Colin Farrell was first introduced to American audiences in Joel Schumacher’s “Tigerland” in 2000, and he’s managed to leave a lasting impression in each film he’s done. With leading man good looks and acting chops to match, the former bad boy’s onscreen intensity is sometimes enough to make up for some questionable script choices. Whether giving life to an underrated supervillain in “Daredevil,” or starring in the 2012 reboot of the iconic “Total Recall,” Farrell is as talented as he is fearless.

In almost an extension of “Total Recall,” where the main character Douglas Quaid is trying to remember his past, his latest role as Victor in “Dead Man Down” is about a man using revenge to come to grips with his. We recently had a chance to speak to Colin about his preparation for the role, working with co-star Noomi Rapace (“Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), and his upcoming slate of films, including the animated film “Epic,” featuring the voices of Amanda Seyfried and Beyonce, and “Saving Mr. Banks,” where he plays the father of “Mary Poppins” author P.L. Travers.

BE: The film raises the interesting question of “How far would you go?” So how far would you go?

COLIN FARRELL: I have no idea. It’s never good to answer in “what ifs.” I think it’s horseshit. I don’t think any of us have an iota of how we’d really respond to most situations.

BE: Do you ever leave the set wondering what you would do in a character’s situation?

COLIN FARRELL: When you’re doing a film, once you start asking “What would I do?” you start getting the distance greater between yourself and the character or you’re bringing the character to you, which is self-serving in the wrong way. I think it seems that the idea is to bring yourself to the character.

BE: Were you able to relate to the character?

COLIN FARRELL: Well, you know, it’s fiction. I don’t even have to do that. It’s in you already. You just treat the fiction as reality, kind of. Ideally, you read a script so often and you think about the context of the scene so much that you begin to dream. You’re in pretty good shape if you begin to dream the character and certain conventions of the story. Noomi started having earlier dreams than I did. (laughs)

BE: How are you feeling, outside of the role?

COLIN FARRELL: I’m was doing good. I’m fairly healthy. Sometimes, you come home from work and you’re just tired and you wouldn’t want to see anyone and just be on your own. Consciously, you kind of look after yourself, whatever that may be. Whether you go out for a few drinks and dinner or just hit the couch and watch TV, or go to the gym or yoga class. Just be aware that there’s the potential for you to be in it and respecting wherever you find yourself, so I was fine.

BE: What were you trying to bring to this character?

COLIN FARRELL: Nothing that I can recall that I made a definite decision. I think that when you try to do something new for the sake of being new, you might get yourself into a bit of a hole. From my experience, you can only take what’s written on the page and try and, through your own curiosity and investigation, try to make it your own and honor what the original intent was. I felt in reading it, that the relationship between my character and Noomi’s character was kind of the thing that made the film significantly unique to me. There’s a certain tenderness in the relationship. It’s not rushed. They never f*ck. It’s two really, really wounded, broken human beings coming together and finding in each other some sense of salvation that neither saw coming, that both had given up the hope of. Just the device of them being in the apartments across from each other. It had a Hitchcockian nature to it.

BE: An aspect of the film deals with a perception of beauty. Did you find your character’s relationship a reflection of your own beliefs?

COLIN FARRELL: I think beauty is indefinable. You see when you see it. You feel when you feel it. You hear when you hear it. It usually encompasses possibly all five of the senses. It can’t exist without being somehow a sensorial experience. I don’t think it’s quantifiable, but I mean nothing is quantifiable. Nothing is certain – love, friendship. Poets and writers say we should all try to understand these things.

BE: Does working with great actors like these affect or boost your performance?

COLIN FARRELL: No, I’ve worked with great actors before. You never know. In the present? Yes. You’re excited going to set. You know that you’re going to work with people who are going to raise your game and be there fully with you and challenge you. That’s cool. That’s a lot of fun. I loved working with Noomi. She was so brilliant, so present and so imaginative. She just really cares about it a lot. You know it keeps her up at night and that translates not in tension or stiffness or forcing it, but a complete kind of integral understanding of the character. I felt like she was a great dancing partner.

BE: How long did you and Noomi have to rehearse? Did it take time to build a connection?

COLIN FARRELL: I like her. I think she’s cool and smart and kind and talented. Our hotel rooms were beside each other, so we had a really nice, watered down reflection of the dynamic in the film. We shared a balcony. I’d text her or she’d text me at 10pm: “Do you want to have a cup of coffee on the balcony and talk about tomorrow’s work?” It was the same balcony with just a pole between us. She’d sit on her side and I’d sit on my side. It was on the tenth floor of a street in Philly, so you’d hear the traffic beneath us. We’d share a sneaky cigarette and talk about the next day’s work. It was a really sweet time. It doesn’t always work out that way, but that was a good.

