Colin Farrell says Tom Cruise “was not happy” with him during making of ‘Minority Report’

Colin Farrell has discussed how turning up worse for wear on the set of Minority Report put him at odds with co-star Tom Cruise.

The pair starred in Steven Spielberg’s 2002 sci-fi blockbuster, set in a world where technology allows people to be prosecuted for crimes that have yet to happen. Farrell played Danny Witwer, an agent from the Department of Justice who is on the tail of Cruise’s lead character.

Farrell’s breakthrough in Hollywood also came during the peak of his addiction issues, which resulted in an awkward day on the set on the film.

Recalling the time during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, he described one particular incident as “one of the worst days I’ve ever had on a film set.”

“It was my birthday on May 31, and we were shooting, and I begged production — who did I think I was? — of a $120million film if they [could] not have me working on my birthday. So of course, my pickup was 6am on May 31, and I got up to all sorts of nonsense the night before. And I remember getting into bed, and as soon as I turned off the light the phone rang and it was the driver, [who] said, ‘It’s 10 past 6.’ And I went, ‘Oh, shit.’”

Farrell’s condition was so bad that he recalls that the assistant director, David H. Venghaus Jr., stopped him and said: “You can’t go to the set like this.’”

“And I went, ‘Just get me six Pacifico Cervezas and a packet of 20 [Marlboro] Red,’” he explained. “Now, listen, it’s not cool because two years later I went to rehab, right? But it worked in the moment. All the holy people that we look to on how to live a life would say the present is all that counts.”

After steadying himself with “a couple of beers”, Farrell had a scene with Cruise and, in his estimation, ”it was terrible.” “I will never forget the line 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.

“I remember [the crew] coming up and saying, ‘Do you want 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 through it.’”

He concluded: “We did 46 takes. Tom wasn’t very happy with me. Tom, who I love, was not very happy!”

Colin Farrell would go to rehab in 2005 and has been sober since 2006. He has most recently found success with DC series The Penguin, for which he won Golden Globe and SAG Awards.