After starting out with supporting roles in Ordinary Decent Criminal and Minority Report, his lead roles in The Recruit and Phone Booth have firmly established Dublin-born Colin Farrell as a Hollywood superstar. His latest venture is the cop movie S.W.A.T., starring alongside Samuel L Jackson.

What do audiences get from this film?

They get entertained. That's it, bottom line. They don't get any revelation about life or honour or redemption, despite what the producers will tell you. They get entertained.

How was it working with this bunch of people?

It was good fun. It was a great ensemble, a lot of young actors. We had a laugh for four months. People always talk about how cool Sam Jackson is. And you know, he's fairly goddamn cool! It was great just to be around him and work with him and everyone else.

How hard was it preparing physically for this role?

Not really as much as you would think, or what the press notes probably say. They like to hype this kind of stuff out of proportion. I mean, we did do boot camp and we learned how to handle the weapons that we were going to use. It was all about making sure we wouldn't look like a bunch of idiots, or actors who didn't know what we were doing.

So what other research did you do?

I spent a few days with a S.W.A.T. cop who's a 14-year veteran of the LAPD. We shot a lot of weapons. It's just boys with toys. It's good fun.

Set the scene for us in terms of your part in the film...

Well, Jim Street is kind of starting over. His partner, who he's been with for five years, makes a split second decision during a hostage situation in a bank and he gets reprimanded for it. The two of us get demoted. His partner quits the force because he's fed up but I stay in and I get a chance to redeem myself.