Interview: "Colin Firth" by Laura Metzger (BBC World)

Archived completely due to unavailability on the internet

Currently Colin Firth can be seen in two quite different films - the romantic comedy Love Actually' and as the broody Dutch painter Vermeer in 'Girl With A Pearl Earring'. Firth really doesn't have that much to complain about but he isn't an A list star. Does that worry him, or rather should it worry him? Laura Metzger sat down with Firth to find out if he craves the Hollywood spotlight.

It's been almost a decade since the buzz first began to build around Colin Firth when he starred as the brooding Darcy in a TV production of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'. Now he's perhaps best known for playing a different Darcy in 'Bridget Jones's Diary'. Although recently there's been a spate of romantic comedies sent his way, Firth is back in dramatic form as the 17th century Dutch painter in 'Girl With A Pearl Earring'.

Colin Firth: "Romantic comedies didn't really arrive on the scene for me until four or five years ago. I remember craving to do something lighter because I just never felt I'd had light material before. And it was a case of be careful what you wish for because then I got bombarded with that and people have started to have the perception that I'd done nothing but. So 'Pearl Earring' felt a little like coming home in a way, and I took great satisfaction in something that didn't have a twinkle in its eye."

There's not much eye twinkling in 'Girl With A Pearl Earring', but there's still quite a lot going on behind Firth's gaze. His smoldering performance as the troubled artist helped earn the film a reputation of being one of the sexiest movies of the year where no one takes their clothes off.

Laura Metzger: "It felt like a lot was happening, was bubbling under the surface between your character, Vermeer, and Scarlett Johansson's character, Griet. What kind of challenges did that create for you as an actor because there's not a lot of physical action in this story?"
Colin Firth: " I'm glad it was bubbling under the surface because not a lot was happening on the surface. I think, in some ways, it's a great joy for actors to be released from dialogue and specific directed gestures that it makes it very much our own territory. The written word is the one thing we do not do as actors so we make gestures, we apply tones, we interpret the words, and when the words are taken away then we become the authors of our own interior dialogue, if you like, and I found that very liberating and I think we all enjoyed that responsibility."

Laura Metzger: "Could you identify with this character and what motivates him, because his art is the most important thing in his life, perhaps at the expense of others?"
Colin Firth: "Well, possibly, and I think he is someone who's capable of sacrificing people. He simply has the kind of ego that is driven by the creative process, I think a lot of creative people have an enormous self-centeredness. The pursuit almost requires it, perhaps, and it's often used as an excuse for the most appalling behavior. He leads two lives, really, and I think a lot of us probably do. I think that most of us in a family situation have some kind of secret world that we're in."

Laura Metzger: "You are getting recognition for your work in this film. Do you aspire for more of a profile in Hollywood in any way?"
Colin Firth: "No, not really. The trappings that it brings, it would be foolish not to look for or enjoy. Recognition, employability, money - I'm not lofty about that. But I also have my eye on durability. Even if Hollywood was begging me to come into its bosom, which it isn't, I think there are times you've just got to return to what you know and to keep it simple. I don't want to blow it, basically."

Interview: "Colin Firth: Still sitting pretty" by Fiona Morrow (Independent UK)

"My father was worried when I decided not to go to university," he recalls, "but only because he wanted me to be able to find something that was stimulating from which I could make a living. I lit on acting because there really wasn't anything else that seemed feasible."

Though he loved what he was doing, the decision preyed on his mind for many years: "I did say to my dad later that I felt like I hadn't fulfilled the family tradition and that I had missed something by not going to university, by not following that path." His father, however, sees it differently: "He told me that, considering all the things I've learnt for various roles, I haven't missed out on much."

It soon becomes clear that for Firth, it's the research that really gives him a kick: "I enjoy the homework very much," he says with a slightly embarrassed guffaw.....more

Interview: "Colin Firth taking the lead" by Ruthe Stein (San Francisco Chronicle

"This was a man who painted seemingly serene pictures repeatedly, capturing the calm of the moment in a house that is incredibly chaotic,'' said Firth, who studied Vermeer's work in museums. "Everybody knows what it's like in a noisy house. Everybody knows what it is to need to work, to close yourself off in a room and have the sounds going on. Everybody knows what it is like to have a bit of a secret life, a secret passion or a dream. Looking from my own vantage point, I think one of the most interesting things is that kind of creative intensity within a very earthbound domestic environment.''

