(Photo: Getty Images)

The charming and super-charismatic Colin Farrell turns 45 on May 31. To celebrate, we've uncovered some things you might not know about this talented performer who's soon to be seen as the Penguin in Robert Pattinson's Batman movie.

1. His father, Eamon Farrell, was a professional soccer player, and for a while Colin wanted to follow in his footsteps.

"My dad was a good player. He played left-half – and for Ireland," Farrell told The Guardian in 2012. "It was what I wanted to do until I was about 14, but then you smoke too many joints and drink too many cans of beer and I really couldn't be arsed with training on Tuesday. I wanted it more in the mind than the heart, but I love the game still."

2. In the early '90s, he almost became a member of Irish boyband Boyzone.

Farrell recalled his disastrous audition for the chart-topping pop group during an appearance on Ireland's The Late Late Show. Apparently his rendition of George Michael's "Careless Whisper" was so terrible that his place in the band – which he'd been told was a foregone conclusion – was quickly taken away from him.

3. He has spoken candidly about his past substance abuse.

"I was such a p**shead and a druggie I didn't have many friends," Farrell said at a 2019 event attended by The Irish Times. "I would just go out with who was around at the time. I went to rehab 15 years ago and when I came out they said: ‘You are probably going to have to change your friends. You are going to have to change the people you hang out with if you want to stay on the road to sobriety.’ I thought: no, I don’t. Because my friends are still back in Dublin doing what they always did. They were never part of what became my dark days."

4. He enjoyed a close relationship with Dame Elizabeth Taylor shortly before she died in 2011.

During an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres's chat show that year, Farrell told the host: "It was kind of like the last – it feels like in my head, not her, I’m projecting – but the last kind of romantic relationship I had, which was never consummated." According to The Independent, he also said of the late Hollywood icon: "I just adored her. She was a spectacular, spectacular woman. I wanted to be [husband] number eight but we ran out of road."

5. He reckons he's had some of the worst hairdos in the movies.

You can relive some of Farrell's (ahem) greatest snips during this clip from The Graham Norton Show.

6. As a teenager, he was really into line dancing.

You can watch footage of Farrell as an 18-year-old showing off his moves here.

7. Before he was famous, he appeared in a commercial for Irish network RTE's coverage of the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

And thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can check out the promo below.

8. He's not a fan of his performance in Oliver Stone's 2004 historical epic Alexander.

“You have to be careful about bringing too much of your own emotional experience to characters, and know where the boundaries are. Whereas Alexander was just, rahhh! There was no structure around it," Farrell told iNews.

"If there’s one film you said to me after 20 years of acting that you could try again, I’d go Alexander," Farrell added. "Oliver keeps recutting it. I’ve heard his fourth version is good. But he’s still stuck with the same performance from me."

9. After the Miami Vice movie flopped in 2006, he was at such a low ebb that he almost talked director Martin McDonagh out of casting him in In Bruges.

He told The Irish Independent in 2017: "I was feeling low enough on myself to allow that internal malaise to result in me saying to Martin, [despite] what I thought was an act of generosity and loving the material: 'Look, man. People are going to come into the cinema — if they come in, that is; they might stay away! — with a load of baggage from the last few films I've done.'"

10. And finally, he can see the funny side of that intimate home movie that leaked back in the day.

After watching this clip from The Graham Norton Show, no one could accuse Farrell of not being a good sport.

Do you have a favorite Colin Farrell role to date?