Colin Farrell fans around the world should be sending a thank you letter to The Irish Sun. The Phone Booth actor is currently one of the darlings of awards season thanks to his brilliant performance in The Banshees of Inisherin, which could nab him the Best Actor Oscar. But three decades ago the Saving Mr. Banks star was an 18-year-old model looking to book his first gig.
The Irish Sun, thankfully, has unearthed the rarely-seen footage of Farrell, 46, modeling a red thong in 1994 on the RTE show 12-2-1.
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Host Marty Whelan introduces Colin telling the panel, and audience, “First on we have Colin, who’s wearing very little.” The late Paddy Murray, a newspaper editor, jokes about the outfit saying, “You’d get six decent white fronts in Dunnes for that. It’s like a jock strap. It is a red jock strap.”
The Thirteen Lives actor is quickly joined on stage in the video by Mimi, dressed in red lingerie. The panel of six discusses the clothes, and models, saying things like, “turn around Colin please,” and “wow look at that he’s got a great body.”
Colin Farrell sarcastically modeled a thong — front and back — at 18, and it looked like he was smuggling all of that guy’s fingers AND his little donkey, too. https://t.co/zOzlm9hivh pic.twitter.com/ZODjFWua8C
— Matthew Rettenmund (@mattrett) January 16, 2023
Not everyone on the panel was as taken with Farrell and the red thong. Panelist Annie McCarthy exclaimed, “I don’t find the thong all that attractive really. I think things have to be a bit less obvious.” Less obvious? Oh, the ’90s!
Thanks for finding this lost footage go to Greg Molloy who runs the KillianM2 TV Archive, which digitizes long-lost TV recordings. Speaking to The Irish Sun he said, “I came across it in part of a random donation of 100 VHS tapes, containing Irish music shows from the late 80s to early 90s, random things crop up at the end of tapes.” He continued discussing the show explaining,
“It’s amazing what they got away with on Irish daytime TV in the 90s. Long before social media, someone strutting around the 12-2-1 or Live at 3 studio in a thong was forgotten as soon as the show was over.”
Good Morning Only to 18-year-old Colin Farrell modeling a thong on an Irish talk show in 1994 https://t.co/Jc78gVQCvN pic.twitter.com/EPnx3hjrMo
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 13, 2023
You can see the soon-to-be movie star cheekily interacting with the panel and hamming it up for the cameras. Check out the entire video of Farrell’s television debut below.
Sources: The Irish Sun
