Colin Farrell is probably one of the most underrated actors working in modern cinema.

A bold statement, yes, but the man can act people off the damn screen when they're not on his level. He's just made some poor choices and been a little unlucky too. For instance, Miami Vice was considered an under-performer at the box-office and a failure yet is now regarded extremely highly.

While doing an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Farrell opened up on some of most talked about roles. Namely True Detective and Alexander - offering a typically philosophical and articulate insight.

On True Detective's much-maligned second season he said “I loved doing ‘True Detective.’ And I had a real love for that character. As a man, he was the human equivalent of an old, beaten down pair of shoes. He was born of an America that was part of a bygone era. A very conflicted character, too. There was a lot of really humane issues at play and he had a lot of incredibly dramatic scenes I got to jump in and play around with. I know the reception was lukewarm – the first season was so strong across the board and there were so many expectations – but the experience was incredible.”

Fair enough, To be fair Farrell was by the far the best thing about that season; if the show had been better received overall he'd be a dead cert for an Emmy nod.

On Alexander, he also saw the upsides.

“Alexander was a once in a lifetime experience. It was so big in scope and reach and ambition and epic quality. It had an incredible filmmaker (Oliver Sone) and an incredible cast and script. And yet somehow it was not what people wanted it to be or what people expected it to be. It got thrashed critically and publicly. But more importantly the experience of shooting it was extraordinary. It was a cast of mostly male actors getting up to all sorts of nonsense at night and working really hard during the day, in all these exotic locales. It feels like it was a very significant chapter in all our lives even though it didn’t work out commercially or financially. I would do it all over again.”

On the more obvious upside Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is flying high at the box-office and The Lobster is already regarded as a classic. Farrell has Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled due in 2017 as well as his reteaming with Lobster helmer Yorgos Lanthimos on The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

You can read the excellent interview in full here.