One of the most dependable and talented actors working today, Colin Farrell doesn't seem capable of making unwatchable movies and TV shows. The Irish actor also makes his projects just as listenable as they are watchable, thanks in part to his mastery of taking on other countries' accents, particularly American ones. And those skills are fully on display in Farrell's mystery drama Sugar. The series, available to stream via Apple TV subscription, is currently in the midst of its intense second season, with Better Call Saul vet Tony Dalton serving as John Sugar's key antagonist. And it seems like Farrell has delivered a full melting pot of accents thus far, on top of his quiet and contemplative way of speaking as John Sugar, who technically isn't an American himself, but rather an extraterrestrial, as revealed in the midst of Season 1.When I spoke to the award-winning actor about his second cycle of playing John Sugar, I asked Colin Farrell if he ever mirrored his character by watching older movies and trying to sound like classic Hollywood stars. That's not quite the case, but it's not too far off from how he and his dialect coach approach the process. As he told me:No, not other actors. Ehhhh, that's not true. I try not to mimic, but certainly have leaned on - not performances, just because they are a previously known reference point. There has been certain actors, I can't even think of which ones, but I know there's been certain actors through the years that my dialect coach has suggested we listen to when the things I've said about a character have led her to wonder what I'm saying would sound like. For a show like Sugar, where the main character has essentially learned about humanity through noir cinema and P.I. pop culture, it's easy to understand why Farrell's performance is more subdued and observant, as opposed to being a ball of chaos. That extends to the vocal performance, from Sugar's introspective narrations to how he interacts with other characters. (I can only imagine what kinds of actors were referenced when forming his accent for The Penguin.) While much credit goes to his dialect coach and how she works with him, Colin Farrell also pointed to a childhood spent glued to American TV as an early foundation for his accent work. He continued:So I know that Jessica has over the years gone, 'I'm gonna send you this chat show with this actor on it,' or 'this radio interview with this actor on it.' So that kind of way, it's part of the work. But usually it's just, I mean, I grew up watching American television. Do you know what I mean? Like, we got all TJ Hooker, The Incredible Hulk, Little House on the Prairie, Bionic Woman, [Six] Million Dollar Man, all of it. So, there's a kind of a pre-wiring there. It would have been a prime time to ask Farrell to do his best William Shatner impression for a T.J. Hooker reference. Or even to say some of that show's lines using his wonderfully natural accent. Alas, I might have been the only one tickled by that. (Image credit: Apple TV)Watching loads of TV and movies, as well as stand-up comedy and theatre, can be a boon for actors trying to perfect their own American accents. But pop culture certainly isn't the only resource for that kind of thing, considering no single medium seems readily capable of showcasing every kind of accent from the majority of the world's cultures. However, there actually IS one such comprehensive collection, which Farrell clued me in on, saying:Then most of it is listening to — there is a library, an audio library that dialect coaches around the world are members of, and they go into, and there are 1000s and 1000s of voice recordings — nothing visual — of people from every country of the world speaking every language. It's an amazing resource, and I know that my dialect coach, Jessica, has used that through the years.Now I really want to know all the details about that audio library. Does it feature the same phrases being spoken in all the world's languages, or are there location-specific topics getting the focus? And what do the people sound like from my stomping grounds in South Louisiana? Could Colin Farrell play a convincing Cajun? Now I'm getting away from the point.(Image credit: Apple TV)Speaking with showrunner Sam Catlin and executive producer Audrey Chon, I also broached the topic of Colin Farrell's accent game, and asked if they ever noted any words or phrasings that would trip the actor up. To the contrary, Catlin shared that Farrell remained a consummate professional and worked tirelessly to make sure he could pull off Sugar's multi-lingual abilities, which Catlin was happy to lean into. As he put it:I'll tell you this, the fact that we created a character that speaks every language fluently created a lot of work for him. Because he takes it very seriously in terms of [getting it right]. I can't remember how many different languages he has in Season 2, but at a certain point, he's like, 'I can't do the entire scene in Norwegian' or whatever, because he has to learn it phonetically. John Sugar never looks like he's struggling when flipping from English to French to Japanese and beyond, but don't let that fool you into thinking Colin Farrell wasn't stressing over getting it right behind the scenes. While waiting for new episodes of Sugar to drop on Fridays on Apple TV, check out Farrell dropping some F-bombs in his thick Irish accent on live television, as well as a clip of him using his natural voice while fully costumed for The Penguin.