by SERENA KAPPES

Aug. 15, 2001

Being billed an overnight sensation is a pretty heavy weight. But Colin Farrell, the 25-year-old Irish actor who blasted into the limelight after Tigerland (PEOPLE even named him one of 2000's Breakthroughs), takes it all in stride. Farrell has even grabbed a couple of high-profile roles originally meant for A-list actors, stepping in for Jim Carrey in the upcoming thrillerPhone Booth and Edward Norton in Hart's War, but he just jokes that he's a "part stealer."

Interviewed one summer afternoon at New York City's Righa Royal Hotel, the normally dark-haired Farrell (who dyed his hair peroxide blond on a whim) displays a wry wit and a heavy brogue. Though that, as he explains, is one of the things that had to disappear so he could become Jesse James in the new film American Outlaws.

Q: What was harder, doing an American accent or learning to ride horses?

A: Doing an American accent. The American accent is always a bit tricky, always just trying to stay on top of it.

Q: Did you have a dialect coach on the set?

A: Yeah, he was there all day, every day in my fookin' ear in between every take going, "Oh, you sound Irish -- you sound Texan." Just always in the ear. I wanted to kill him by the end of the day.

Q: And you had to train on horses for the film.

A: We went out to a ranch about an hour outside of Los Angeles and hung out with a lot of cowboys and drank a lot of bottles of Coors Light and got taught how to ride and listened to the cowboys telling stories. It was a blast. It was loads of fun riding a horse every day.

Q: You've had good luck in stepping into roles that major actors such as Jim Carrey and Edward Norton turned down.

A: (smiles and laughs) I know, I'm a part stealer. I've had an enormous amount of luck. The luck started well before that. I've had so much luck before I got my first American film. I've just really had a greased path. I've worked as hard as I can but my path has been greased for sure. Yeah, I've had the chance to do some really good jobs with amazing people because other people have backed out or the schedules haven't worked for other people. I'm very fortunate.

Q: And suddenly you're working with Bruce Willis and Tom Cruise?

A: Mad, it's mad, because you grow up just seeing them on the cinema screen, on the TV and seeing them do things like what I'm doing now with you. I've been watching things like that since I was 8. So working with them is insane. But then one of them forgets a fookin' line and goes "Line!" and you go, "Ah, they're normal flesh and blood." And they've all been really good people.

Q: When did you realize you wanted to become an actor?

A: When I was about 17 was the first workshop I ever did and had fun doing it and found it confusing and hadn't really found anything that I liked up until then so I thought "I'll give it a go."

Q: Your dad was a professional football player. Did you have any aspirations to do the same?

A: I did until I was about 14 or 15 and I smoked a cigarette and drank a beer and kissed a girl and couldn't make a training on a Wednesday. I didn't want it enough. (My dad) used to kick a ball up and down his wall in the back garden since he was 2 years old. But I didn't want it enough -- and I wasn't good enough.

Q: Do you still live in Dublin?

A: I do live in Dublin.

Q: Has it been harder to just walk around there now that you're getting more high-profile roles?

A: No, it's great. Me mates and me family get a laugh out of it. Everyone seems to be proud more than anything else, which is sweet. They always come over (to the States) when I'm working and come and stay a while and when this (American Outlaws) premieres in Los Angeles, there's about 24 Paddies coming over, so we'll all get drunk together.

Q: Are you single or married?

A: Married.

Q: For how long?

A: Three weeks.

Q: Congratulations. Is she in the business?

A: Yeah. Her name's Amelia Warner -- she was in Quills.

Q: So, is it hard juggling both your filming schedules?

A: We're just kind of like traveling salesmen, we're just living out of a suitcase at the moment. We might rent a place here in New York for a while. But we haven't had to balance films yet.

Q: Do you get homesick being away from Dublin a lot?

A: After having a year and a half of really high-profile gigs, going home to Dublin and getting picked up at my house in Dublin and going to work for a day and going home to me house and sitting in front of the TV, going to the pub and just being with my people (sounds great).