Firth wouldn't reveal much about his own secret life, except to say that "you can share these things with your partner.'' He's become guarded since his first brush with fame, when paparazzi followed him home after he had purchased a vacuum cleaner. A headline in the tabs screamed, "Mr. Darcy does the household chores.....more

Interview: "An Interview with the Director and Stars of "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Jeff Otto (IGN Filmforce)

Although it may be less apparent in the film, Firth believes that Vermeer did have a strong and loving relationship with his wife: "I think if we're commenting on the relationship with his wife in our story, I think that it's sexually alive. I think that he is devoted to his family. I think that he's very, very rooted in the social order of his day. I think there must have been very strong reasons for him wanting to marry her. He changed his religion, he converted, from Protestantism to Catholicism and even though Holland was relatively tolerant in those days, it wouldn't have been an entirely easy thing to do at all...more

Interview: "Colin Firth: this complex actor studies the quirks of life" by Graham Fuller (Looksmart Highschool))

Well, he does in a way. Whereas Van Ruijven [Vermeer's patron, played by Tom Wilkinson] would've violated her physically and traumatized her that way, Vermeer goes much deeper and has a much more lasting effect on her. There is a cruelty in his relationship with her. It was more noticeable in scenes where I was less patient with her, and more unpredictable and capricious, but those had to be cut. I had to take a breath after the scene where I pierce Griet's ear and walk away from her. Without needing to go into the symbolism of what the piercing means, it's clear he's finally got what he wants. She's made a sacrifice, he's drawn blood, she's become the painting he wants--and she's gone through God knows how many barriers to achieve that for him--and he's given her nothing. She thinks he might kiss her, but he just goes back to the easel. Instead of breaking down in tears as a lesser actress would've done in a bid for an award nomination, Scarlett struggled with her emotions, swallowed them, and came back again to her dignity. It was fantastic to watch.....more

Interview: "An interview with Colin Firth, star of Love Actually" by Jan Janssen (Handbag.com)

Everyone likes to be flattered but it is weird because there is no one way that you feel about that. You do wonder, I suppose, especially as your career has to continue, what it is going to mean and yet I don't think it has meant that much except that I have talked about it in most interviews.
It's utterly bizarre to hear people discussing me in sexual terms. It's not something I'm used to. As an actor, I'm far more used to experiencing failure, rejection and failed expectations. I'm just glad that I didn't achieve my so-called hunk status until I was 35. I know it would have been very difficult to deal with if it had happened in my first film.....more

Interview: "I don't think films are less substantial because they're more popular or because they're lighter" by Alana Lee (BBC UK)

I think it's great. I'm quite happy for those things to co-exist. This film wouldn't be possible without Bridget Jones for me. I enjoy doing Bridget Jones. I don't think films are less substantial because they're more popular or because they're lighter. I certainly know that if you're any more bankable because of the success of one film, then one of the privileges it buys you is to make you credible for a film like this. They then consider me as part of what helps to get the film made. It's a combination of elements that I'm prepared to make use of as long as I can.....more

Interview: "Colin Firth...about Love Actually and Girl With A Pearl Earring" (This Is Lancaster)

Archived completely due to unavailability on the internet
Actor Colin Firth shot to fame playing the suave, debonair and ice cool Mr Darcy in the smash hit TV adaptation of Pride And Prejudice.

But he admits he was far from cool about his latest role. In fact the star says he suffered full blown panic attacks as he was about to start filming the eagerly awaited new movie Love Actually.

The 43-year-old actor admits he was terrified Richard Curtis wouldn't be able to pull off his daunting task as a first-time director.

"I actually had a panic attack on his behalf and woke up in the middle of the night," he says smiling at the thought now. "I thought, How is he going to do this? How will he cope? He's got 10 or 15 stories, some very famous actors and he is going to jump in for the first time in his life and orchestrate all that'.
"It seemed to be an absolutely overwhelming task and the read through seemed like a premiere or a night at the Groucho Club. I was expecting bodyguards, with ear pierces," he adds laughing.

Firth is only half joking because Love Actually boasts a jaw-dropping line up of A-list, British and Hollywood talent, including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Alan Rickman, Rowan Atkinson, Laura Linney, Keira Knightly, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy and Martine McCutcheon in a part specially written for her.

Not surprisingly expectations surrounding the movie are riding high but early reviews have been glowing and Firth now says he needn't have spent sleepless nights worrying about his director.

"I think the film works fantastically well," he smiles.

`Richard has something like a 100% strike rate with everything he has done and you just can't believe he has pulled it off again with such an ambitious project."

It's not the first time the pair have worked together. Curtis wrote the screenplay for the Oscar nominated Bridget Jones, which starred Firth as Mark Darcy, suitor to the eternally single Bridget.