BE: Did you get in shape for the film?

COLIN FARRELL: It’s always easy to take your shirt off when you’re in shape, I suppose. (laughs) Victor is someone who lives a monastic existence. He’s someone who has shunned the pleasures that a lot of us can experience in life, such as pleasures of the flesh. He doesn’t get drunk. He doesn’t buy food based on taste and so on. It’s a very sterile world of deprivation. Having said that, it’s also a world, not to the point of emaciation, but of having a really clean body. He’s a really clean man, worked out, very fit.

BE: Did you have to work out a lot?

COLIN FARRELL: I got as clean as I’d ever been. I didn’t have sugar for four months and I had very little pizza (laughs)

BE: Was that your choice?

COLIN FARRELL: Most of the time it is. Unless it’s written about in the script. I did a thing years ago called “Triage,” and in the book, he came back from Kurdistan and he was in bad shape. He was emaciated. In the book, there were details about his eyes. Still, the director was like, “You don’t have to.”

BE: Tell me about the role you play in the “Mary Poppins” movie.

COLIN FARRELL: I play Travers Goff, the father of P.L. Travers when she was six, in flashback. P.L. Travers is the writer who wrote the “Mary Poppins” series of books. Emma Thompson plays P.L. Travers as a woman. So, I play Emma Thompson’s father, in flashback, in Australia in 1906. It was cool. It was a beautiful script, such a magic script.

BE: How was the voiceover work you did in “Epic”?

COLIN FARRELL: Oh, that was fun.

BE: Had you done animation before?

COLIN FARRELL: No, I don’t think so. No, never. I just finished “Winter’s Tale.” We shot for four or five months in New York.

BE: What’s your role in “Winter’s Tale”?

CCOLIN FARRELL: I play a petty criminal named Peter Lake, who falls upon an image of a young woman of a house he breaks into early in the film. He falls in love with her and all kinds of stuff happens.

BE: Was there ever a point in the film where you realized Victor was a complete badass?

COLIN FARRELL: No, not really. (laughs) “Badass” is such an American term to me. There are a few things that have a cultural block. “Badass” makes you want to go, “Whoa.” When people go, “I’m just fucking with you,” I’m like, “Really? You’re fucking with me? You’re taking advantage of me?” It’s a few of those cultural things and it’s not just Americans’ faults. But no, I never felt like a badass. It’s make-believe. Maybe there’s a part of you inside that’s 7-years-old when you’re under a rain machine, shooting a submachine gun.

Terrence Howard is one of those rare actors who you almost hope jumps into one of his characters when he talks to you. Whether it’s street pimp turned rapper DJay in 2005’s “Hustle & Flow,” or his latest role as mid-level mobster Alphonse, his soft-spoken demeanor masks a persona that is always in a state of hustling. Behind the hazel green eyes that appear to stare through you is a man who seems enamored with his craft, but always looking for the next piece of the puzzle to inner piece.

He reconnects with Colin Farrell in “Dead Man Down” as Alphonse, a mobster struggling with respectability as he tries to keep his close-knit crew together from an enemy that’s closer than he thinks. We had a chance to sit down to talk to Terrence Howard – actor, entrepreneur…and chemical engineer – to discuss his role, his relationship with Farrell, and how he plans on making diamonds a boy’s (and girl’s) best friend.

BE: How were you comparing your life to a tone?

TERRENCE HOWARD: A solid tone; a true element is one that is able to reach the wave amplitude, but after the fifth octave, all elements carbon is no longer able to reach its full amplitude and so it breaks down into small things called isotopes. Then, it becomes lead and gold and all of those other processes. It’s the decay of matter. I’m a chemical engineer.

BE: Your role is reminiscent of Henry Fonda in “Once Upon a Time in the West.” You think he’s a good guy, but he’s not.

TERRENCE HOWARD: Neils [Arden Oplev] did a good job of establishing my character as a victim and someone that’s being attacked. It’s slowly revealed that he was responsible for all of the circumstances that are befalling him, at present. It’s the karmic retribution. It’s the reciprocity of sowing poor and bad seeds, but he also establishes the true dichotomy of humanity. What we are dealing with is that all of the characters are so rich in the fact that they are all seeking some sense of retribution against life and an entitlement of lost happiness. But they’re doing it by creating more problems. They’re digging graves for other individuals and forget that they’ll carry the weight and responsibility of that dead person and need to dig a grave for themselves. He didn’t make anybody a villain or a victim. He made them very human and I think that was quite genius of him in telling this simple story and making it so diverse. I think Dominic Cooper’s character is the only one that is reconciled to good, because he makes a good choice for the sake of his family. He does good at the end of it, so I think he will have a good life at the end of this movie.

