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How a childhood scandal and Macau’s shadows shaped Lawrence Osborne’s anti-hero

The novelist behind Colin Farrell’s new Macau-set film noir, The Ballad of a Small Player, reveals how his art imitates his life

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British novelist Lawrence Osborne, whose book The Ballad of a Small Player has been made into a Netflix film starring Colin Farrell, pictured in North Point, Hong Kong. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 12:00pm, 26 Nov 2025

Lawrence Osborne wrote The Ballad of a Small Player – his acclaimed 2014 novel, now adapted into a Netflix film starring Colin Farrell as a high-rolling fraud whose luck is running out – at a time when he was down and out.

“We exalt winners and we despise losers, but, in fact, most of us are losers,” says Osborne. “For most of my life, I felt absolutely down at heel and unable to make money. This is the writer’s lot.

“When you’re in that condition and you have no backup or safety net, it drives you to the wall a bit. Looking back on that book, I feel there’s a sort of morbid energy in it, which I think came from that circumstance.”

In the film, Farrell plays Brendan Reilly, posing as the aristocratic Lord Doyle, a con man who flees Britain after stealing money from an elderly woman and goes to Macau to lose it all. A lost soul and high roller, his chosen game is baccarat. In the opening scene, Farrell stirs on a bed in a luxurious hotel suite, half-eaten canapés and empty champagne bottles covering the side tables. Dressed in a green velvet jacket and cravat, he readies himself to go out and then announces to the mirror in upper-class cut-crystal English: “I’m Doyle, Lord Doyle.”

Colin Farrell as “Lord Doyle” in a still from Ballad of a Small Player. Photo: courtesy Netflix

He isn’t, of course. He’s an impostor on the run, a man looking to disappear as his crimes and debtors close in. Soon he meets a mysterious woman, casino employee Dao Ming (Fala Chen), who seemingly helps his fortunes turn.

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