Interview: "Romantic hero turns to the dark side" by Eileen Condon (Daily Post UK)

"It sounds a bit cheesy, but making Trauma did feel like a homecoming to me," he reveals. "I've really enjoyed stuff that's happened over the last few years but it was hard to find anyone who would put me in anything like Trauma and I had a real hankering for that sort of material.

"When I was on the set, I thought I could really spend my life doing this sort of stuff. And when I saw it too, I felt I just wanted to do films like this.....more

Interview: "Love at Firth Sight" by Jessica Shaw (Entertainment Weekly)

Days after finishing Bridget press in the States, Firth is back on the Truth set, purging himself of Mark Darcy and reveling in his new persona. ''I'm attracted to dark stuff, and I'm in that mode right now,'' he says. But the darkness could come only after the dawn. ''The things that have limited me have also been currency for me....more

Interview: "Colin Firth: Acting like a man, fighting like a girl" by Nicki Gostin (Newsweek Entertainment)

Does the whole cult of Darcy embarrass you? Do girls send you their undies?
No, I'm afraid the feedback I get is depressingly proper. And I've lived with it too long for it to be embarrassing.

How does your wife deal with it?
It hit within weeks of us being together, so I think she felt she got a slightly fraudulent package.

But by then you'd locked her up.
Quite, and made sure bridges were burned.....more

Interview: "Keeping up with the Joneses" by Thomas Leupp (Joblo.com)

No, it starts to get confusing. No, there was never any talk of Colin Firth appearing as a character. That wasn't contemplated for even a second. In fact, when the contract was being negotiated for Bridget Jones's Diary four years ago, I remember when they were discussing the option for the sequel, which was part of the contract, I think my agent said to whoever was at the other end of this, "If there is a sequel, who will play Colin Firth?" And there was a long pause at the other end of the phone, and the woman said, "We'll call you back." They called Kit about a half an hour later, saying, "There are currently no plans to feature a character named Colin Firth.....more

Interview: Colin Firth Talks About: Sequels, Playing Mark Darcy, and Working With Renee Zellweger by Rebecca Murray (about.com...3 pages)

Would you do a "Bridget Jones 3"?
In the abstract, it's unthinkable. I don't really plan in the long term about anything. I can't think where a sequel could go. I think this time one would have to think of it as a sequel, unless Helen wrote another book. The only way which I could possibly imagine it being interesting is that if it showed us in a state of advanced decrepitude really - a heavily deteriorated Mark Darcy. I think we're on the way. And Daniel Cleaver and Bridget really puncturing the fairy tale completely might be a way to take it. But I've been ready to move on to other things for quite a while now, actually. I'll be quite content to live my life without another one.....more

Interview: "Oh Mr. Darcy" by Anwar Brett. (BBC Movies)

Talking of Hugh, you're on screen together again in Bridget Jones: Edge Of Reason - was that an easy film to commit to?

I don't remember making the decision. It somehow felt like a bit of an inevitability. I said to Hugh "Do you remember saying yes to this film", and he couldn't remember either. The only time one could have said no was ages ago, before there was really a script and before anybody had that much invested. But the script kept getting better, and at a certain point it would have become a very big deal not to do it.....more

Interview: Trauma London press conference (Q&A) by Jonathan Harvey (Phase 9)

It was fun, but there wasn’t much downtime. We were filming very long days, six days a week and we were basically all living on the set. To walk away afterwards when there’s been nothing in your life except dark corridors, insects and ghosts, it takes a bit of time to tune back. But I didn’t go into a Ben world of psychosis! And it was fun to play around in the dark – I missed it. In some ways I was attracted to it. I don’t know what that’s about.....more

Interview: "Colin Firth" (Cinemas Online)

Not at all. And most guys I know wouldn't find that look attractive. I don't know whether it's because they're so worried about their body image, and how they photograph, or whether it's because of the huge bombardment of advertising with these really skinny models. Whatever the reason, it cannot be a good thing. It's not attractive, it's not healthy, and it's not sexy (Colin on "the lollipop look")....more

Interview: "Colin Firth" by Fred Topel (CHUD.com)

Archived completely due to unavailability on the internet 

I was all set to interview Colin Farrell and hear all his swearing and drunken sex stories, so imagine my disappointment when it was prim and proper Colin Firth. Oh well, I guess it’s still better than Colin Hanks.