BE: The character starts the movie as being afraid. Do you intentional set out to make your character sympathetic?

TERRENCE HOWARD: No, Khalil Gabran wrote “The Prophet,” but he also wrote this story called “The Criminal.” In it, this man at the top of a hill, strong of body and good of spirit, but his nature is being broken. He’s crying out to the heavens and he says, “Lord, you said knock and the door would be opened.” Well, I knocked upon the doors and asked for work, but they said I was uneducated. And they sent me away. Therefore, I went to the schools and begged that I could gain and education. And they said you don’t have any money and they sent me away. So, I was left to beg on the streets and everyone said that I was of strong body. I must be lazy and weak and they spit upon me. So, now I find myself here. At that moment, a lightning bolt struck a tree and the branch fell upon him. When the branch fell up on him, he asked that I should be given what I should be given and it was not given to me, so now I shall take what I want. By the strength of my brow, and the strength of my arm. He said that he descended into the city and within two years, he was the most notorious villain and gangster of all time. A new wicked Emir took over the city and made him the chief of his army. This is what we do of good men. By our inhumanity, we turn them into monsters. That’s who I based Alphonse on. The criminal who had a good heart, but as a little kid was hurt. He just needed a couple more hugs.

BE: Your character’s clothes are awesome. Did you have a say in the wardrobe?

TERRENCE HOWARD: They didn’t have enough money for the budget with regards to the film. I liked the fact that his name was Alphonse. So, I thought about Alphonse/Al Capone and the Chicago gangsters where presentation was everything. So, I took that and allowed him to walk the streets. Then, I gave him another nature and, Niels was so beautiful in allowing that to occur, he saw that Alphonse’s hair was always parted like Cary Grant when he was dealing with business, because he wanted to be accepted. But the moment that he had to deal with problems, he would go back with the slick and change his whole nature. He created this identity crisis within himself. Therefore, he could be the good guy in business, but still keep his hands dirty when it needed to be. I was happy that Niels gave me that leeway to create my character that way.

BE: Why did you choose to do this film?

TERRENCE HOWARD: Because it was in Philadelphia. Every time I’m around Colin, he just has such a beautiful piece of humanity in him. We worked together 13 years ago on a film called “Harts War.” I believe that we leave an impression upon those that we care for. We had a unique bond then. I had lost some of my strength along the way, and in seeing Colin again…our friends hold some of our nature that we forget and when they see us again, they give it back to us. So, I was working on that and Niels had such a unique approach in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” His childlike exuberance and enthusiasm in telling the story; I was quite captured and enamored by what he wanted to accomplished. I didn’t know if we could or not, but I also wanted to work out some of my own personal vendettas that I had in here and recognize that as long as I moved forward with my future, I would no longer have to deal with the mistakes or mishaps of yesterday. Knowing that if my character’s nature makes a bad mistake in trying to make recompense for the past, I would also have to suffer the reciprocity associated with that. I was able to pick that up, put it in my pocket as a jewel for the future.

BE: How did you initially connect with Alphonse?

TERRENCE HOWARD: You know, the feeling of entitlement that the world owes me something. That misgiving of human nature. No one owes us anything. We owe the world everything. We owe the universe everything. Recognizing that, I felt…a lot of actors would say, “I pulled from here and pulled from there.” We’re so egotistical. We can only see and portray a character from our own perspective, so that’s literally Terrence Howard in those life circumstances. But with the benefit of not having to pay for those consequences of his actions. It’s a phantom world that thespians live within. When you embrace that phantomology, that phantomogomy, and believe that I’m a ghost. I can materialize and dematerialize at will. Sometimes it follows us and sometimes it doesn’t. I’m happy with the choices I made in this movie. I look forward to seeing how they pay off.

BE: You mention the fact that the film was in Philadelphia influenced you taking the film? Is location often a factor?

TERRENCE HOWARD: I had been away from my family for the last 17 or 18 years, because I was trying to provide for them. I live in Philadelphia, so the film being in Philly at a time when I needed their support, and the emotional fortification of my children. It was nice to be able to come home every day and to see them, to be able to bring them to work with me without them having to miss school.

BE: Did the environment influence the character at all?

