Jordan Karlesson
Was Elizabeth Taylor secretly the biggest fan of CSI?
Videos by Rare
Colin Farrell is opening up more about his perhaps-unlikely friendship with Elizabeth Taylor. He recently recalled in particular her love of the police procedural.
The actor opened up about his now-deceased friend Thursday at the Elizabeth Taylor Ball to End AIDS in West Hollywood, California.
“It was very clear to me from the conversations that we had that she loved CSI and anything that had a crime scene or Mark Harmon in it,” Farrell said at the ball, Variety reported Friday.
Colin Farrell and Elizabeth Taylor’s Friendship
Farrell, who famously stopped drinking in 2006, reminisced about a period when he and Taylor didn’t connect for more than a month.
“I came back from wherever the hell I was, to Los Angeles, and something was going on,” according to The Hollywood Reporter’s coverage of the Thursday event. “Life was pissing me off, as it can, and it was getting on top of me a little bit, and I didn’t call Elizabeth. I waited about five or six weeks. She went, ‘Why didn’t you call?’ And I said, ‘Because, stuff is going on. … I was in a bad mood.’ And she said, ‘Well, that’s not the kind of friendship I’m interested in, if you’re only ever going to bring me your sunny days.’ I swear to God, I was like, ‘Oh sh–. Good f—ing going.’ Now, I have to reevaluate friendship.”
At the ball, Farrell received an Elizabeth Taylor Commitment to End AIDS Award, Variety reported. Charlize Theron and Sheryl Lee Ralph also received the same honors.
Farrell reportedly said Taylor hoped to see the end of HIV and AIDS in her lifetime.
“There’s still more work to do, which is why we’re here tonight,” Farrell said, per Variety. “We’re here tonight to refocus and to also look at the work that [must] be done in the battle against HIV and AIDS and the proliferation of it.”
Elizabeth Taylor’s Final Days
Taylor died of congestive heart failure in 2001 at age 79. Family and friends, including Farrell, attended a private funeral service for her near Los Angeles.
Farrell read “The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo,” a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, at the service.
Taylor was interred in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, beneath a marble angel.
“As the story goes, Colin Farrell was at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 2009 for the birth of his son, Henry, when he bumped into Elizabeth Taylor’s manager, who was visiting the legendary star following a heart procedure,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Days later, Farrell found himself thinking about Taylor and wanting to send flowers to wish her well in her recovery.
The THR story continued: “His publicist … happened to be staring at an orchid delivered for Farrell from Taylor. Thus began a close but brief friendship that featured many late night phone calls, continuing until Taylor passed away in March 2011.”
Is 2022 Colin Farrell’s Hottest Year Yet?
Meanwhile, Colin Farrell is enjoying a smashing 2022. He co-starred as Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, a.k.a. the Penguin, in The Batman. After raking in about $369 million, the action vehicle is the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2022.
Farrell also stars in Thirteen Lives, Ron Howard’s movie biopic about the Tham Luang cave rescue in 2018.
Additionally, he leads The Banshees of Inisherin. The new black comedy re-teams him with director Martin McDonagh and co-star Brendan Gleeson of In Bruges. That movie hits theaters in late October.