Firth rounds out our trilogy of Bridget Jones interviews. Reprising his role as Mark Darcy, the dry British gentleman, Firth is a little bit nicer in this film. He’s not harassing Bridget, waiting for the last scene to redeem himself. In fact, he’s really the good guy in this as he tries to be patient through Bridget’s all new relationship neurosis.
In person, Firth is very much the dry British guy. He’s perfectly cordial and thoughtful answering questions, but he’s very straight and deadpan. Deadpan isn’t even right, because he’s not joking much. Hugh Grant was deadpan. Colin Firth is just straightforward.

Q: Does Darcy have a character arc? If not, what was the challenge of bringing something unique to Darcy?
Colin: I don't know if there's an arc. The Darcy thing's been going on for so long for me. It's beginning to feel like an arc that dates back to 1994. This felt like another episode in this ongoing story of some guy's life in one version or another. I suppose that if there's a shape to what he goes through, in some ways it would be the path from the film three years ago. What happens when they walk off into the sunset? What happens to happily ever after? You see something of their -- the bliss of their relationship, which I think is one of the hardest things that you can seek to portray in any sort of genre or comedy. You see the irritations and you see the patterns repeat themselves. You see the things that annoyed each of them about each other when they first met actually come to haunt them. You see them separate, and then, you actually see a pattern that's actually one we've seen before. She suspects him of being, well, she finds him standoffish. She finds him arrogant, rigid and all the things that she didn't like when she first met him all come back. And all the good deeds he's doing are hidden away. He doesn't demonstrate any of them. Daniel Cleaver comes back on the scene. So you've basically got it very familiar.

Q: Were you ready to do this again?
Colin: I didn't want to think of it as “again.” You see, I think it certainly wouldn't have been something I wanted to do if it felt like doing it again. The way we like to characterize this is that it is an adaptation of a novel, which was finished, done, dusted and an entity in its own right, I think already on the shelves by the time we made the first film. So, it did have a right to exist. It wasn't just conjured up to try to cash in on an earlier film. Having said that, yes, we were extremely cautious all of us I think. We didn't want it just to seem like an homage to something else. There are great dangers when the first film is very much loved. But we didn't want to mess with that really. And I don't think anyone recalls ever having said "Yes" to this job. It was something that, you know, there was a momentum that happened and it seemed inevitable. Not unlike getting your draft papers really.

Q: Did you rehearse the fight scene? How did you get it to look so realistic?
Colin: We didn't rehearse it very much. I'm ashamed to say the reason it looked real is because we were two normal fellows who don't know how to fight. My experience of violent confrontation dates back to the playground age, about six or seven years old. So that's what I drew from, and I think Hugh would say the same. If you get two very angry yuppies and then put them together, I think you will get a fight that looks much more like that than Jackie Chan.

Q: Would you do a Bridget Jones 3?
Colin: In the abstract, it's unthinkable. I don't really plan in the long term about anything. I can't think where a sequel could go. I think this time one would have to think of it as a sequel, unless Helen wrote another book. The only which I could possibly imagine it being interesting is that if it showed us in a state of advanced decrepitude really, a heavily deteriorated Mark Darcy. I think we're on the way. And Daniel Cleaver and Bridget, really puncturing the fairy tale completely might be a way to take it. But I've been ready to move on to other things for quite a while now actually. I'll be quite content to live my life without another one.

Q: Would you be willing to alter your physical appearance/weight like Renee did for a role? What was your reaction to her doing that?
Colin: I didn't give it as much thought as many people do. The degree to which I'm asked questions about it and the sheer level of fascination on the subject is I think really a symptom of how this issue affects people, particularly women. The fact that women are in utter disbelief that anyone would consciously go the other way -- to actually try to do that -- is mind blowing. And I think they look at Renee with the same kind of awe that people watch someone on a high wire or something. Are they going to fall? How could anyone jump across the Grand Canyon on a motorcycle? Put on weight on purpose? What's that like? Tell us about it. She did it. It's not that unusual for actors to alter their appearance to play a part. Put on a bit of weight, lose a bit of weight. I mean I have done that before, advertently and otherwise. Not to perhaps quite that extent, but I think if I did it, it wouldn't get anywhere near the amount of attention.