His role was another in a long line of tongue-tied, romantic leads in films such as Hope Springs, Fever Pitch and The Importance Of Being Earnest and one which continues with Love Actually.

In the star-studded movie, which interweaves 15 stories of love and heartbreak, Firth plays Jamie, a lovelorn writer who flees to France after being dumped and ends up falling for his young Portuguese housekeeper.

Although his winning portrayal will do no harm to his reputation as a romantic hero, Firth insists in real life he's much more cynical.

"I'm not nearly as nice as that guy," he says of his endearing on-screen character, "I don't feel like him at all. I wouldn't be as patient and I'm only sporadically romantic. I don't have a permanent romantic view of life. I'm not necessarily an optimist in terms of romantic love."

Even so, he'll still be remembered for creating one of the sexiest moments in TV history when, as Mr Darcy, he emerged complete with wet shirt and clinging jodhpurs from a lake. It wasn't just Miss Elizabeth Bennet who swooned, overnight that scene turned Firth into a major heartthrob.

Eight years on, he admits he's baffled by the continuing interest in his Pride And Prejudice success.

"I'm very surprised it's still so present and I'm surprised it was a success at all at the beginning," he shrugs. "It doesn't go away.''

Firth is also clearly uncomfortable at his sex symbol image saying. "It's just weird because there is no one way you can feel about that and you do wonder what it is going to mean as your career has to continue."

It doesn't seem to have done him any harm so far. As well as Love Actually, he's also starring in two of the other biggest movies of 2004 - Girl With A Pearl Earring and the Bridget Jones sequel.

Girl With A Pearl Earring, a sombre period drama in which he plays renowned Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, marks a change of pace for Firth and it's clear he couldn't wait to do something a little darker.

"I was just really ready to do a bit of drama, since there had been quite a lot of light stuff," he smiles.

Not that filming the Bridget Jones sequel was a barrel of laughs, either as Firth reveals an on-screen brawl with Hugh Grant's character left him lost for words, literally.

"I ended up losing my voice," he says. It was because I was freezing cold -we ended up in the water during our fight. I spent a couple of days in a very, very cold pond with Hugh Grant which left me a little worse for wear."

Despite the incredible success of the last Bridget Jones movie, Firth admits he was initially reluctant to reprise his role as Mark Darcy.

"A sequel is fraught with dangers. I think most of us were sceptical about it, but my fears were allayed the minute Renee (Zellweger) opened her mouth. I thought, she's great and we're going to want to see a lot more of this'."

The path of true love might not exactly run smoothly for Darcy and Jones, but off-screen Firth is happily married to the Italian documentary maker Livia Giuggioli.

The couple have two young children and Firth has another son Will, 12, from his relationship with American actress Meg Tilly.

And despite his flourishing workload Firth admits, there's only one thing that's really important to him - love, actually.

"They're the best thing and the main thing," he says of his children.

"My life revolves around them, everything else matters less."

Interview: "Q&A With Colin Firth" by Martyn Palmer (Phase 9...3 pages)

There were rumours about it before it became definite. I remember by January (2002) hearing about this thing because there was a reading of the script which I had been invited to participate in but I wasn’t able to be there. There was quite a buzz about the existence of this thing for a long time and you know a lot of talk about it, who may or may not be in it, and who may or may not play which part. I think there were quite a lot of musical chairs in casting as there often is. I knew they were umming and aahing about me and whether I was right for this or right for that. And I think it was ‘well if Hugh is going to be the prime minister then perhaps I’m not right for the Prime Minister’s brother-in-law or something. And it wasn’t until the summer sometime that they offered it to me.....more

Interview: "Colin Firth's Double Challenges" by Paul Fischer (Filmmonthly.com)

Firth prefers not to give his sex symbol image much thought. He is married to the Italian documentary maker Livia Giuggioli, whom he met in 1995 in Columbia while making Nostromo. Giuggioli gave birth to the couple's second son last month. Another long-term relationship with American actress Meg Tilly produced son Will, now 12, whom he visits frequently in Los Angeles. "Hey, I have a great life. I've got a nice home, great kids and a wife I love. So I feel blessed. But I consider myself a jobbing actor. I have to pay the bills. So I choose roles that interest me and allow me to get on with it.....more

Interview: "Hope Springs" by Jen Foley (BBC UK)

The romance in "Hope Springs" involves matchmaking. Has it ever played a part in your life?
Not as applied to me, but I did make the mistake of matchmaking once - a heartbroken friend of mine and a girl I thought would be right for him, and I arranged some errand they could go on together. It worked, they fell in love and it was the most disastrous relationship. So that taught me a lesson.......more

Interview: "Interview with Colin Firth" by Matthew Turner (View London UK)

 I'm over it now. Well, the reason we had to re-shoot that scene was because the studio thought it was too naughty. This is a scene where we'd managed to get absolutely no nudity and no sexual activity whatsoever and the studio came through and said 'No, this is too dirty - you're going to have to make a less dirty moment there'......more

Interview: "Mr. Darcy trades in horse for a motorcycle" by Bonnie Churchill (Christian Science Monitor)

When Firth isn't working, one can find him reading. That is, unless he is with his Italian-born wife, vacationing in Italy.

