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