Q: Wouldn't it depend on how many pounds?
Colin: Yes, it would. I think that the most spectacular is the example that I think that I can remember, the first example that I know of, is what DeNiro did in Raging Bull. And I think that did get a lot of attention from people astonished, partly because of the extent to which he did it. It was a sacrifice made. I think he talked afterwards about having damaged his health to some extent.

Q: Or Tom Hanks going the opposite way.
Colin: And then getting skinny. These are dangerous things to do. I think that's probably the thing that occurred to me most. I just hoped Renee was under the proper supervision, and I think she was. I think you are taking your health in your hands. I think it's a very courageous thing to do. But the reason why people are really interested isn't because of that. I just think it's absolutely fascinating to think that a woman would dare to do that on purpose, particularly someone who's very attractive and has a Hollywood-based career. It just seems almost reckless. So I think that's been admired and I think that, to be honest, Bridget doesn't have to be particularly overweight. I mean this is about women think they are whether they are or not. But on the other hand I think if she'd been, if she'd had the kind of leanness that only Hollywood actresses have, I think it would have been quite hard to accept her as representing that kind of neurosis. So it was important that she did it.

Q: What about the two of you working together this time?
Colin: Well, the second time you have a shorthand and everything's much easier. You cut to the chase much quicker and I found it delightful to watch a character that was now familiar to me. It gave me a lot for nothing really.

Q: Do you share any characteristics with Darcy? Who would win in a fight between you and Hugh Grant?
Colin: The second one, obviously it would depend on who you ask. We haven't put it to the test. I would say judging by Hugh's apparent level of physical strength while we were engaged in the fight and the number of times he asked for the nurse, I think there’s no doubt in my mind really. No, I can assure you I've never folded a pair of underpants in my life.

Q: Have you had any odd encounters with fans from doing Bridget Jones?
Colin: My life has been largely taken up with weird encounters. They're not particularly anecdote-worthy. They're just people very often, and they're polite usually. These don't take the form of propositions or psychotic belief that you really are the character that you're playing. They're people who obviously identify very heavily with a female character and we are devices seen through her eyes. It's quite interesting to be in that position because very often it's not that way. the sexual roles are reversed in cinema conventions. It's much more often the male protagonist and the women the device. And we are I suppose somewhat archetypal. In that way it's resulted in the fact that we remain the archetype, we remain something that was deliberately created in the eyes of a woman who wrote a book, gained through the adaptation and through the eyes of a central character. All of them are female, directed by a female.

Q: In the book, Bridget Jones interviews Colin Firth. Was this scene considered for the film? Would you play a dual role like that?
Colin: No, it starts to get confusing. No, there was never any talk of Colin Firth appearing as a character. That wasn't contemplated for even a second. In fact, when the contract was being negotiated for Bridget Jones's Diary four years ago, I remember when they were discussing the option for the sequel, which was part of the contract, I think my agent said to whoever was at the other end of this, who, "If there is a sequel, who will play Colin Firth?" And there was a long pause at the other end of the phone, and the woman said, "We'll call you back." They called Kit about a half an hour later, saying, "There are currently no plans to feature a character named Colin Firth." There were discussions of creating a version of that interview using some other figure. It didn't have to be, it could be anybody really. Bridget Jones interviews someone, a celebrity. And they toyed with versions of it. It eventually went by the wayside. It was a nice conceit.

Q: So she lands in the pigsty instead?
Colin: That was the replacement. I became a pigsty, yes.

