WATCH: Colin Farrell and Emma Fogarty’s marathon of friendship "Slightest Touch" is coming

A trailer has arrived for "The Slightest Touch", the intimate HBO documentary about Colin Farrell and his close friend Emma Fogarty, who lives with the rare genetic condition Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). The film is set to premiere on HBO Max in the UK and Ireland on November 25.

Directed by Rachel Fleit, the documentary follows the friendship between Fogarty, from Abbeyleix, Co. Laois, and the Dublin-born actor over the past 15 years. At its heart is the 2024 Dublin Marathon, which Fogarty took on as she turned 40, an age doctors once believed she would never reach. Farrell ran the full course himself before joining Fogarty to push her wheelchair for the final four kilometers, one kilometer for each decade she has lived with EB.

EB is often called Butterfly Skin because it leaves the skin so fragile that it blisters and tears at the slightest touch. The condition can feel like third-degree burns and often requires hours of daily bandaging.

The trailer opens with a voice note from Farrell to his friend saying, “How are you doing, darling? I just wanted to leave you a little voice note. I know your dreams have been taken from you. I have a dream now to make this film together. We’ll speak soon. Alright, bye, love.”

Fogarty’s reply shows the humor and determination that run through the film as she says “I’m not winning at all, but you know me... Smile’s always on”.

Elsewhere in the trailer, she makes clear who is in charge of what the camera sees, telling the crew, “You’re not filming my bum, okay? It’s not that kind of movie.”

The idea for the marathon came from Farrell, who said he suggested to Fogarty about two years earlier that they should run one together. About a year later, he received a text from her that read, “You know when you said we should run a marathon?”

Colin Farrell and Emma Fogarty running the Dublin Marathon in 2024.

Farrell has also been open about the emotional cost of the challenge. In the trailer, he says, “This could be very bad for her, but this means a lot to her. She doesn’t deserve the pain afterward, but she deserves the experience, and you can’t have the one without the other.”

The actor has long used his profile to push for better care for people with EB. Speaking in 2024, as reported by Nova.ie, he said, “I love Emma, I love her to bits. I couldn’t be any more proud of her,” before adding, “but I don’t think I could be any more frustrated knowing that Emma and all those in our country who suffer with EB aren’t getting the care they could”.

The film has already traveled a long way since its beginnings. It premiered at the Dublin International Film Festival on February 28, and HBO Documentary Films acquired worldwide television and streaming rights around the same time. It later screened at the BFI London Film Festival, HeyUGuys reported in October.

Farrell has described the project in modest terms. In the HBO Documentary Films announcement, he said, “I can’t think of 'The Slightest Touch' as a film, certainly not like any film I’ve ever been a part of before. For me, it’s simply a collage of home videos, moments in time that we all shared during its making.”