The film was released two decades ago and, now, the actor has remembered what it was like to read the negative reviews that the film received.
The Oscars 2023 They haven’t announced their nominees yet, but there is one name we already know will appear on the lists. Colin Farrell has become an award show darling for his portrayal of him in Banshees by Inisherin -has already taken him Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical-, but not everything has been success in the actor’s career. Nearly two decades ago, Farrell starred in a film that he thought would win him Oscars, but turned out to be one of his most embarrassing flops.
In 2005 -in the United States it did so in 2004- it hit theaters Alexander the Great, an epic drama about the historical character that gives its name to the film. Farrell gave life to the protagonist and Oliver Stone directed and wrote the script. The cast includes names such as Angelina Jolie, Jared Leto, Val Kilmer, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Plummer.
Everything pointed to a great success at the box office and also to Oscar nominations and awards, but things did not go as expected. In addition to the poor box office collection -it only added more than 167 million dollars worldwide with a budget of 155 million-, the film was criticized for its historical inaccuracies and received allegations of xenophobia against the Persian empire.
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“Expectations are dangerous”Farrell begins in a recent interview with THR in which he recalled what it was like to read the disastrous criticism of Alexander the Great. “It was a story that Oliver Stone had dreamed of since he was in college, as big as it was, as global as it was, as political as it was, as violent as it was and as essential as it was, it was really personal.”
The actor has recognized that everyone already took it for granted that they would go to the Hollywood Academy Awards to pick up a statuette. “When I say expectations, we all had our suits ready. I’m not even kidding. Some were saying, ‘Okay, guys, we’re off to the Oscars. That is sure’. because we had Oliver Stone. We had a history of such magnitude. We had a script that was moving and brilliant.”
But when the film came out, Farrell realized they were all sorely wrong: “The reviews came out and we were in Toronto and I remember my sister Claudine was like, ‘Oh, God. It’s not good.’ And Danica, who’s here.” today he said: ‘It’s really not good.’ While I ask: ‘What do you mean it’s not good?“
As the actor concludes:
They had all the reviews printed and I was going one after the other and I was packing my bags and I found out: Alenadro the Dumb, Alejandro the Boring, Alejandro the Inarticulate, Alejandro the Weak, Alejandro the… I was like: ‘Shit.’ I thought: ‘What can I do?’ I felt so ashamed
It is not the first time that the actor has spoken about this failure. About three years ago he admitted in The Late Late Show that Alexander the Great It is one of his great failures. Critics stoned her performance and the film’s characterization and costumes weren’t well received either..
Fortunately for Farrell, things picked up after Alexander the Great and now he’s on his way to an Oscar.
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