Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this page
Colin Firth: interview
Admit it – many of us think Colin Firth is just bland, middle-class totty. And maybe he was, once. But, as Dave Calhoun has discovered, the former Mr Darcy has grown up and moved on, and in his latest films, he’s riveting
It crept up on me unexpectedly. For a number of years I’d dismissed him or avoided him or – shame on me – mocked him. Whenever I thought of Colin Firth, which admittedly wasn’t very often, I could only think of one word: bland. It didn’t help that he had an alarming following among the good women of middle England, many of whom seemed about to rip this mild-mannered fellow’s flowing white costume-drama blouse from his back and do unspeakable things to him. When I mentioned to a colleague that I was to interview Firth, a strange look came into her eyes and her voice quivered. It reminded me why Firth put me off my popcorn.Yet, slowly but surely, Firth is evolving; his understated but potent presence in a few recent films has hit my bias hard. He’s never going to win awards for searing histrionics, but I’ve started to appreciate the essential Englishness of his demeanour on screen: confident but not arrogant; skilled but never irritatingly so.
‘My primary instinct as an actor is not the big transformation,’ Firth tells me. ‘It’s thrilling if a performer can do that well, but that’s not me. Often with actors, it’s a case of witnessing a big party piece but wondering afterwards, where’s the substance?’
I’m sure loyal followers of Firth will tell me that I’m late to the party. And others will mock me for going soft. But last year, Anand Tucker’s adaptation of Blake Morrison’s memoir ‘And When Did You Last See Your Father???’ really got me thinking. Firth does a good job of portraying middle-age, middle-class male stoicism, which is a lot harder than it looks. He’s 48, and age has brought him the ability to take on more serious roles that lean towards the classless. Of course, Firth’s always going to be more toff than factory worker, but while he’d look ridiculous in a Mike Leigh film, he’s too versatile to be condemned to play earls or Tories. Now we’re all middle class, he’s cinema’s everyman.
When I meet Firth at the London Film Festival, it’s a couple of hours before the premiere of ‘Genova’, a film he’s made with the dynamo British director Michael Winterbottom and one that proves there’s a new vigour to his career. He’s very good in it. He plays an academic whose two young daughters are involved in a car accident which kills their mother, his wife. The family is based in the US, but he decides to shift them to northern Italy for a fresh start. Firth gives a quiet performance, restrained but not uptight; he offers a controlled yet moving portrait of grief. ‘I love the film,’ he says as he explains the pleasure of working with Winterbottom, who enabled him to explore his character in a way that he has rarely been permitted. ‘I’ve honestly never been more happy with a film.’ I believe him. Now that he’s is older, he’s enjoying a new maturity that allows him to play fathers and husbands – grown-ups not pin-ups.
We talk about the variety of his recent roles. Even while he was making ‘Genova’ – a low-budget drama filmed in the usual Winterbottom style of little money, few crew and lots of imagination, he was flying back and forth to Pinewood to shoot ‘Mamma Mia!’ – which has taken almost £70 million at the UK box office and looks set to become the biggest earner ever in our cinemas. ‘We had to embrace the laughter and silliness for it to be enjoyed by the audience,’ Firth says. ‘We decided that we just had to have fun and enjoy the stupid costumes and the stupid… well, I better not say anything rude about the music.’
You couldn’t find two roles more different: in the first he offers a subtle take on grief and recovery; in the second he prances about a version of a sunny Greek island dancing to Abba songs. ‘Actually it’s nice having that diversity underscored for a change,’ he says. ‘Usually people who write about these things like to join the dots rather than emphasise the lack of joining.’
He remembers that last year offered a similar contrast when he was making a documentary about death row, ‘In Prison My Whole Life’ with his wife, Livia. ‘We travelled to Amsterdam to interview Snoop Dogg. We were with him for four hours and he was great company. But it was the same week that I had to snog Rupert Everett in drag for “St Trinian's”.’
It’s taken Firth a long time to ditch the image of the well-bred pin-up (or ‘posh totty’, as a colleague put it to me). And even today a clip on YouTube of Firth as Mr Darcy diving into a lake in the 1995 BBC adaptation of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ has thousands of overheating users needing a similar hose-down. ‘He’s gorgeous,’ writes one fan. ‘When he gets out of the lake dripping wet I literally swoon.’ Others are less subtle. ‘MR DARCY! GIVE ME THAT COCK!’ screams one. Firth will always be Darcy to some – Boris Johnson, for instance, who introduced him at the premiere of ‘Genova’ by waffling on about Jane Austen, Elizabeth Bennet and costume dramas. Firth, embarrassed, merely forced a smile.
