Copyright Parade
Key Points Colin Farrell nearly joined Irish boy band Boyzone before pursuing acting in Hollywood. He sang “Careless Whisper” twice during his audition, surprising manager Louis Walsh with his poor performance. Farrell joked his career could have been "very different." Before Colin Farrell got his big break in Hollywood, he almost had a completely different career path. The 49-year-old actor looked back on life before fame during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night (Oct. 28), explaining that his career almost had a very musical trajectory. Farrell shared that when he was just “17 or 18,” he was invited to audition for the boy band Boyzone after meeting manager Louis Walsh. 🎬 SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox 🎬 “I was dancing in a nightclub called The Pod with mates on a weekend,” Farrell expained. “Louis Walsh, who’s the manager of Boyzone, came up to me and said, ‘Listen, I’m getting this band together. It’s going to be huge. You’ve got a great look, I’d like you to be in the band.'” Walsh then invited Farrell to the open audition, where he says he was asked to sing “Careless Whisper” by George Michael. “I sang it once and then they said, ‘Would you mind just singing that again?’ Because I don’t think they could believe how bad it was. And I sang it a second time,” he recalled. Farrell later went home and received a phone call the next day from Walsh who politely turned him down, telling him the band wasn’t for him. While Farrell admits he totally failed the audition, he decided to forge ahead with a career in entertainment and moved to Hollywood shortly after. “I didn’t fail the audition, I wasn’t as strong as I could have been…Okay I failed,” Farrell joked. “Boyzone had an enormous amount of success. It could have been very different. I could be up there with the band!” Thankfully, Farrell’s backup career as an actor worked out just fine! You can hear all that Colin Farrell had to say below.
