Colin Farrell’s eldest son, James, has stepped briefly into public view. The 23-year-old shares a hug and a laugh with his father in the newly released trailer for The Slightest Touch, an HBO documentary about Farrell and his friend Emma Fogarty taking on the Dublin Marathon together.
It is a small moment in a short clip, but a rare one. Farrell, 50, has kept his home life largely away from cameras for two decades, and he says so on screen. “I’ve never had a camera crew come near my home,” he says in the trailer, before adding of James: “He gets away with nothing!”
A film about Emma, with Colin beside her
The documentary belongs first to Fogarty. She lives with epidermolysis bullosa, or EB, a rare genetic condition that leaves the skin so fragile it can blister and tear from light contact, which is where the title comes from. According to the synopsis HBO released in February, Fogarty reached 40, an age doctors had once predicted she would not see, and marked it by accepting Farrell’s offer to do the Dublin Marathon as a pair. Farrell pushed her wheelchair over the closing miles.
Rachel Fleit, who previously made the HBO Max documentary Bama Rush, directed and produced the film. Farrell and his sister Claudine are among the producers, alongside Trevor Birney, Eimhear O’Neill and Frank Marshall.
Farrell has said he does not really see the project as a movie at all. In a statement HBO published when it acquired the film, he described it as “a collage of home videos,” made up of moments he and his friends shared while it was being shot. Fleit, in the same release, said the experience kept returning her to “love, care, community, and the friendships that carry us.”
Why James matters to this story
James was born in September 2003 to Farrell and model Kim Bordenave. In October 2007, Farrell said publicly that his son has Angelman syndrome, a rare genetic disorder associated with intellectual and developmental delay and limited or no speech.
Since then Farrell has spoken about James only occasionally and carefully. In August 2024 he launched the Colin Farrell Foundation, dedicated to James, to support adults with intellectual disabilities and their families. He said at the time that he was speaking only because he could not ask James whether he wanted to take part.
That gap after childhood is the foundation’s focus. Farrell has argued that once a young person with an intellectual disability turns 21, the school-based supports fall away. He has also said, “I want the world to be kind to James.”
Seen in that light, the trailer’s family scene is not a reveal. It is a father choosing, after years of privacy, to let a camera stay in the room for a film that is itself about disability, friendship and independence.
Key dates for The Slightest Touch
- February 23, 2026: HBO Documentary Films announced it had acquired worldwide TV and streaming rights.
- Early 2026: the film was set for its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival.
- Late October 2026: the trailer arrived, including the scene with James.
- Wednesday, November 25, 2026: premiere on HBO at 9 p.m. ET/PT, also streaming on HBO Max.
HBO has said the film will stream on HBO Max worldwide, including in the UK and Ireland. That means viewers in the US, UK and Canada are less than four weeks from seeing the full film, which debuts on HBO at 9 p.m. Eastern on November 25.
Further reading
Image: Quejaytee, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.
