Interview: "Nobody throws knickers at me" by Michaela Mottinger. (Kurier Austria)

Archived completely due to unavailability on the internet

Interview thanks to Christina.Translation German to English thanks to ColinFever

“I’m flying to London and will interview Colin Firth”, I said and grinned happily like Bridget Jones. “Who?” my colleague asked. I showed him a photograph. “You like him? I thought you women all go for Brad Pitt.” 

Men, I thought, will never understand us…
 
Film and theatre actor Colin Firth is Great Britain’s sex symbol N°1.
And not only since he made Hugh Grant lose the favour of the chubby Renée Zellweger. Since Mr. Darcy emerged from a lake "naked" in the 1995 BBC mini-series of “Pride & Prejudice”, every child-bearing woman in the UK wants his child.
In real-life Firth has got three, on screen seven children: in the movie “Nanny McPhee” he plays the widowed father of a mischievous bunch which is brought under control by the magic arts of Nanny Emma Thompson.
 
Very british  
“I first had my doubts to take this part. I thought after all this Bridget-Jones-madness, people need to recover from my face”, said Firth during the KURIER-interview in the chic Soho Hotel. Sure, that the press awarded Mr. Stiff Upper Lip a title for perfect "Englishness". Everything on  this man is very British.
 
Firth is involved in eight (!) film projects at present. Apart from “Nanny” there is the period film “The Last Legion” planned for 2006.
“To be an actor was the only career aspiration I have ever fostered. I’ve had an unpleasant time at school and have always thought: life can’t be this way. Today I wake up and I’m excited every day about the new things I do”, says Firth. That his parents predicted him a career as a dishwasher in the back room of a dive is old hat. “They had never get to know an actor.”
“I’m coming from a family of butchers, teachers and weavers”, Firth is joking against every Upper-class claim. Born on September 10th 1960 in the county Hampshire, he spent his childhood in Nigeria where three quarters of his grandparents worked as methodistic missionaries and his parents as teachers. When sister Kate and brother Jonathan were born their parents took employment in England. The father as a lecturer in history at Winchester University College, the mother as a lecturer in comparative religion at Open University London.
The son and heir was provided with academical blessings too “but thank goodness I screw up a chemistry test and quickly escaped to the National Youth Theatre. Since that time things were getting better". According to Hollywood scales, Firth has kicked himself out of his filming career by his own hand. To perfect his trade or sometimes even only to be human is much more important to him than any offer from the dream factory. “I have to be careful when such things are written about me. I love money and I’ve got a family which is depending on my financial situation after all”, he laughs.

In fact he retired for two and a half years in the Canadian wilderness after the burn-out of Meg Tilly (with who he had a relationship - 1989). As the work on the thriller “Agnes of God” was burning in the soul of the actress, Firth dabbled in being a carpenter in a wooden house in British Columbia.
The relationship failed. 15-year-old son William lives for the most part of the year with Tilly in Los Angeles. In 1997 Firth married the Italian documentary filmer Livia Giuggioli: their sons Luca and Mateo are four and two years old.
“I have to disappoint you”, he anticipates the next question regarding the “Nanny” movie. “My children have never seen me on the screen. I don’t even like to see myself on screen. Nobody wants to see his face in a movie or on photographs. It's annoying when I’m stuck in a traffic jam and on the bus beside me there is a huge poster of myself.”
 
Fair play 
“I am not hunted by paparazzi and nobody has ever thrown their knickers at me”, Firth quickly puts his star-image in perspective. He only makes use of it on two occasions: to get hold of a table in trendy restaurants and for fair trade. He’s supposed to have 300.000 pound invested in the London coffee-shop chain “Progreso” where African coffee farmers have a share in the profits.
 “I was feeling more and more uncomfortable about being a part of the problem, not of the solution”, Firth, who has been in Africa to get an idea of the coffee cooperatives, explains his engagement.
Why he only recently brought it to light? “I’ve met people in Ethopia who can talk about the world market and WTO much more well-founded than I can. But they are not heard, they are not being interviewed. So I decided to speak up for them.”

