Archived completely due to unavailability on the internetColin Firth is the quintessential romantic lead so why, asks Fiona Hudson, is he appearing in a movie with children.
Before I can pop a question to the plump cushions, heart-throb Firth arrives. Things don’t start well as I recount a colleague’s tale of her recent trip to a London members-only bar where the toilets are marked with “Milk” and “Honey” instead of symbols. Uncertain which to choose, she entered “Honey”, and found Firth behind the door. To her dismay, he apparently made a hasty exit-which seems to be exactly what he’d like to do now.
I had hoped the story might lead to a playful game of words, with Firth choosing between options such as film or stage, love or fight, an pride or prejudice. My reasoning was that Firth-aka Mr Darcy-is probably sick to death of the standard promotional trail questions about that scene a decade ago when he emerged from a lake in those britches. Except, he doesn’t seem too keen.
Business, I ask, or pleasure?
“Pleasure,” he says, showing none.
Crosswords or sudoku?
“I loathe both,” he almost snarls.
Parliament or pressure group?
“Pressure group, definitely,” he says, warming to the task.
Hugh Grant or Kevin Bacon?
“Depends on what we’re talking about,” he says.
Given he recently filmed sex scenes with Bacon in the edgy film WTTL, there’s plenty I would like to talk about but this is a family newspaper and he’s here to talk about a family movie, so we move on to Nanny Mcphee.
In it, Firth plays the widowed father of seven wild children who finds a women on his doorstep, and she soon gets them all into shape. The actor says he liked working on the film, though he initially doubted he was right for the role. “I’d never done a film for children of this age and I wasn’t sure about it,” he says. “I usually play the fairly complicated characters and I wasn’t sure if I was cut out for the innocence of it. Once I got over myself a bit, and it took a couple of days, I had a great time doing it. I like characters whose good side doesn’t come easily; who resist doing whatever it is they are being called upon to do or to be.”
Perhaps, something akin to his attitude to the promotion treadmill…. Firth was especially attracted to the idea of working with Emma Thompson, who wrote the script as well as playing the title role. “I thought, this is an opportunity to have a very enjoyable time,” he says.
He couldn’t resist creeping on set wearing Nanny Mcphee’s full garb-including a hideously bulbous nose, snaggle tooth and warts. Widely regarded as a dreamboat, Firth says given the chance to erase an unwanted facial feature, as happens in the movie, he wouldn’t bother. “I’m quite happy to let the face go where it goes, really. We can, if we want, evaporate our facial features. Members of my profession go rushing to the surgeon all the time.”
Other actors in the film, including Angela Lansbury and Kelly Macdonald, don’t need surgery-their faces are hidden under colored pies, cakes and other foods during a mass foodfight. “What looks a rollicking good time is a painstaking and drawn-out process. Those things weren’t edible. My children came to the set and saw all these pink and purple buns - I had to tell them not only would you break your teeth if you tried to eat one, you’d be hospitalised if you succeeded.”
Given Nanny Mcphee is a children’s film, will he take the young ones to see it? “I don’t push myself at them, the little ones are very little. It’s weird to see a parent on the screen and I don’t think I’m going to hasten towards that moment. They’ve seen me in magazines and on buses, but they probably think everyone’s dads are on buses.”
Firth says he was thrilled by the reaction to Nanny Mcphee in Britain, where it doubled expectation at the box office. “Really, the film is just trying to delight all kids,” he explains. “there is something quite uplifting about that. We are actually trying to please children. It’s that simple.”
Thanks to Gumby, Australia
