Colin Farrell Admits He P***ed Off Tom Cruise on Film Set
The star told Stephen Colbert that his worst day on set was shooting “Minority Report” on his birthday.
Colin Farrell, 49, said his worst day on a film set was when he screwed up a line over 40 times while shooting in front of his sister and film icons, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg.
During an appearance on Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Farrell recalled being excited to star alongside Cruise in Minority Report and be directed by Spielberg because he grew up watching their films.
But on May 31st, 2002, halfway through shooting, Farrell came to the set after a night out partying for his 25th birthday and was not in the best state to perform. Farrell said he struggled to say the line, “I’m sure you’ve all grasped the fundamental paradox of precrime methodology.”

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest Colin Farrell during Tuesday’s October 28, 2025 show.
Scott Kowalchyk/CBS
“It took 46 takes,” Farrell added. “Tom wasn’t very happy with me.”
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Farrell admitted that he initially begged production to avoid filming on May 31st because it was his birthday, but settled for the night out when that wasn’t possible. He said he arrived late to set that day, having not gone to sleep the night before, and asked for a six-pack of Pacífico beer and a box of Marlboro cigarettes to make him alert enough to perform.
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“All of the holy people that we should look to for the answers to how to live a life would say the presence is all that counts,” Farrell said.

Tom Cruise (as Chief John Anderton), Neal McDonough (as Officer Fletcher) and Colin Farrell (as Danny Witwer) in “Minority Report.”
CBS via Getty Images
Three years after the incident, Farrell went to rehab for the first time and has committed to sobriety from drugs and alcohol since. He told The Daily Mail in 2024 that his first son, James, was “part of the fuel” for his sobriety because James was diagnosed with Angelman syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes severe physical and learning difficulties, the same year Farrell went to rehab.
“All children need their parents—or a parent or grandparent or somebody—to care for them, and one of the things James taught me was to access within myself a desire to live, even if it was initially more about me thinking I wanted to live to be around for him,” Farrell said.
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