Colin Farrell feared he would be kept apart from Brendan Gleeson on set of new film

The co-stars appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote the new film that has received rave reviews and a 15-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.

"I love him to bits,” Farrell told the talk show host. “He’s my friend.”

Dublin-born Farrell feared Gleeson would favour method acting and avoid him as their characters are not supposed to get along.

"We had a chat the first day,” he explained. “I was a bit nervous because we got along so well on ‘In Bruges.’ It was 14 years ago and I’ve met Brendan periodically through the years.”

"As I said, I have a very deep love for him.”

"I just thought, I knew these characters,” he said. “I knew that we were going to be at loggerheads the whole thing.”

"So, I thought. with respect to how deeply he goes into the work – ‘cause he really does go deep.”

"I thought ‘Jeez, I wonder if he wants to keep a bit of distance,’ and sure, he was all over me from the first day.”

"It was very funny,” Gleeson added. “The two of us went in and he said, ‘Listen, do we need to kind of keep this going – to go wherever you need to go?”

"And there was a little pause, ‘cause he looked over at me to see if I needed to do it.”

“And simultaneously, the two of us just said, ‘no.”

"Give us a hug!” Farrell said they told each other. “Glad we got that out of the way.”

Gleeson called the decision a “relief” that the pair wouldn’t have to part while on set.

The first met while filming the hit dark comedy ‘In Bruges’ in 2007 and have been firm friends ever since, reuniting to make the upcoming ‘The Banshee of Inisherin.’

The movie is expected to be a huge hit, receiving a 15-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.

Farrell told host Stephen Colbert that the applause was “tiring.”

"I tried to leave about the seventh minute, when my ego felt good enough that I'd had enough,” he said. “I tried to leave and they said you can't leave until everyone stops clapping.”

"That's when you start going down and signing autographs and I was then told that was breaking the f***ing rules as well.”

The film is set to release this October.