Colin Farrell's breakout role is as a Department of Justice agent auditing a special law enforcement unit, led by Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise), in Steven Spielberg’s science-fiction thriller Minority Report. Recently, Farrell reminisced about his inability to deliver a particular line to Cruise's character in the action thriller. Speaking on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert the other day, Farrell said that he asked the film's makers for a day off on his birthday but had to go to the set late and hung over from all the partying the night before. As a result, Farrell could not mug up a line in the film and deliver it in a take or two. “I’m sure you’ve all grasped the fundamental paradox of pre-crime methodology,” the agent tells Anderton in the film. However, the actor's mental state at the time and the complexity of the line contributed to an exorbitant number of takes for the scene. “It took 46 takes. Tom was not very happy with me,” Farrell recalled. 

Interestingly, Cruise is known for demanding quality work from his co-stars. He famously reprimanded his Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One crew members for failing to follow safety protocols on the film's set during the COVID-19 period.

Coming back to Farrell, the actor also noted that the incident happened a few years before his time at a rehabilitation centre for alcohol and drug addiction. “All the holy people who we look to for the answers on how to live a life would say, ‘The present is all that counts,'” the actor quipped.

Following Minority Report, however, he established his career in Hollywood with roles in films such as Phone Booth, Alexander, and Daredevil. He stars as a gambler with plenty of debt in the latest Netflix film Ballad of a Small Player.