Despite being one of the hottest shows on a top premium cable channel, Colin Farrell recently confessed that he had reservations about joining the cast for the second season of HBO's True Detective.

The movie star, known of roles in both big budget studio projects and parts in indie fare, was worried about what the effect of being part of a television show would have on his career and might mean he was backsliding. 

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"I haven't done TV in years, and it'll be the same thing as doing film," the actor explained to the Irish Independent, "But the head plays tricks on you, and you think, 'Am I giving up now?' and that nonsense."

The Irish star hasn't starred on a television series since he started out on the Irish soap Ballykissangel over twenty years ago. The actor acknowledged that television has changed a lot since his career began and yet he still fights the instinct that he is taking a step backwards instead of forwards.

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"I know there'll be misgivings, suspicions, or daggers," he noted, "But it can create an intense experience in the moment."

Nonetheless, Farrell seems glad to have been cast in one of the crime drama's highly coveted leading roles. This season he will play Detective Ray Velcoro, a man torn between his responsibility to the law and to the criminals who have him in their pockets. He will star alongside Vince Vaughn (career criminal Frank Semyon), Rachel McAdams (Detective Ani Bezzerides), and Taylor Kitsch (Officer Paul Woodrugh).

Penned by series creator Nic Pizzolatto, the program's second installment will look at the events surrounding a corrupt California city manager's murder. Fast and Furious alum Justin Lin is set to direct the premiere.

True Detective will return on HBO for a second season mid-2015.

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