(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Colin Farrell has joked playing a violent character in his new movie came naturally.

In London Boulevard, the Irish actor plays Mitchell, a man who has just been released from prison and finds himself battling a vicious gangster as he falls in love with a reclusive movie star. William Monahan directs the film and revealed he was looking for a brutal but tender actor to portray the lead role of Mitchell.

Colin has laughed that while it was easy to convey the menacing aspect of his character, it took some real effort to show his softer side.

Well the tenderness was a stretch, but the brutality came naturally, he joked in an interview with British television show Daybreak. Its very much a genre film in the mould of Brit gangster. Bill Monahan, who wrote it, wrote The Departed and he is a fantastic writer. Its his directorial debut.

When I saw the cast he had assembled for it, from Keira Knightley to Ray Winstone, Ben Chaplin, David Thewlis, I was impressed. Everyone was just astonishing.

Colin, 34, was required to master an English accent for the role and found it a real struggle. Although he has previously adopted an American twang for movies including Miami Vice, it took him some time to perfect his English speaking voice.

Mastering an American accent is easier. I think its because I grew up watching American shows on TV, I watched far more of those than Irish or English shows, he explained. It was mostly T.J. Hooker, CHiPs or The A-Team on in my house so by the time I had to do an American accent it didnt feel like much of a stretch. It was deeply resonated within my consciousness of my youth.

I had a beautiful, smart and witty English dialect coach. She came over to Los Angeles, where I live now, and we sat out in the back garden for about three weeks just going over the script. She was brilliant. (C) Cover Media