Colin Farrell On Decency, Humanity & Beautiful Complexities Of Portraying “Sugar” In Season Two!

Nerdigo correspondent Kay-B heard about all things Season Two of the hit Apple TV neo-noir mystery thriller Sugar. Created by Mark Protosevich (Thor) and led by star and Executive Producer Colin Farrell (The Penguin), Sugar is about Farrell’s “John Sugar,” a private investigator recruited to solve missing persons cases in Los Angeles. If you watched Season One, then you know that Sugar is more than a movie lover — he’s also a Blue alien recruited to observe humanity.

During the global press conference, Farrell talks in depth about Season Two, Sugar’s decency, and whether or not he belongs on Earth after gaining some humanity himself. Read our conversation with the ethereal star below.

On the best part about playing Sugar, Farrell revealed: “The loveliest thing about playing him is just his fundamental decency, really. As boring as that sounds. I mean, he’s not naive. He’s lived in this world, on this planet for long enough. He recognizes the breadth of violence and cruelty. And he has seen those things at close quarters, but he still maintains this very real and very deeply set, natural belief in the decency of human beings, which is a very hard thing I think for most of us to hold onto all the time when we see what goes on in the world. So that’s just a breath of fresh air. And the fact that that is kinda the most dramatic thing about the character, again, is a quiet testament to the chaos that we witness in this world that we all share.”

Farrell continued: “He has a capability with violence. He can take care of himself. But he is this calm, fundamentally peaceful, sentient being that moves through the world just trying to be of service in a very real and very meaningful way without looking for any credit. And, you know, so there’s a deep kind of humility there that doesn’t sound like the most interesting thing to play. But it really is, especially when he’s surrounded by such chaos, as I said, and such violence, and such darkness at times.”

On what’s next in his career, Farrell teased: “I have no idea. I mean, I just try to get to the end of every day. I’m very grateful to still be working after 25 years, and, you know, to get to read some wonderful things and be a part of wonderful things from time to time with great people that I’ve worked with through the years.”

On the element of surprise when shooting a revealing or shocking storyline, Farrell said: “As an actor, I’m not always but quite often surprised by the performances of my fellow actors. I usually know what’s going on in the script and I know what’s gonna happen next in the storyline. Outside of a first read of a script, I can’t remember ever being on a set and being surprised by the revelation of a particular story point, because I’m aware. But there’s always room for a surprise. And with your fellow actors, you know, and seeing and experiencing firsthand in front of the camera an actor’s interpretation of the text that you may feel like you know very well, but you have only imagined it from your perspective, the perspective of your character. And of course you’ve imagined the other actors in the scene, the other characters in the scene as well, but you have no control over that. And that’s just been, yeah, a byproduct of your imagination. Then an actor comes in, whether it’s Laura or Tony or Jin or Ray or Shea or whoever, they come in, and, you know, you do your first rehearsal and you see for the first time what they’re doing or what they’re gonna do. And more often than not, that’s a lovely surprise.”

On if he leans into film as heavily as Sugar, he mentioned: “I do love all kinds of films, though I don’t lean into them as much as John Sugar does as a character, because he uses them as a behavioral and sociological reference point for what he should or wants to be like as he traverses this planet. But I definitely do love them. And the first season of Sugar, I used it as an opportunity just to soak myself in film noir. You know, Dirk Bogarde and Bob Mitchum, and loads of other really good film noirs. So I love film and always will.”

On Season two differences in tone, location, and even Sugar himself, Farrell said: “The trick has always been to honor the tone of the piece that was established in the first season and whatever the truth of him as a character is. But also allow for a change in situation and also whatever changes psychologically and emotionally are taking place in him as a result of things being different. The main thing, of course, being that he’s now, for the first time, a man very much alone. Everyone else, all his friends, all his companions have gone back to their home planet. So he is, for the first time, alone on Earth, and he’s struggling with that kinda sense of isolation very much, and how would that inform, certainly at the beginning of the first episode, how would that inform how he is and how he moves through the world? And continue to inform that. And how he is open to people.”