TERRENCE HOWARD: Of course, because Alphonse was finding his own home being torn apart so it was nice to come home and see where my foundation and fortifications were weak and trying to rebuild them, even within my family unit. It let me know that Alphonse didn’t have a family, but his aspirations were to have a family. To see all these things tear apart his hopes and dreams was heartbreaking.

BE: You mentioned your friendship with Colin and how it reinvigorated you. Was that as an actor?

TERRENCE HOWARD: As a human being. Back then, I was going through my first divorce and I was scared and frightened to death. I went to Colin’s trailer one day. It was 12 o’clock at night. We’re shooting at night and it’s freezing cold. He stepped outside. He was in there with his fiancé at the time. We had a cigarette. He said to me, “You know, you’ve lost sight of who you are. What you need to do is don’t wash for a month. Don’t wash yourself. Smell you. Get to know who you are again and then you’ll remember that you don’t need anyone else, but you.” That stayed with me, because when I let go of what my loss could be with my family and looked towards my future and remembered that it was essential. Self-preservation is the first rule of nature. It was essential I remain. That is what Colin gave back to me. Seeing him again, and he had been through his own ups and downs over the past 10 or 12 years, and his back is still just as strong. And his gait and gaze is still just as powerful, and it took me back to that conversation in Prague. So, I’m here again.

BE: What’s next for you?

TERRENCE HOWARD: I’m doing a film called “Prisoners” with Hugh Jackman, Viola Davis and Maria Bello. Working with Denis [Villeneuve, the director] was fantastic. I have my diamond company, Scio. We’re growing diamonds. We’re about to replace all the silicone in computers with diamond chips. What’s next for me? The thing as we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world.

After suffering through the doldrums of winter, it’s encouraging to see that the quality (and selection) of movies will improve along with the weather. Though many of this month’s films probably won’t be remembered by the time summer rolls around, there are a few indie flicks with real cult potential and a pair of tentpole-type movies based on popular properties that will benefit from opening during a less competitive time of year.

Who: Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ian McShane and Bill Nighy
What: When a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants, he must fight for his kingdom and the princess he loves.
When: March 1st
Why: It’s been awhile since Bryan Singer directed a movie that I was genuinely excited about, and unfortunately, “Jack the Giant Slayer” doesn’t break that trend. Though the fantasy film sounds great in theory, the trailers don’t look very promising, particularly in regards to its uneven tone (is it for children, adults or the whole family?) and cartoonish CGI. It doesn’t even bare much resemblance to the fairy tales on which it’s based, and while the cast is filled with some great actors (Nicholas Hoult appears to be the real deal), there’s probably a good reason why the original summer release date was axed.

Who: Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode and Jacki Weaver
What: After India’s father dies, her Uncle Charlie comes to live with her and her unstable mother, only to discover that he has ulterior motives.
When: March 1st
Why: Continuing the Korean invasion that kicked off in January with Kim Ji-woon’s “The Last Stand,” Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut hits theaters in time for U.S. audiences to get accustomed to the director’s unique style ahead of the long-awaited remake of his 2003 cult hit “Oldboy.” It’s taken longer than expected for Park to export his talents to Hollywood, but “Stoker” is the perfect project if there ever was one. It’s also clear from the cast he’s assembled that the director is well-admired within the industry, and all three leads don’t seem to be holding back. Early buzz has been mostly positive, drawing comparisons to Hitchcock, and that alone should be enough to get you excited.

Who: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Zach Braff
What: A small-time magician with questionable ethics arrives in a magical land and must choose between becoming a good man or a great one.
When: March 8th
Why: Disney is putting a lot of faith in Sam Raimi’s “Wizard of Oz” prequel, no doubt hoping that it can reach “Alice in Wonderland” levels of success, but was anyone really clamoring for another movie? It’s not even based on any of L. Frank Baum’s novels, despite the fact that Disney owns the rights to nearly every book in the Oz series, and though it’s supposedly inspired by his works, the risk of upsetting fans of the original film doesn’t seem worth it. Then again, “Oz the Great and Powerful” is exactly the kind of franchise-ready cash cow that Disney loves to produce (i.e. “Pirates of the Caribbean”), and while it’s depressing to see Raimi wasting his talents, at least it’s in good hands.

Watch the trailer above for a perfect combo of suspense and action. “Dead Man Down” tells the story of a New York City enforcer who becomes wrapped up in a web of violent revenge when he seeks to atone for the death of his wife and daughter. This film marks the American theatrical debut of the director behind the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy – Niels Arden Oplev – and co-stars Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard and Dominic Cooper.

“Dead Man Down” hits theaters March 8th, 2013. Check out Facebook.com/DeadManDown and DeadManDownMovie.com for more info.