Q: What was the experience of working on set with Renee?
Colin: She makes it terribly easy for everybody basically. On two fronts, is on a personal level, if you're a leading actor, you are enormously responsible for the tone on a shoot in terms of the level of peace and happiness and harmony. And the leading actor can make literally all the difference. It doesn't matter what anyone else is like. If that person's a shit, then the whole thing's just a struggle. She was actually ridiculously generous. I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen punctuality like it. I've never seen devotion to off-camera performance, which is essential. To have someone who's that talented is obviously useful to us all. It reflects well on you. It makes you raise your game. But if that very, very talented person is not giving you very much once they're off camera, their use becomes limited. She gives as much off camera as [on]. If she was crying in a scene on camera, she'd do it again off camera. She would do it for the cutaway to Uncle Bob. She'd be there no matter what, no matter how jetlagged from her trips around the world. She's incredibly busy. This sounds like a gush, but it was so astonishing to all of us that we were gobsmacked by it really. She was even off camera -- this is going back four years now -- but she was even off camera, after three weeks of night shoots, about five o'clock in the morning when she could have gone home, for a shot on my feet. "My feet don't need you. This is fine." "No, no, no. I'll be here. It makes a difference. It makes it real." And so that's what we're talking about. It was good-natured, involved with everybody on the unit no matter what their role was. Film is a very hierarchical environment. The pecking order is very strong. People can profit from that. In all sorts of negative ways. She made it very egalitarian. It was wonderful.

Q: Can you discuss what you and Kevin Bacon were doing?
Colin: This is a film Where the Truth Lies. It's from a novel of that name by Rupert Holmes. It's a little hard to pitch. It's set in the U.S. and it goes from 1959 to 1974. It cuts between those two eras. It's about an entertainment duo in the '50s. We're a fictional, legendary entertainment duo and their peccadilloes and their involvement with sex, drugs, the Mafia, and how it all gets out of hand. Eventually, it leads to the death of a woman in a hotel room. And it's never resolved. It's a big mystery, and then cut to 1974 where this investigative journalist on the case trying to find out why the actors broke up and who killed this woman and were they involved. That's basically the mystery of it.

Q: Are you the journalist?
Colin: The journalist is a woman. And I'm one of the two. Kevin Bacon and I play the act.

Q: And how do you find Atom Egoyan?
Colin: I find him absolutely fantastic. A lot of freedom. He has a very, very strong idea of how much he wants. He doesn't over-cover things. He knows exactly how he wants to shoot it. He doesn't protect himself with endless coverage. He just knows how he wants the scene to be revealed, depends on his actors and works with them very specifically. Sometimes you have a slightly adversarial relationship with your director. And that can be a good thing. I mean, it can be a stimulating, slightly contentious relationship. Atom doesn't work like that. He does it very gently. You have enormous regard always for his intelligence. So there's always a big listening relationship. He tends to work by watching what you do, finding something that interests him, even if it's just a speck of what you've shown him, and then expanding that.

Q: And you're working with Emma Thompson now?
Colin: Yes. It's something she wrote for children. It's called Nanny McPhee. She's the nanny. She's in it as well.

Q: So you're the father of the kids the nanny is taking care of?
Colin: That's right.

Q: Do you take part in the special effects or are you out of that?
Colin: No, I'm sort of out of that. I'm a makeup artist in a funeral parlor. I make up corpses.

Q: Are you taking a break after that?
Colin: After the film? I don't know yet. It depends on how long the break will be. I might.

Q: Will you work with Richard Curtis again?
Colin: I like Richard and I think Richard wants to strike out to new territory. So if he did call again, I'd think it'd be something different, interesting.

Q: No more comedies?
Colin: It might end up something comical. I don't know. I little bit of a dramatist.

Interview: Renaissance man by Tom Ryan (The Age Australia)

So who is Colin Firth when he's not busy being Colin Firth? He says he is certainly not, in real life, anything like the put-upon men he's presented to the world in films such as The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, Londinium (screened here on cable TV as Four Play), Love Actually, Girl with a Pearl Earring, not to mention Pride and Prejudice.
"None of them are me as I see myself," he declares, "although they probably all are representative of me to some extent. I think they have to be for any actor playing any role. For it to be convincing, it's got to come from somewhere that's you. The question is about realigning the relevant parts of yourself.
"You always have to find something about a character that you like. You can be playing the most despicable human being, but if you pronounce them despicable then you won't be able to make it real.".....more

Interview:"Colin Firth" by Carlo Cavagna (Aboutfilm.com)

And then I tend to pick [something] a little too close to the top of the pile and go for it. Sometimes it's about a relationship. You can think, “Nah, it's not really what I want to do next,” and then you find you're working with the producer of that thing, and he's a wonderful guy, and the director's irresistible, and it's going to be great, and your friends are all in it, and it shoots down the road, and why not, and it's over by April, you know? Sometimes it's apparently frivolous as that, to get you involved. Sometimes you're in before you realize it, with these things. They tend to have a life of their own....more