Farrell added: “But it’s also a very different world in the second season than the first one. The first one took place in more affluent parts — you know, Bel Air and Palisades and the studios and all the higher-ups. And this one takes place in K-Town, and various other parts of East L.A. So it’s gonna be tonally quite different as well. And he was gonna have new challenges, which he does, and contend with human experiences that he didn’t have to contend with in the first season. Particularly the experience of human sentient desire, you know. But also the encroaching power of violence and the sway and the draw that violence holds for him as well. As he’s someone who is completely against violence in a way, which is contradictory, because he’s involved in it so much. And even as a result of his own choosing at one stage in this second season, later on in the season.”

On what worries him more about human nature — our capacity for violence or the capacity to justify it — he explained: “Both are worrying, you know? I suppose though our capacity for violence is pretty disturbing. The seemingly bloodthirsty are certainly; the prevalence of greed on our planet, which can lead to great violence. The inability to regulate ourselves emotionally at times, which can lead to great violence. It’s tough being human, you know? I say that fully aware of where I stand, and the blessings that I’ve had in my life. But it’s tough being human, and it can be just godawful, depressing, and anxiety making. And you know, if we don’t really, you know, support each other, then we’re just in trouble. I have to remind myself sometimes when I look at, you know, the news and the world around us of how many amazing people there are in the world doing amazing things, because the violence that is, yeah, readily viewable at any given time is so profound, is so extreme. But yeah, both, you know. Our propensity for violence and our ability to justify violence to no end — both are very worrying issues.”

On how being an Executive Producer on the show influences his creative decisions as an actor, he chimed in: “Both seasons, we were still very much writing them as we were shooting them. So, that — I mean, I wouldn’t recommend it necessarily. Yeah, so that was tricky. But it was good to have some influence and involvement, you know? ‘Cause I feel like I know this fella pretty well, and I do love the world. I mean, I just love this show. I really do. It’s such a joy to do. It’s such a joy to shoot in Los Angeles. It’s such a joy to play a character that is so, so fundamentally decent, but he still has his struggles. And he’s still, you know, has moments of violence and confusion, but he doesn’t really blame the world outside of himself. He’s constantly reflecting on his own involvement at every turn of his experience. So, yeah. Yeah, such a joy to do it in this city as well.”

On the difficulty of crafting season two with the reveal of Sugar’s true identity, he admonished: “We just treated it as a story, you know? As an Executive Producer, it was good to have some influence there in story and character journey, and all that stuff. But I suppose it was nice to have the cat outta the bag and be able to be done with this secret. And there is, of course, reference — particularly as we get more toward the end of season two — not visually, so much as the sci-fi element coming back in, but it is referred to. His place of origin comes back into the story in a significant way. But you’re just looking at it, yeah, from a story perspective, and the character’s journey, so you just keep it on that strain, keep it on that straight railway line and keep pushing in that direction. Just explorin’ new avenues of who Sugar is, or who he thinks he is, or who he wishes to be, or who he’s ashamed of being, and all those kind of dramatic pretexts, you know?”

On if it’s easier to inhabit a character he shares nothing with or one that he has similar traits to when taking on a new role, he said: “I don’t know what’s easier, but I tell ya, playing a character that you don’t feel you share traits with is less sticky. Do you know what I mean? It’s cleaner. It’s clearer. You have a certain amount of road to travel, and you can, even if it’s just in theory, convince yourself that you were disavowing and separating. And so, in a way, it’s just less sticky. But both are interesting, when I think about the times I play. Yeah, you can jump more freely towards a character that you don’t perceive there to be any similarities between you and it, I think. But, yeah, therein lies the whole kinda riddle of it all, you know? And you do, you know, you try to figure out what ways the person is different from you, and what ways, possibly, they’re the same. But human beings are such, such wonderful mysteries, you know? Eight billion of us, plus, and no two the same. Some people present similar, behaviorally, but yeah, no two the same. It’s always a riddle to be uncovered.”

