Colin Farrell in 'Ballad of a Small Player.' Courtesy of Netflix Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Edward Berger is on quite a roll. The German filmmaker's 2022 war epic, All Quiet on the Western Front, was nominated for nine Oscars and took home four, including best international feature. His follow-up - and English-language debut - Conclave, took in $127 million at the global box office and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best screenplay and best picture. Naturally, expectations are high for his latest, Ballad of a Small Player, which will screen at TIFF before it is released by Netflix in Oct 16. Related Stories Movies Sean Penn Joins Dardenne Brothers, Walter Salles as Executive Producer on Brazil's 'Manas' Movies Jodie Foster Like You've Never Seen (or Heard) Her Before Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Lawrence Osborne, the film stars Colin Farrell as Lord Doyle, a down-on-his-luck, would-be big-time gambler lurking around the baccarat tables of Macau. With a pencil-thin mustache, a put-upon accent and lucky leather gloves, he journeys through casinos in an attempt to pay down a mountains of debt from his present and past. Ahead of Ballad's fall festival run, Berger talked to THR about spritzing Farrell in between takes, why he turned down an Ocean's movie and why he's still hoping to make a Bourne movie with Matt Damon. How did Ballad become your follow-up to Conclave? This is not a planned thing. They find you, the films. You look for something and then out of left field, something finds you. Filmmaking, just imagine it as a conversation, where you talk about one thing for three years and you try to find out everything you can. It'll never be complete, but at some point you feel like, "All right, I've really talked enough about this." As in conversations, you get tired of it and you feel you really want to talk about the opposite. Ballad felt connected on an emotional level to me and to the previous movies, but it felt like a very different world that almost exploded Conclave. It was saying, "All right, let's destroy this and start afresh." Conclave feels like a very architectural, sparse, mathematical film, [whereas] Ballad felt to me like a chaotic pop opera that explodes at the seams. What was it about Ballad that made you feel like you could spend a couple of years talking about it? I always was fascinated with the idea of people reinventing themselves, like expats. It's kind of a sad community. What we researched is that people really disappear in these countries and have a death certificate made and they get a new name. Currently, in Japan, it's a real business when you have too many debts and you want to start afresh. I found living in this environment in Macau, which really is loud and explosive and there's no windows in the casinos so that you never know what time of day it is; you're always locked in this crazy world. After a while, it really eats away at you. I stayed there for six months, and you really realize how empty or soulless, in the end, you become. We went on a journey that Lord Doyle went on, who's utter void stares back at him. Edward Berger How was filming in the casinos of Macau? Filming in a casino is very complicated because they're not making any money off us. There's such a thing as a high roller, and these high rollers come and they own the place, because they spend so much money that the casino will do anything for them. We were always warned: You can shoot here, but if one of our high-paying customers arrives - and these people spend $5 million to $50 million over a weekend - then you have to leave. You're out within a minute's notice. So it's very complicated, and you have to stay flexible. Whenever we entered a casino, you can only shoot there at one in the morning, when it's the emptiest, and it's still pretty crowded. You can't film any of the customers, and you have to find empty sections. Every time I put up the camera, I was so nervous that we would fail. We somehow made it. Why was Colin Farrell the right person for Lord Doyle? I came across Colin on the Banshees of Inisherin and All Quiet awards-circuit tour. I started to realize: "It's him." It's very easy, if you cast it wrong, to dislike [Lord Doyle]. He's an addict, he's a gambler, he loses all his money, he betrays people. That's not a likable person. Colin is someone, whenever I watch him, I just love him. He has such a deep humanity and such a huge heart onscreen as well as in life. He takes the audience by their hand and makes them side with him, even if he does despicable things. One thing I couldn't help but notice: Lord Doyle is also the sweatiest man I have ever seen onscreen. Thank you for noticing. I love makeup. Done the right way, it helps the actor portray an inner emotion. And to me, swea