Interview: Celebrity Interview: "Colin Firth" by Barnard Bale (E-Motion issue 2)

Archived completely due to unavailability on the internet

Colin Firth is a very busy man. With four films in the pipeline, including Richard Curtis' smash hit Love Actually, this modern, English heart-throb found time to tell us why the country of Hampshire has a special place in his heart

It's a busy time for Hampshire-born actor Colin Firth. It seems that hardly a week goes by without the release of a new film in which he stars. Love Actually set the ball rolling in November. In January, Girl with a Pearl Earring makes its long-awaited appearance, and Trauma is expected to follow in February, with the sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary currently in production and due out later this year.

Despite international success and a globetrotting life, which sees him dividing his time between America, London and Italy, he has not forgotten his Hampshire roots.

"I was born in Grayshott on 10 September 1960 although I was only there for two weeks before my parents left for Nigeria, where we lived for four years," he recalls. "We then spent about a year in the US before returning to England when I was five."

The son of academics, Firth travelled extensively in his childhood as his parents took up various teaching posts, including stints in Essex and St Louis, Missouri. When his father accepted a teaching post in Winchester, Firth went to a local school. "I don't think I've contributed anything to the city's history and certainly very little to its scroll of academic achievement!"

Firth attended Montgomery of Alamein comprehensive school. "It was a very good school, although I was not a very good student! I should have tried harder at school. I didn't hate school, although I didn't particularly like it either. I went on to Barton Peveril sixth form college in Eastleigh, where I mostly went through the motions, because by that stage I had just about decided that I wanted to be an actor."

He knew from a young age that he would not follow his parents' footsteps into the world of academia: "I was a born performer - or at least a show-off. I remember, as a five-year-old, dancing around a bit and making people laugh in a school play. It was fun and I enjoyed the praise I received afterwards. There was no holding me back after that and I liked to entertain at home, telling jokes to my sister Kate and my brother Jonathan. I used to do impersonations of Batman - I was a great fan of his - and I tried to play the piano."

His musical ambitions developed when his family moved to St Louis, Missouri. "I was about 11 at the time and I formed a band. I was lead singer and I played the guitar. I don't think we were a threat to anyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The music became a form of escape. I was not really a rebellious person but as I entered the second half of my teens I did play truant a bit and immersed myself more and more in music. I looked the part too. I had long hair, pierced ears and tended to dress rather badly."

After leaving school in Winchester, and determined on a career in acting, Firth took part-time work as a dustman and paperboy to earn some money.

"I knew what I wanted but I didn't really know how to achieve it. Eventually, I tried for a place at drama school and, after spending a summer with the National Youth Theatre, I was finally accepted into the Drama Centre in London in 1980. Firth lived the lifestyle of a typical student, trying to make ends meet. "I lived in a bedsit in North London. I used to walk everywhere to save money. That would have been all right if I had not had holes in my shoes for much of the time!"

Life changed dramatically though when Firth's obvious talent led to him starring in a production of Hamlet at the Shaftesbury Theatre in the West End during his final term.

"I couldn't believe how it all changed. At the start of the year I didn't even know I was going to be in Hamlet, but by the end of the year I had seen my picture outside a big West End theatre, had an agent and a real career."

He made his film debut in 1984, playing opposite Rupert Everett in an adaptation of Julian Mitchell's play Another Country. A string of television roles followed until, in 1988, Hollywood beckoned in a costume drama called Valmont. It was not a huge success but he met actress Meg Tilly and they lived together for several years, sharing a log cabin near Vancouver, where they had their son, William.

"My career did not matter too much at the time. I was creating a homely family atmosphere and I was certainly not in love with Hollywood or the American movie scene. The money was good but the productions were not. I preferred theatre, but the pay was poor so I think I became generally uninterested."

His relationship with Meg Tilly broke up and Firth's career took off again.

"The idyllic world of the log cabin proved not to be enough. I began missing acting and we just grew apart. I still regularly fly to America to spend time with Will."

In 1995, Firth met Italian film producer Livia Guiggioli while working on a television dramatisation of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. They were married in Italy in 1997 and have two sons, Luca and Mateo.