Looking back, Firth’s post-Darcy career did him few favours. He must have thought that a turn as a football fan in the British film version of Nick Hornby’s ‘Fever Pitch’ (1997) would inject his reputation with some much-needed machismo – but it made so slight an impression on me that I struggle to remember anything about it. Did I even see it? Then ‘Shakespeare in Love’ (1998) saw him back in billowing-white-shirt territory and ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ (2001) sealed the deal.
But things are looking up. Earlier this year, Firth was in Helen Hunt’s relationship drama, ‘Then She Found Me’ and this month he can be found savouring the sharp Noël Coward dialogue in ‘Easy Virtue’, where he plays a darkly witty, chain-smoking patriarch in 1920s Britain whose soul is stained by his time in the trenches during World War I. On the horizon too is a role as the Machiavellian Lord Henry Wootton in a new version of ‘Dorian Gray’ and even a lead in a film scripted by Irvine Welsh, of all people. Welsh meets Firth? That’s a partnership no one would have predicted back in his Mr Darcy days.
‘Genova’ will screen as part of a Time Out 40th anniversary weekender at BFI Southbank at 8.45pm on Nov 21. ‘Mamma Mia!’ and ‘Easy Virtue’ are in cinemas now.
Author: Dave Calhoun. Portrait Greg Funnell
User comments on this story
-
- Gillian said...
- It would be boring if everyone happened to like the same people I am not ashamed to say how much I admire Colin firths work, he is a great actor and all his many fans think he is great, so who ever doesn't feel the same I am sorry about that I have just got great taste thats all, Posted on Mar 28 2012 21:16
- Report as inappropriate
-
- I had to check who plays Mr. Collins in the Keira Knightley version (that's also what I ualsluy call it), cos I couldn't remember. And yes, you're right, Tom Hollander does an excellent job. The funniest Mr. Collins I've seen is in Bri said...
- I had to check who plays Mr. Collins in the Keira Knightley version (that's also what I ualsluy call it), cos I couldn't remember. And yes, you're right, Tom Hollander does an excellent job. The funniest Mr. Collins I've seen is in Bride & Prejudice, I think he's called Mr. Kholi in it. He's got this really annoying/entertaining laugh. And the most disturbing Mr. Collins is in Lost in Austen.Well, if it's been a while since you seen the BBC version, then I hope you get the time to see it again soon. Always time well spent!D. Posted on Mar 28 2012 16:27
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Cathee said...
-
I never really noticed of Colin Firth until the Kings Speech after which I realized I had seen him in Nanny Mc Fee and MamaMia.His versatility in the roles led me to try and see all of the shows he has done, good or bad. I think he is a truly amazing actor who has made the best of some really lame roles in the early days. A couple of the made for TV movies were the best and least known, Tumbledown, Donovan Quick, Nostromo. I also find him to be way more handsome as he ages than he was as a young man and expect that we'll be seeing a lot of him in better movies. I doubt the Oscar was for a one hit wonder...there is a great actor behind that handsome aging face.
Since his Oscar fame brought him to my attention I have been able to collect 47 of his movies and look forard to finding more. Posted on Sep 13 2011 04:51 - Report as inappropriate
-
- Gillian said...
-
I am so glad Colin got the Oscar he really does deserve all the praise he always stays down to earth and he is truly a gentleman
I agree with the person who liked Hour of the Pig it was a great film I enjoyed it very much, it was serious but was funny to the court scenes were very funny Posted on Sep 09 2011 18:57 - Report as inappropriate
-
- soupy said...
- Carol, if everybody sees Colin Firth movies for the ensemble cast and not for him, then why was he nominated for an Oscar in A Single Man (which did not have any big name actors besides himself) and why did he receive all the attention and just win an Oscar for The King's Speech? Face it, the guy can act. A Single Man would have been boring and bland without his subtle acting skills and the King's Speech wouldn't have been nearly as successful and may have come off as a farce without his masterful interpretation of the impediment. Posted on Sep 09 2011 14:19
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Edith Panzer said...
- In re: Fever Pitch- one of the most rerkable things in the movie was Colin's middle class English speech- certainly not Cockney but not his very British sounds when he is being interviewed or in other movies- no one I have speken to about thiws never realized what I was saying until they watched the DVD again and realized how intelligent Colin is as an actor- the difference in speech is not very LOUD but it is there. Just listen to him. Posted on Jul 14 2011 19:38
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Rachel said...
-
He'll never win any awards?! LOL! Congrats to Oscar winner (and two times in a row Oscar nominee) Colin Firth! And we musn't forget those BAFTAs, his Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award.
And has Mr Calhoun actually ever seen any of Firth's earlier work? He delivered amazing performances in Tumbledown, Apartment Zero and Another Country. And he wasn't an earl or a Torie. He was, respectively, a soldier who lost half his brain in the Falklands War, a gay English-Argentine with a psycho room mate, and a teenage Communist.