Firth on…
 
…being a celebrity
This is when the woman standing behind me at the desk in the supermarket calls her friends to tell them what’s in my basket.
 
…God
I collect from every religion that permits tolerance, laughter and a little bit of irony.
 
… ignoring criticism
You also meet enough people who will inform you: “I don’t think, like the Telegraph did, that you are a bit of miscasted.”
 
… being romantic
I’ve learned a foreign language to impress the woman who became mine later on. Now that was a gesture, wasn’t it?

Interview: "Firth loves to kid around" by Bruce Kirkland (Toronto Sun)

The fun was mostly non-stop except, of course, for dealing with that damned donkey, a stubborn ass of an animal who refused to do director Kirk Jones' bidding when the humans dressed up a barnyard of animals in people's clothes for a climactic scene of hijinks. "I'm sure Kirk is still having nightmares about the donkey," Firth says with a chuckle.

That Firth is laughing at all today is refreshing. The last time we sat down for an interview -- at the Toronto filmfest in September when Where The Truth Lies made its North American debut -- Firth was staggered with fatigue.

He had flown in from Morocco, where he had been shooting an action-adventure movie. The media that day, including your Sun representative, were all fest-tired, too.

"It makes you realize," Firth says, recalling the Toronto experience, "that almost everything you read about movies is written by strung-out people about strung-out people. Everybody's jetlagged and wired and over caffeinated." He finds that odd and amusing.....more

Interview: "Colin Firth caught in a trio" (Metro Belgium)

Archived completely due to unavailability on the internet.

This Dutch interview is translated to English by Debby. 

Colin Firth will always be remembered for his Mr Darcy role in the tv series "Pride and Prejudice" and the Bridget Jones' movies. But this 45 year old Brit played more firmly roles. Like the football player in "Fever Pitch", the immoral womanizer in "Valmont" and Gwyneth Paltrow's arrogant fiancee in "Shakespeare in Love". Firth playes the most fierce character in "Where the truth lies", a drama from cult-director Atom Egoyan, in cinema's from this week on.

In "Where The Truth lies" Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon play Vince and Lanny, two variety artists (slightly inspired by Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin) who have a hedonistic lifestyle. When a journalist investigates a murder they were involved in, we see a darker part of their past coming up. The scene in which Vince and Lanny are involved with a young woman in a trio was a big issue for the American censors. The film received a NC-17 rating, despite Egoyan's try to change the scene.

What is your reaction on the controverse around "Where The Truth Lies"?
"I don't know what to think. I have never seen a naked body before (laughs).
I suspect that a lot of people in America don't like naked bodies and sex. One man can't change that. I have to say that these nude scene's are not that explicit.
The definition of pornography, according to the MPAA (the organization that started the rating system in 1968), is something like "Every production without artistic value that arrouses erotic longings". That sounds like 70 percent of the commercials on the American cable channels. It is all right when a sexbomb rubs oneself with lemonade. Children can see that.
You can't say that "Where The Truth Lies" has no artistic value. The scene they make a fuss about was created specially not to prickle".

It doesn't.....
"You have to feel sorry for the person who gets prickled by it. I think this scene makes people think, it was made well-considered. The MPAA made it very clear that they had no problem with the homosexual aspect, but they never made clear what the real problem was. We had to adapt it all the time. But the MPAA people were very strict about it. It did a lot of damage to the film".
 
You will be in the family comedy Nanny McPhee and now in this sinister drama "Where The Truth Lies." Do you choose such variety of roles on purpose?
"No. I don't take part as a reaction on parts I've just played. I take it when I like a role. That can be whatever role. My next project (Firth is talking about Toyer from Brian De Palma, in which he playes a weird serial killer) I chose because of a very different reason. It will be a very dark and complex film".
 
Is money a reason?
"I love money (laughs). When the role is bad and the money is good, I will go for the good role with little money. It depends on the circumstances or the amount of people that depend on me. Of course I love to get a big cheque. If I have an interesting part and good money I will be very happy".
 