"I love to travel to Rome. I really enjoy visiting the little villages near there," Firth says. "One of the things important to me is to try my hand at cooking their specialties. Don't ask my wife about my cooking. She'll agree the food is quite wonderful, but after I'm finished, the kitchen is far from tidy.".....more

Interview: Man of Style: Colin Firth" by Angela Matusik (InStyle USA)

With thanks to colinfirth.info - aFirthionado archives

A great deal of fuss has been made over the clothes Colin Firth has worn on-screen. A wet shirt that clung to his chest in the 1995 TV version of Pride and Prejudice set women atwitter on both sides of the Atlantic. Then there was the reindeer sweater he sported in Bridget Jones’s Diary. "I actually wanted to keep that," says the 42-year-old father of two, who dons a more serious wardrobe for the new comedy What a Girl Wants. Befitting his charmingly accidental sex appeal, Firth doesn't take fashion too seriously. In fact fellow Brit Rupert Everett once kidded him that he was "far too heterosexual about these things."

[Q] You play Dad to all-American Amanda Bynes in What a Girl Wants. Was that a change of pace for you?

[A] I play a lord who has decided to renounce his title in order to stand for an election. But basically it is a fairy tale about a father and a daughter. It's loosely based on a Vincente Minelli film that was made in the fifties called The Reluctant Débutante, with Rex Harrison [and Sandra Dee]. It's not blindingly surprising territory for me - my character is one of those men who's as much defined by his reserve as anything else.

[Q] Your wife, Livia Giuggioli, is Italian and you've lived in Italy. How would you compare Italian style with British?

[A] The part of Italy that I know puts more of an emphasis on classicism, rather than on anything avant-garde. I don't know Milan. I see a lot of V-neck polo sweaters with the shirt underneath. They like stuff that fits; it's much more about that than being courageous. A lot of Italians come to London for the novelty of seeing the weirdness -the fact that people are prepared to forfeit elegance in order to make an impact.

[Q] Do you remember when you started experimenting with fashion?

[A] Oh, yes. I was constantly trying to fit in. It was always a little bit out of reach, a little bit too expensive. But I think fashion is about that. There has to be something that is a little bit inaccessible about it in order for it to remain elite. If it is for everyone, it is pointless.

[Q] How do you like to see women dress?

[A] It's so case-specific. I think the bare midriff thing can be absolutely sexy, or it can be ridiculous. I also like the sense of the unexpected, to see a woman dressed in a way that makes a mystery of what her body is like.

[Q] Did you worship any style idols growing up?
[A] Well, seeing Marc Bolan [from the band T. Rex] on TV when I was about 8 was a big moment. I had never seen glitter under the eyes before on anyone. He was androgynous, and it was interesting to me because he was pretty like a girl but he was actually extremely masculine. And I liked his music. But it was also about watching him onstage being adored by people. It prompted me to take guitar lessons, which were spectacularly unsuccessful.

[Q] What's your greatest extravagance?
[A] CDs. And I do own a lot of books, more than I can read. Books and music are the only things that I accumulate.

[Q] What CDs have you bought recently?
[A] Solomon Burke, Aqualung. Badly Drawn Boy I've got. I keep at it. It is a continual area of obsession. I go through different phases of preoccupation. It's very juvenile in a way. I'll have a Caribbean obsession, then West African, and then it'll be jazz.

[Q] Is there anyone who makes you star-struck?
[A] I think I would struggle a bit if I met Bob Dylan. Anybody who has had something to do with critical moments of your life would be tough. Dylan was probably playing somewhere the first time I fell in love or had a drink. The same with the Stones or the Beatles.

[Q] So how do you handle it when people gush over meeting you?
[A] Sometimes it's delightful and light and easy, and people are just being complimentary in a very unassuming and pleasant way. Sometimes it's spooky and they're weird, and I don't really know how to deal with it. In the end I just try to be as civilized as possible.