delightful.

[Colin Farrell]

Lovely to see you, man.

[Stephen Colbert]

Nice to see you, too.

[Colin Farrell]

I wish you all the success and luck and good fortune and back at you, man. Freedom as you go out into the world.

[Stephen Colbert]

Thank you so much. I hope I see you out there.

[Colin Farrell]

Same. Same.

[Stephen Colbert]

Ballad of a Small Player is on Netflix tomorrow. Colin Farrell, everybody. Thank you for listening to the Late Show POD show with Stephen Colbert. Just one more thing. If you want to see more of me, come to The Late Show YouTube channel for more clips and exclusives.

[Shiloh Brooks]

Hey, y'. All. I'm Shiloh Brooks, host of the new show Old School. Most book clubs are geared toward women. Old School's for guys who want to learn about the fantastic books that can help us become better men. The Old man and the Sea, the Leopard. Down and out in Paris and London. If we want to be the strongest, most intelligent and interesting versions of ourselves, we should all be reading books like these as a start. Listen to Old school. Wherever you get your podcasts Sunday Count.

[Stephen Colbert]

On an NFL on cbs Doubleheader in the early window. Daniel Jones and the Colts face Aaron Rodgers, Steelers. Then a game that always brings the drama is back for an encore when Mahomes and the Chiefs take on Allen and the Bills. Our coverage begins at noon Eastern with the NFL Today live in Buffalo. Count on Sundays with the NFL on CBS and streaming on Paramount. Plus.