Interview by Elisa Leonelli
December 9, 2024
On Saturday, December 7, a charity ball was held in Chicago for the foundation launched by Colin Farrell to help his son James suffering from Angelman syndrome.
The Irish actor, who was awarded two Golden Globes by the Hollywood Foreign Press for Best Actor, in 2009 for In Bruges and in 2023 for The Banshees of Inisherin, both written and directed by Martin McDonagh, is interviewed by us international journalists at the headquarters of the new Golden Globes Foundation in West Hollywood.
Colin Farrell (c) GGF 2024
What are the reasons that led you to create this foundation?
The motivation was that James turned 21 on September 12, and all the benefits guaranteed by the state and the federal government, which offered him safety, protection and community inclusion, like after-school programs, are over now that he has come of age. And even though I’m in a privileged position, given my career success of the last 25 years, her mother and I also have a hard time figuring out what our son’s future will look like. So I realized that, if I have these difficulties finding a residential home where James can receive the care and loving treatment he’s used to, we have to help other families who don’t have my means. The lack of care facilities for children with special needs when they become adults is shocking and cruel, and is caused by apathy and inaction. As human beings, we are at our best when we care for others.
What’s on your agenda for the December 7 charity gala?
That evening in Chicago, in the ballroom with 1,200 people, there will be no talk of politics, no philosophical or ideological talk. People are tired of world conflicts in war zones, they want to affirm their desire for kindness, goodness and human decency. The only reason why we are there is to express our love for our children, born into families of different political opinions, so we will only talk about how to provide assistance to these children to give them the opportunity to live as full a life as possible. It’s our foundation’s debut, with a lot of wealthy donors in the room, so I find it an exciting prospect.
What life lessons did you learn from the difficult experience of caring for a child like James?
Since James needed me, I had to learn to take care of myself. When he was two years old I decided to get sober, stop drinking alcohol and take drugs. I already knew at that point that James had serious health problems, suffered from seizures, showed deep and significant developmental delays. At that time we thought he had cerebral palsy, we still did not have the diagnosis of Angelman syndrome, since the symptoms are very similar. The greatest gift James gave me was to give me back the desire to live so I could be close to him. Since then, when I’m not busy with work, I just think I’m at home being the dad of my two sons, James and Henry, who’s 14.
At what point is James now, what difficulties does he continue to face?
James is very brave and has an incredible willpower, he works assiduously with a physiotherapist to achieve physical skills that the majority of us already have at two or three years of age. Our difficulties are generally existential, emotional and psychological, but not visible, while when James enters a room, everyone wonders what is wrong with that boy. He struggles to move, he has no control over his muscles and his actions, he’s not verbal, but I speak to him as if he had a command of the English language, although I don’t think he has a high level of understanding, so to me what he thinks remains a mystery. I hope he learns from me that it’s nice to feel loved, and he certainly understands when someone wants to be with him, but he will never be able to take care of himself, he will always need assistance.
How can we help these kids who have special needs?
Bad and harmful things exist only in the dark, as soon as they are brought to light they lose their negative power, we must expose the truth and be willing to see it, educate people to see our children as fascinating beings even if different from the normal. When I was a kid in Dublin, many parents of children with Down syndrome probably felt a sense of shame and were hiding in their homes, because the world at the time was not interested in seeing them and including them in socializing activities, so they wanted to protect them. But now the world has changed for the better, thanks to the extraordinary work of the Special Olympics Foundation that for decades has promoted the power of inclusiveness as a responsibility of our society. All of us parents need to step out, speak out loud, send e-mails, start these conversations, knock on the doors of our representatives in government, both Democrats and Republicans, to pass laws that guarantee the financing of this kind of assistance.
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