Resurfaced video: Colin Farrell talks challenges and joys of raising son with special needs

In a resurfaced interview that's going viral, Irish actor Colin Farrell spoke about the challenges and joys of raising a child with special needs. He previously launched a foundation to provide more support for families like his.

Key Takeaways:

• Colin Farrell's son James has Angelman syndrome, a neurogenetic disorder that includes intellectual and developmental disabilities.

• A discussion with Farrell and actress Jessie Buckley from "Actors on Actors" has resurfaced and gone viral.

• In it, Farrell discussed the reality of raising a child with special needs with what many applauded as refreshing, emotional honesty.

• He launched the Colin Farrell Foundation to provide meaningful jobs, housing, health care, and more services to help families like his.

The Details:

Farrell and Buckley appeared in an episode of "Actors on Actors," and at one point in the conversation, began discussing the need to allow oneself to be overwhelmed. Farrell then referenced his son James, and the difficulties of raising a child with special needs:

"I’m so [expletive] aware of the amount of privilege that I’ve experienced in my life, and what rare air I fly in regards to what I do for a living, how I’ve been able to provide, all that stuff.

I’m really aware, but at the end of the [expletive] day, there’s nothing I can do in acting, there’s no check I can get that can make James talk or have language, my oldest boy."

He continued on by explaining that while many may believe someone's life is perfect, that only exists on the surface, and that in reality, everyone struggles with something.

Ultimately, he said, the best thing he can do is lean into the difficulties and accept that sometimes, there is no clear answer:

"We’re all, regardless of the facade, regardless of how the life seems to be, just every T is crossed and every I is dotted ever so perfectly, it’s a mess. It’s a mess. And to be given permission to be in the mess and not have the answer. Lean into the mystery, and know that feeling is only destructive when it is attempted to be oppressed or ignored. That’s the only time feeling is really destructive."

Profanity warning:

The Backstory:

Before James came along, Farrell was known for a certain lifestyle that included partying. But in 2003, when James was born, he became a very dedicated father. He announced James' diagnosis in 2007, and has repeatedly spoken about the joy he finds in his son. Farrell said at the time:

”With my son the only time I’m reminded that there is something different about him – that he has some deviation of what is perceived to be normal – is when I see him with other four-year-olds. Then I go ‘oh yeah’ and it comes back to me. But from day one I felt that he’s the way he’s meant to be.

He took his first steps about six weeks ago and it was four years in the making. All the work is his, he worked his arse off for four years. And when he took the first steps it was incredibly emotional, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”

Though he said James has to work hard just to do things like eat and talk, that makes it all the more meaningful. "I’m proud of him every day, because I just think he’s magic," he said.

In a 2024 interview with PEOPLE, he announced that he was launching a foundation to help other families with disabilities. “I want the world to be kind to James,” he said. “I want the world to treat him with kindness and respect.”

Unfortunately, as Farrell's "Actors on Actors" interview alluded to, there is a stark lack of resources for people with disabilities, particularly adults, that can leave parents like Farrell desperate and scared.

“Once your child turns 21, they’re kind of on their own,” Farrell explained. “All the safeguards that are put in place, special ed classes, that all goes away, so you’re left with a young adult who should be an integrated part of our modern society and more often than not is left behind.”

The Colin Farrell Foundation serves to give more support and resources for adults with disabilities, filling the gaps that leaves families, as Farrell said, on their own. The foundation provides housing and day programs as well as a summer camp, with goals of expanding to helping provide meaningful jobs, increasing Medicaid funding, and limiting the wait time for Medicaid waivers, so families can more easily access resources like home health aide services, personal care services, and adult day care services.

According to Farrell, it's all because people like James have "earned the right to have a greater degree of individuality and autonomy on life, and a greater degree of community."

The Bottom Line:

While life can be messy, as Farrell said, the best way to handle it is to accept that sometimes there isn't necessarily a clear answer... and in the meantime, work to try to make it better.

"If James knew getting his photograph in the back garden with me, which is not my favorite thing to do, if us doing this could help families and other young adults who live with special needs, he would say, ‘Dad, what are you talking about? Why are you even asking me? It’s a no-brainer,' " Farrell said. "So that’s why we’re doing it. This is all because of James — it’s all in his honor.”