On going into season two, if the real conflict is him no longer belonging on Earth or if he’s too emotionally invested to remain the objective observer he was sent to be, Farrell explained: “When he was sent here first, his job was the job of all his fellow countrymen and women. His job was to just observe and report, and that’s what’s reiterated over and over again in the first season: observe and report, observe and report. And, well, he has no one to report to anymore, quite literally. He’s lost the kinda most significant structure of his life, and he’s, again, a man alone. But observation is something that was always, for him, greater than a job or greater than a mission task. It was something that, deeply inside him, he needed. He seems to have some deep need to understand people, understand human beings. He also has a love for human beings and views them through a lens of wonder sometimes, which is childlike, you know? So, yeah. That observe and report — the line between him and other begins to blur, of course, as it does in relationships for us humans, and friendships at times, family members, you know? We sometimes don’t know what’s mine, what’s yours, and everything can get a little bit askew. Well, that starts to happen to him, and the experiences that he’s having begin to bleed into him in a way that is utterly confounding, I think, at certain stages throughout the season. So, that was, again, all part of his journey in the second season and fun to mess around with.”

On how many more seasons he would be willing to do and the show’s ending, he said: “Oh, loads. Loads. I love this job. I really do. I don’t know where it would go. Like, as I said, the first season, the second season — I mean, there were writer rooms for both, but, you know, we were still working on the scripts while we were shooting. And I don’t know where the story would go from the end of the second season. There’s been nothing broken, no storyline, no narrative, no arc figured out. But I do have a couple of thoughts where I would love to see the show go, if people were in agreement, and how we could take it to a somewhat natural — you know — and see what happens to Sugar at the end. So I would say, what I would imagine, it could easily hold another three seasons. You know, do five seasons in total and have that be it, and take Sugar to the end of his storyline and put a ribbon on it and be done with it. But yeah, I would love to do another three seasons of this thing.”

On feeling his own sense of belonging in this industry, he added: “You know, the idea of belonging, that’s a complex consideration, you know? I mean, people can tell you you belong all your life and you can still feel like an outsider because there’s some kind of internal agitation that won’t let you feel like you belong. And so it’s a complicated thing. But, no, from day one — I go back to Ballykissangel, that I shot for an hour on the TV show when I was maybe 21 or 22, I don’t know. But, yeah, and I’m not impervious to struggle with the idea of belonging in our families, in our communities, at the workplace, you know. But I’ve had extraordinary times through the years working with my fellow actors in various jobs. So, yeah, sometimes you feel like you belong, sometimes you don’t. But I’m not really looking to others to tell me I belong. It’s more of a personal thing, you know.”

On if the World Cup is showing humanity and the world governments that peaceful international relationships are still possible, he offered: “I don’t think the world governments give a fuck, to be honest with you. Not for every country in the world. There are some countries that clearly do care, the Norways of the world and the Icelands. Do you know what I mean? But that doesn’t mean it’s not important, what’s happening. And it’s extraordinary to watch a game of football and see fans from two different nations mixed in the stands of the stadiums. And there’s heartbreak and there’s rejoicing. And so far, so good — there’s been no violence. And, you know, it’s amazing to see. It’s such a beautiful game. I grew up playing and watching football with my dad, soccer with my dad. And it’s a really, really beautiful sport. Which, at times in the history of it, of course, there have been events where there has been extraordinary violence around the supporters of a particular team, whether it’s club level or international.”

Farrell concluded: “But to see how everyone is mixing and to see the sense of joy that’s being shared between nations and between cultures is beautiful. Do I think governments care? Not fucking particularly, sadly. But that’s part of the problem. But it’s great to see, because that’s the reality of that experience. And God knows there’s enough agitation and enough lines of division in the world — to see something where division is part of it and conflict is part, of course, of what’s being experienced in the World Cup, but it’s all with massive amounts of respect and all in the name of a good, healthy competition. It’s cool. It’s really cool.”

Stream New Season Two Episodes Of Sugar on Fridays Only On Apple TV!

Editor’s Note: This coverage reflects a condensed summary of the press conference. Some remarks have been paraphrased or edited for clarity and flow.