Colin Farrell 'just gave it a shot' in America Colin Farrell has opened up about his move to the US in the late 90s. 9 September 2025 Colin Farrell felt ready to "step into uncertainty" when he moved to America. Colin Farrell moved to the US to follow his dreams The 49-year-old actor enjoyed success as a TV actor in the UK in the late 90s, but Colin ultimately decided to follow his dreams in Hollywood. Colin - who starred in the BBC drama series Ballykissangel in 1998 - told Extra: "I was in drama school. I did theatre school for a year in Dublin and I got a job doing a television show and I left theatre school and I did the television show. "I did two years. I worked with a bunch of amazing actors, and they offered me a third year and I went to the producer and I said, 'I'm not going to take it,' and he said, 'Why? Did you get another job? Do you have another gig?' "I said, 'No, I'm just going to ... get on a plane, go over to America and just give it a shot.'" Colin always wanted to become an actor. However, the Dublin-born star previously confessed that he finds it "hard and frustrating" at the same time. Asked how he got into acting, Colin told Interview magazine: "I always wanted to do it. "My sister would be up at two o'clock in the morning watching black-and-white movies on TV, and I'd stay up and watch them with her-Hitchcock and stuff. But I was drinking and smoking and getting lazy, and I thought, maybe it's time to try acting and see if I like it. I did a couple of classes at the National Performing Arts School in Ireland, and I loved it. "I find it hard and frustrating as well. I don't find acting therapeutic and I don't hide behind it by changing into this person or that person. I don't deal with y problems through it. It's just a huge challenge." Colin observed that, for him, "acting is just a good thing". Asked whether acting fills a need for him, Colin replied: "It must fulfil something, but I'm not aware of any void or emptiness. Acting is just a good thing." Tagged in Colin Farrell