What do you think when you look at your own performances?
"Mostly I feel the urge to vomit. It is a disturbing experience over and over again. It is unnatural if you ask me. When you listen to yor own voice on the tape you also think "is this my voice? How strange." No one likes to look at himself. Seeing yourself on screen can cause a trauma. I prefer other people to watch me".
 
Will you be in a third Bridget Jones movie?
Sure, but only if they stick neeldles in my eyes.

Interview: "Firth things first" by Fred Topel (The Wave Magazine)

TW: You take a pie to the face like the best of them.
CF: That was fun, but what wasn’t fun was the extraordinary popularity of the job of throwing the pie at the leading actor. I’ve noticed, not just on this film, but on almost every job I’ve ever done, if something humiliating has to happen to me and any assistance is needed, the line of volunteers is huge. Very often, because rank is pulled, it’s the director who actually is the one to throw the porridge, stand next to the camera and make sure that the pie/cake hit.

TW: What does that tell you?
CF: Exactly. You can draw your own conclusions.
I don’t dwell on it......more

Interview: Colin Firth Talks About His Starring Role in the Family Movie, "Nanny McPhee" by Rebecca Murray (About.com)

I mean, I think this is one thing that actually is quite truthful about the film. I think that if you’re ruled by fears, it means you don’t judge clearly the way you handle those fears. Kids don’t just need financial protection, which is what he’s obsessing over. He hasn’t sung for them. He hasn’t read them stories. He hasn’t held them. He hasn’t done all those things that they’re actually coming to believe he doesn’t care for them. It blinded him to that so I think that’s the furthest horizon he can see.

…He’s not only blind to what his children need, he’s got this girl who works for him who clearly adores him and he can’t even see that either. He’s never registered that feeling. Although he does say something which is slightly paradoxical, which means that on some subconscious level he has. It’s when they say, ‘Evangeline doesn’t look anything like her,’ or whatever it is. And he goes, ‘Nonsense, she’s always looked like that.’ It’s as if he’s only just realized he’s always seen her that way. So he’s obviously functioning on some different levels, but I think that in a situation like that, romance is the last thing on his mind....more

Interview: "Nanny McPhee" premieres at L.A. (EiTB - Euskadi)

Archived completely due to unavailability on the internet

Following "Love Actually," "McPhee" marks Firth's second time working with Thompson, who also has an Oscar for her screenwriting ("Sense and Sensibility").

Nanny McPhee premiere stars Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and Angela Lansbury got up early Saturday morning to walk the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of the children's film "Nanny McPhee."

Like Thompson, co-star Colin Firth is best known for arty, adult fare.

"I thought it was time I did something for children," he noted. "I have children. I delight in telling them stories at home. I can see how spellbound children get. I mean, in some ways, they're the audience we most crave. They're the most honest audience you could imagine. A delighted child is going to be so vocal and so open in their response, and it seemed absurd to me that I'd spent almost my entire career working for almost everybody except children. So, it just seemed to be something that needed to be done. I'd do it every time now."

Following "Love Actually," "McPhee" marks Firth's second time working with Thompson, who also has an Oscar for her screenwriting ("Sense and Sensibility").

Firth; "It made me wish I had that list of talents and abilities, really. I have to say that one of her many attributes is that she doesn't wear it that heavy - of a person that is so multi-talented. She's even a musician, for heaven's sake. It gets ridiculous. And that could be very oppressive and very irritating. But what she seems most concerned with is looking after people who are working with her, knowing if there are any problems, and she's an overwhelmingly generous spirit. It sounds like one of those actor gushes, but it happens to be true."

"Nanny McPhee" arrives stateside following substantial box-office success in the U.K., where it's grossed #16 million since its release last October.

As for the U.S. premiere? "I really am excited," Thompson said. "I'm absolutely thrilled because I'm really proud of the film, and it's wonderful to come and have something to talk about that you love and that you're devoted to. But, also, I'm really looking forward to seeing how American kids react."