MediaBlvd Magazine> Martin, when did you first come up with the idea for this film? Were you visiting Bruges when you thought of it?

Martin McDonagh> Yeah. I traveled there, just to see a new place that we didn’t really know anything about at all, and was struck by how stunningly cinematic, picturesque, creepy and medieval, and yet cinematic, the place was. I always wondered why it hadn’t been used in film before because it is so distinctive and just really stunning. So, I just wandered around to all the churches and museums and got bored shitless. I just wanted to get drunk and get out of there But then, those two halves of my brain started chatting with each other -- the culture vulture and the drunk. They just became characters. They became Ray and Ken. And, I thought, “Why would they be in a place like that, when they wouldn’t want to be?” That’s when the whole idea of hit men escaping a horrific job popped up. Bruges is completely organic. If we hadn’t been allowed to film there, I’d have scrapped the whole script because it had to be there. It couldn’t be Paris. It couldn’t be Venice. It had to be a place that beautiful and strange, but unknown. There would be a reason why someone was sent to Paris. There would be a reason why someone was sent to Venice. There’s no reason to be sent to Bruges, unless you’re making a film.  

MediaBlvd> Colin, what was it about the script that attracted you?

Colin Farrell> There was an otherworldliness to it, and a hyper-reality to the way the characters spoke. In one part, I could understand what they were saying, get to the root of what they were saying and why they were saying it, and even understand what something was masking, or how everything, at other times, may have seemed like it was undiluted and exactly what was being felt. At the same time, I had never heard characters talk like this at all. I had never heard such a level of unbridled honesty, and what I originally thought was a lack of subtext. I thought that it was all just so honest. And then, in rehearsal, I found out there was just a plethora of stuff that was happening underneath. Bottom line, it was just a great tale. The characters were so beautifully drawn and the dialogue was so quick-smart. While reading it, it seemed incredibly funny, but there was a much greater heart that existed than any of the comic moments that are involved in the piece.

MediaBlvd> Was it nice to finally be able to use your own accent for once?

Colin> Yeah, it was lovely. Doing dialect work can be an avenue into a character. It really can help you to get in there and give you an understanding. On the other hand it, the bad side to that, potentially, is that it can also be a border between yourself and getting to the truth of the character. There have been times, in my own personal experience, where I’ve been self-conscious and not particularly comfortable. So, it was nice to just be able to shed that cloak and put 100% energy into the text. It was really lovely.

MediaBlvd> Were you able to identify with your character’s sense of humor?

Colin> Yeah. Ray had a great sense of humor. Martin created him and wrote him, and I sang it. We love those characters we meet in life, every now and then, that have no idea how funny they are. You are totally laughing with them, and they might be bewildered as to why you find them so funny. They genuinely don’t understand it, but they just have a more unusual outlook or perspective on life. Ray was definitely one of those people. He has no idea how funny his outlook is, but it’s such a skewed look on his environment and the world around him. There’s such purity to him. He’s very childlike, as well. He’s perfectly honest. There’s no self-censorship with him.

MediaBlvd> You and Brendan have an incredible rapport in the film. Was that there from the beginning? How much of that was ad-libbed?

Colin> It was just fine acting. None of it was ad-libbed. Brendan was so easy to get along with. He’s just such a lovely man, and such a wonderful artist. He’s a fiddle player, guitarist, writer and fine actor. He was just really generous, from day one. There was absolutely no ego on this, at all. I’ve been pretty lucky that, on most of the jobs I’ve worked on, there hasn’t been an ego. We were all there for the same reason. I loved the script. The first time I read it, it was just like nothing I’d ever read. And then, when I got the chance to do it, we packed up, and off we went to Bruges. I had met Brendan a couple times outside of this, before I read the script, and he was just warm and lovely. Then, we had three weeks of intense rehearsal, and I thought we were just gonna run out of steam, but the script was so good that it just kept revealing. You’d ask one question and it would come to what seemed like a conclusion, but then there would be 10 more questions on the table that had just been revealed. It was that good. So, by the end of three weeks, I thought, “Come on, can we shoot?” The only times I’ve ever really rehearsed before were for Alexander and for Phone Booth. Those were pretty intense rehearsals. But, this was three weeks with three of us in a room, every day, and it was great.

MediaBlvd> Was it hard to shoot in Bruges, or was it easy because it’s such a small town? Did they just accept you being there?

Martin> I loved the fact that, if we were shooting at 9:00 in the morning, I could wake up at 8:30 and walk across the square from my place on the canal, and just turn up and go to work.

Colin> Yeah, it was cool.

Martin> When we were shooting in the center of town, the entire town was no more than two miles across.

 Colin> Yeah, it’s absolutely the tiniest. And, the locals would visit the set. It was nice.

Martin> I loved it, but I was worried that, when they saw the film, they would think we were taking the piss out of it. But, they actually liked it. Because it’s my first feature filmmaking experience, and everything about it is inexplicably linked to this town, I had a lovely time. Colin and Brendan just made the while trip easier for me. The three weeks of rehearsal helped, but they are just so gentle and nurturing that it was a joy.

Colin> We just didn’t want him to cut our scenes.

MediaBlvd> Your character disliked the town of Bruges. When you were there, what did you think of it? Did you like it?

Colin> It’s a shit hole!

Martin> It’s not a shit hole.

Colin> It is a shit hole.

MediaBlvd> Did you do any sightseeing?

Colin> You pretty much see everything on your way to the hotel from the airport, and then, you pretty much see it again, every day. It was great. To be honest, I had a great time. We went up there in the middle of winter. It was dark, every day, by four o’clock. There was nobody in the streets, so there was this eerie, desolate feel to the place. It was really what you’d imagine a border town to be, in the middle of Winter, and that seemed to have a great simpatico with the energy that was coursing through Ray, during the three days of this tale. There’s a certain kind of despondency that Ray is feeling, and a shame, despair and guilt. You look around this beautiful, majestic city, and all these incredible buildings and towers, and it felt inordinately lonely, at the start. We were there for the Spring as well. When Spring kicked in, and the tourists came, it was lovely. You find what you want to find in a place. You can go to the same place in the world, at two different stages in your life, and the place is completely different, but it hasn’t changed. You have. I found what I needed to find, to get me through the job.

MediaBlvd> Did these religious themes come into the story right away, or did that develop as you wrote the story?

Martin> Probably pretty early on. As soon as I came up with why they were there, it was an easy one to explore. I thought, “How would I feel if I had done something so heinous?” So, I was able to explore what I believe, in having been brought up Catholic, and having rejected that, but still having those tendrils of faith in your head. “Where am I now? How do I think about those things? What do I think about the afterlife?” I still don’t have any solutions or final thoughts, but it was fun to explore. We all found that, even in the rehearsal process.

Colin> Faith in absolution is not really faith at all. I don’t want to say it’s idiocy because I’ll insult a lot of the population around the world, including some of my family members, but surely faith should be based on a certain amount of skepticism, almost in questioning.   

MediaBlvd> In the film, Ken asks Ray if he believes in guilt, sin and the afterlife. Do you believe in those things, personally?

Colin> I believe in guilt. And, I sure believe in sin. Do I believe in afterlife? I am still on the fence with that one.