And did this guy actually watch Shakespeare in Love? His character was nothing like Mr Darcy. He was a horrible, chauvinist pig played brilliantly and comically and his shirt was never "billowing".
Jeez, ever thought about doing some research? Posted on Mar 31 2011 08:16 - Report as inappropriate
-
- Camille said...
- Unlike a lot of other commentators I have not seen many other Colin Firth films apart from the very well known ones. e.g P and P , the two BJ films and the English Patient. I think the author is too dismissive of Firth as middle class totty for his performance in these films. I thought Firth portrayed Darcy exactly as I imagined Darcy from reading the book. I also thought his acting in the Bridget Jones films was very good ( ofcourse broadly speaking, he was playing the same role). I thought that he acted very well in the English Patient and that included quite a dramatic incident. So..these were all ' middle class' totty roles and they all required acting ability. Ofcourse the fact that he was dropdead gorgeous helped but that does NOT make for entertainment. IMHO Liz Hurley is stunningly beautiful and Keira Knightley is not bad....but neither of them can act for toffee. Posted on Nov 21 2010 20:34
- Report as inappropriate
-
- CAROL MILES said...
- THE PLAIN TRUTH IS THAT NO ONE WANTS TO SEE A COLIN FIRTH MOVIE UNLESS THERE'S A WELL KNOWN ENSEMBLE CAST AND HE'S OVER SHADOWED BY THEM. Posted on Feb 25 2010 15:47
- Report as inappropriate
-
- rmush said...
- Why doesn't anybody mention the movie 'Hour of the Pig' also known as 'The Advocat'? THAT is a brilliant movie based on some bizzare but true facts. Posted on Nov 20 2009 19:45
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Gillian said...
-
Thankyou Roberta, just shows us woman have good taste and still like to know at least there is some gentleman around and one of them is Colin Firth, Handsome and talented, your right the sound have another at his films they may even agree with us Ladies
thats all I am saying I rest my case Posted on Jun 02 2009 20:23 - Report as inappropriate
-
- Gillian said...
- I am a Fan of Colin Firth and enjoy all his work, I haven't seen him play a part yet That I don't enjoy he has good comic timing, his lastest film Genova will be really good to watch, if you had seen him in When did you last see your father, you would agree how talented this man can be It really had an effect on me,at the end got to the heart strings I am standing by Colin firth he cany do hust about anything Posted on Apr 17 2009 15:58
- Report as inappropriate
-
- E Pennington said...
- Can I say it?Colon was a far more suitable D'Arcy than the great Olivier who was too old for the part anyway. Colin Firth has yet to show his true potential as he has not yet been given the scripts which would show off his talents. Posted on Mar 23 2009 11:52
- Report as inappropriate
-
- jay grand said...
-
Ha ha , I can really understand the conundrum you;re going through about Frith :) He's not Rock N Roll and you want to stay Rock N Roll. Well, mate, you;ve just grown up! :) And discovered that the world is not black and white. OR Roch n Roll or NOT Rock N Roll. Good for ypou! Welcome to the land of Adults! :)
PS having said that, I'm sure it could all be sorted out with a new haircut. I'm looking at his photo hair and it sends shivers down my spine! Posted on Nov 26 2008 10:59 - Report as inappropriate
-
- Barbara Derboven said...
-
Dear M. Calhoun, thank you for your bewildering comment on Colin Firth !
Colin Firth disposes of a large range of expressional means. Having said that, I refer to his earlier films in the 80ies, as there are f.ex. 'Another Country' and 'A Month in the Country' costarring an excellent Kenneth Branagh. Other films followed.
The 90ies showed his coming out as romantic lead continuing right into this century and as much as my opinion of him is concerned I think that these parts do not really suit him nor reflect his true talents. But : as we interpreters say, only an interpreter who works a lot and exercices his art will become a good interpreter, this might be the same for acting. I think, Colin Firth is much more at ease with complex personalities and matters as represented in 'Born Equal', 'And when did you last see your father', 'Genova', 'Then she found me' and the upcoming 'A Single Man'.
Nevertheless, I think he is working too much lately by playing too many different roles. He might need a script coach or an aritstic adviser. I might do this for him.
So you just tell him, this will be fine and I thank you in advance !
And by the way, I am not British, so all this fuss about him being the Stiff Upper Lip-Tory-Costume drama-Colin Firth does not interfere with my appreciation of him. Best wishes and again thank you for your article, Barbara Posted on Nov 18 2008 12:42 - Report as inappropriate
Top Stories
Ridley Scott interview
Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback
Cannes Film Festival 2012: half-time report
Dave Calhoun reports on the hits, misses and a shocking new masterpiece from Michael Haneke
What do you think?
Post your comment now