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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."
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