IN a revealing British TV interview last week, Colin Farrell confessed that his substance addiction which landed him in rehab in 2005 could well have killed him if he hadn't taken drastic action.

Farrell, fresh from filming Miami Vice with Jamie Foxx, said he was living a "fairly drunken life" since his teenage years.

"(Rehab) was a tough life change, but I was dying and I'm one of the lucky ones in that so far I'm out of it," he told interviewer Jonathan Ross.

"For me there was no choice. I was pretty sick. I went away for five or six weeks and that was a very safe environment and I began to come out of the haze that I had burrowed myself into so deeply.

"I came back into the world and everything was in a degree of focus that I hadn't experienced."

The old "don't judge a book by its cover" mantra was especially true of Farrell in the years leading up to his time in rehab. Though he starred in several highly touted projects - none of which, it must be said, garnered much critical acclaim - the Dublin-born actor confessed to being a basket case.

"So much of the work that I did I was struggling so hard to keep my s*** together. A lot of my energy was going into trying not to have a complete meltdown. By the end of Miami Vice I was just done," he said.

Masking his inner turmoil via booze and whatever else wasn't working anymore, he says, so he took the leap to finally address those demons.

"I had created an environment for myself, a way of living for myself which, on the outside, seemed incredibly gregarious and vivacious," Farrell said.

"I don't believe I have any chemical predisposition towards depression, but let's just say I was suffering from a spiritual malady for years and I indulged it.

"To be in pain, if it's self-perpetuated, can be very sweet at times. You can feel very alive when you're in pain, and I also know that from another perspective, like when somebody who I love in my life has passed away.

"There is something incredibly internally vivacious about feeling pain or mourning, even if it's something as egocentric or self-indulgent as mourning for yourself, or pitying yourself."

These days, Farrell is living life to the fullest compliments of the strength he found during weeks of tough rehab, which he admits was incredibly difficult at first. "I'm glad I'm out of that cycle of my life, and I'm very lucky," he said.

Farrell's talk with Ross wasn't all serious, though. The actor, once coined the "Lusty Leprechaun" by the New York Post due to his reputation as a ladies man, happily confirmed that he did indeed make a pass at British actress Dame Eileen Atkins in 2005 when he was 28 . . . and she was nearly 70!

"A simply stunning, gorgeous big film star came into my hotel room for sex without strings. I spent two and a half hours saying no, but it cheered me up fantastically," Atkins said at the time.

"The one that got away! I gave it all that I was worth. She's an incredibly attractive woman, wicked," Farrell said.

"I fell at the first hurdle, my ego couldn't take any more refusals. I saw her in New York and said our time will come ... it's unfinished business!"

Farrell, who's new Irish American cop drama Pride and Glory opens on Friday, October 24, is currently dating British novelist Emma Forrest. He recently finished filming Ondine in Cork for Oscar winning director Neil Jordan. It's a love story that has Farrell playing a fisherman who catches a mermaid.

"Colin was totally on the dry. He wasn't looking for nightlife or bars. He didn't have to distract himself with anything else. The film kept him busy," Jordan said.