Do we like them?

Do we like Colin Farrell?

Our score: 8 out of 10. A strong public record on marriage equality and disability advocacy, with nothing harmful turning up, though the sourcing on recent years is thinner.

Colin Farrell is a Dubliner who went from Irish TV and stage work to Hollywood in the early 2000s. For years the headlines were about the party-boy image rather than the acting. These days the headlines are about the acting, and the acting is good.

The messiest chapter was in 2005 and 2006, when a sex tape made with an ex-girlfriend threatened to go public. Farrell sued to stop its distribution, citing damage to his career, and the pair settled on confidential terms, per AP via CBS. He was the one going to court there, not the one accused, and it's old news.

On the harm test, the record is clean and the good bit is loud. In 2014 he wrote an essay urging Ireland to back marriage equality, calling it personal because his brother is gay. He wrote that it was about inclusion and fairness. We found nothing from him on trans issues, so that part is a gap rather than a pass or a fail.

We also found no sign he has pushed conspiracies, harmful politics or culture-war content, and no pattern of working with people who do. His recent projects, including Sugar, the Netflix thriller and the Russo brothers' Ordained, are mainstream. The record on climate and migration is thin, so we can't say more than that.

The real good stuff is the Colin Farrell Foundation, which he set up in 2024 to support people and families living with intellectual disabilities through education, advocacy and new programmes. He has said it gave him more access to the work people do in their communities. It's the kind of cause you do because you mean it, not for the press.

So: a decent bloke with a messy past, a good record on LGBTQ+ rights and a gap on trans questions. Not a perfect file, but a good one. We'd happily watch whatever he does next.