Interview: "Seriously Sexy" by Gini Brenner (Kurier Austria)

Archived completely due to unavailability on the internet

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

At the latest since Bridget Jones Colin Firth is the screen dreamguy at second glance. In Nanny McPhee he shows his fatherly side – a magical enjoyment for small and big girls.
 
"The worst guys get the best women“ – one of the eternally valid movie laws. Always but then when Colin Firth takes part in the movie. No other is so seductively reliable: In the face of his sensational sex appeal in both Bridget Jones movies even a experienced misbehaved charm-terrorist like Hugh Grant had to surrender.
But also during the exclusive interview in the luxurious Soho Hotel in London the 45 year old Brit proves that reservation is the absolute opposite to boring.
Being an hour alone with Colin Firth in a hotel suite might not be dangerous – but it is quite exciting indeed.
 
Nanny McPhee is your first family movie. How did you get your part of the father?
"Emma Thomson and I know each other for a long time. She asked me whether I would like to participate. She thought the character of Mr. Brown was made for me. I read the script and was really enthusiastic about it – but "my“ character I didn’t like at all in the beginning."
 
Why was that?
"Well, he is such a terrible coward. He loves his children before all but he cannot show it. He escapes in loads of work and expects someone else to take over his parental duties. Over this he ignores that the kiddies suffer a lot more over the sudden death of their mum than he does. But I have come to understand him: The movie takes place in a "Once-upon-a-time-"idyll and back then for men it was even harder to show their feelings than today."
 
You have three sons [the 15 year old Will with Meg Tilly as well as Luca, 4, and Mateo, 2, with his wife Livia Giuggioli]. Have they ever thought of such wild pranks like the Brown kids?
"No, thank God" (grins). "Will lacked the partners-in-crime and the other two are still too small. We will see what awaits me here"....(laughs).
 
And how about you? Were you a bad child?
I have never wantonly played tricks on someone to be able to laugh about him – I have rather tried forbidden things out of curiosity. But basically I was very good.

Many actors fear the filming with kids. In your case it even were seven of them....
"It were even eight! The baby was played by twins. And we even had a donkey in an important character on the set. It is said you have to beware of kids and animals at the business (laughs). It needed getting used to it but it was wonderful."
 
In which way was it wonderful?
"Well, firstly the laws are rather strict for kids on the set. Which is quite right by the way. Actually in my opinion the things permitted for small kids are even too many. In any case a child is only allowed to work a few days per week and just for some small hours with long breaks in between. And that with such a big bunch of children is terrible of course. Often it took days until one scene could be halfway completed according to plan. Director Kirk Jones was on the edge of reason on many occasions. Real kids have other priorities but costs of the set or a filming timetable and quite rightly so – but for successoriented adults it’s rather hard to understand that (laughs). Children always want to know everything exactly. One day when Kirk was rather worn out by the continuous questions he placed a new rule: “From now on you are only allowed to ask really, really important questions. Ok.?” All kids nodded keenly. And at once the first small hand shot up. “I do have a really important question!” Kirk sighed: ”Spit it out.” And small Raphael said with completely serious expression: “Which kind of sausage will be on the sandwich that I will have to eat in the next scene?” We all burst out laughing but for Raphael it was a real problem!"

You often play reserved characters with whom it sizzles beyond the surface. Why?
"This I’ve been asking myself quite often (laughs). For one part I have a rather average face/Visage that is more suitable for not so shining heartbreakers. On the other hand my big idols were actors who could express a lot with little means – like Paul Scofield for instance or Alec Guinness .... and funny enough I’ve came to understand that a lot of women regard just this reserved acting very appealing. Probably they think that behind this quiet facade unbelievably much is going on."
 
And is that so?
"Sometimes – but surely not always what you expect."

Your character in the BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice made you a heartthrob in the U.K., since the Bridget Jones movies you are that internationally...I’m surprised myself. I would never have dreamed of becoming a sex symbol. Fame has caught up with me late – when I was offered the part in Pride and Prejudice I was 35. I remember well what my little brother Jonathan commented: “They want you as Mr. Darcy? Shouldn’t he be ----cough-, sexy and attractive?”

Bridget Jones 3?
“I am often asked whether there will be a third part of Bridget Jones. But I can hardly believe that. How should the story continue? Maybe Mark Darcy will develop into a heavy drunk and Daniel Cleaver will become sensible....”

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: "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: "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.