"Livia is a very special person, perfect in my eyes. She is not only beautiful but very clever and has a great sense of humour. She is the smartest woman on this planet and my chief adviser. Her family are great, too. When they met me and heard that I was supposed to be some sort of a heart-throb in England, they couldn't stop laughing. That was great and I love being in Italy because I can just be myself the whole time. I am very happily married."

That's bad news, of course, for his countless female fans, who swooned when he wore the most famous wet shirt in television history as Mr Darcy in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was this role, almost 10 years ago, that really turned him into a major star and an overnight pin-up. And it was the inspiration for author Helen Fielding's Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones's Diary, the part Firth played in the film adaptation of the book.

To many, Firth will always be Mr Darcy. "A lot of people still refer to Mr Darcy and many people expect me to be just like him. They must be very disappointed to discover I am not at all like him. I'm not as well-spoken, I'm gentler, not nearly so uptight and I only dress up when I have to."

The comment is confirmed by his casual, relaxed dress and manner when we meet at a hotel for the interview. He has a reputation for a wicked sense of humour, but on this day, at least, he is quiet. "I can be loud, very loud, but most of the time I am fairly quietly spoken.

"I left the role of Darcy on the last day of filming but, having said that, Pride and Prejudice was a superb production and a lot of trouble was taken over getting it right. The famous scene of me swimming the lake was originally written as a nude scene but it did not seem to fit in with the rest of the production, so I remained clothed. We had no idea of the impact it would have, and it does still embarrass me a little.

"Interestingly, although Pride and Prejudice is principally set in Hertfordshire, Jane Austen did apparently gain much influence from her time in Hampshire and many of her descriptions fit in with the life and times of the county."

Firth was cast in another romantic role for the recent hit movie Love Actually. He has said that he found it difficult to relate to the bumbling romantic he plays, "because I don't feel like him at all or think I'm as nice as that guy. I wouldn't be as patient and self-deprecating", adding that he doesn't have a permanent romantic view of life. "I'm interested in emotion, its complications. I'm not necessarily an optimist in terms of romantic love."

In a departure from romantic leads, Firth's latest roles include the enigmatic Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer in the dark, period piece, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and a man who wakes from a coma to discover his wife has been killed in a car accident in Trauma. "It's a good film and don't let the storyline put you off. But it seems like an age ago that it was shot as there has been so much else going on."

Despite his hectic schedule, Firth always tries to return to his roots. "I am looking forward to some time off and, hopefully, some of it will mean visiting family back in Hampshire."

Interview: "Colin Firth: The Q Interview" by Hermione Eyre (The Independent Online)

What music are you listening to at the moment?
Um, it's very haphazard, always. There's an American singer called Kelly Joe Phelps, who I've got quite a passion for. I like the new Blur album, actually. And the Flaming Lips. Do you know them? I like Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots....more

Interview: "Colin Firth: Time Traveler" by Michele Hatty (USA Weekend)

"Children make you feel mortal," Firth says. "Before you have kids, there's an invisible thread that's attached to your youth and your birth in some way. Once you've got them, that thread is now attached to the other end of your life somehow. It's their turn to be beginners. You have to move over." And although he's embraced his role as a parent, he says matter-of-factly, "I'm absolutely certain that it's not for everyone."

It's with a similar frankness that Firth muses about the relationship between England and the United States. "English popular culture has absorbed a great deal of American popular culture, and vice versa. Music has been very much the catalyst for that. We've regurgitated and re-regurgitated each other's influences. There would have been no Beatles without American rock 'n' roll, and there would have been no Hendrix without the [Rolling] Stones," he says....more

Interview: "Firth Love" by Andrew Goldman (Elle)

Do British women still do it for you?
CF: They really do. And I'm married to an Italian. My head turns in the streets of London all the time—or pretty much anywhere. When you're married, your window-shopping instincts are heightened. You're rooted, so you browse.

What's the biggest lie you ever told to pick up a woman?
CF: I've never said that I was the president of a South American country, but I'm sure I've claimed to be interested in her mind or that I'm the committing type. I have actually pretended I'm not who I am.

Wait—you would actually pretend to not be a famous actor in an effort to pick up women?CF: Yeah. It would be kind of nice to get the eye from someone who has no idea who I am

....more