20100307_BOY008_e1_NWSNorth 26/02/2010 10:52 Page 8 Cover story I WAS CHARMED BY COLIN. Y'KNOW HE'S REALLY QUITE t's pretty easy to see how Alicja Bachleda caught the eye of our Colin Farrell. At the launch of their new movie, Ondine, in Dublin last week, she showed off her stunning figure in a yellow Herve Leger dress and brought a well-needed dose of glamour to the drizzly capital. When we meet the following day, the Polish actress looks every bit as beautiful in a casual shirt and trousers, with barely a hint of make-up on her striking face. You'd forgive her for being nervous or even guarded doing interviews in her bloke's home town, but she's really just a chilled-out sort of gal. After filming the movie together in the West Cork town of Castletownbere, Alicja and Colin became an item - and now have a fourmonth-old son, Henry. The actress says she already knew the Dubliner would be a good dad before their boy was born - because she'd seen him interacting with his six-yearold, James. "When I met Colin he was already a father. I saw him already in that role and he was great in it, so there was no surprise there, really," said the 27-year-old actress. "He's very proud," she adds of Colin becoming a dad for the second time. "He's good with it, even the nappy changing...he's a pro." Looking remarkably trim for a woman who gave birth just months ago, Alicja says she doesn't do diets and her shape is simply down to good fortune. I ORMAL N In Dublin for a glitzy whirlwind of premieres and awards bashes, Colin Farrell's sexy girl, Alicja Bachleda made a big impression. Here the couple reveal all about their relationship to SWM Esther McCARTHY "I'm probably very lucky because I ate whatever I wanted," she said of her pregnancy. "I didn't think about the weight at all, or my figure. I never have, really. I was never on a diet in my life. "This is something that I just continue to believe - that my body adjusts to the situation. And for some reason, maybe because I'm feeding still, I'm quite slim. "I love Big Macs here and there, as well as fish and chips. It's not a typical L.A. lifestyle. I'm not on a green diet, or a raw diet or whatever they have." Alicja, however, draws the line at chip butties, which her Irish boyfriend tried to offer her. "Yes, he introduced me to something called a chip butty. How can you put fried potatoes in a bun and eat it? I don't understand, it doesn't make sense to me," she laughs. If Alicja seems unfazed by the attention that's come with dating one of Hollywood's most famous hunks, perhaps it's because she's well used to being in the public eye. While she's only recently broken into international roles, she has been a star in her native Poland since she was a child, and recorded a couple of pop albums while in her late teens. As she grew older, she focused more on acting and appeared in several Polish and German films before yearning for a breakthrough into more international roles. That came in the low-budget but wellreceived drama, Trade, in which she played a young woman who is unwittingly lured into people trafficking. She says going to Los Angeles, where movie executives hadn't seen her foreign films, was like starting all over again. "I've been going back and forth to Los Angeles for a few years now," she explains. "I went there because I wanted to challenge myself. I went there to go to school and try some auditions. It's quite tough, how do you say? You feel quite vulnerable. "I knew what I had done wouldn't transfer to the American market. They want to see you in something that's been released in America, and I was not lucky enough to have a Polish film that had gone that far. But I wanted to face it and I wanted to try. That was my `For years I made things complicated, but having kids has simplified everything' Colin Farrell 8 The mag