"Interview: Colin Firth" by Laura Metzger

BBC World, 23 December 2003

Currently Colin Firth can be seen in two quite different films - the romantic comedy Love Actually' and as the broody Dutch painter Vermeer in 'Girl With A Pearl Earring'. Firth really doesn't have that much to complain about but he isn't an A list star. Does that worry him, or rather should it worry him? Laura Metzger sat down with Firth to find out if he craves the Hollywood spotlight. 

It's been almost a decade since the buzz first began to build around Colin Firth when he starred as the brooding Darcy in a TV production of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'. Now he's perhaps best known for playing a different Darcy in 'Bridget Jones's Diary'. Although recently there's been a spate of romantic comedies sent his way, Firth is back in dramatic form as the 17th century Dutch painter in 'Girl With A Pearl Earring'.

Colin Firth: "Romantic comedies didn't really arrive on the scene for me until four or five years ago. I remember craving to do something lighter because I just never felt I'd had light material before. And it was a case of be careful what you wish for because then I got bombarded with that and people have started to have the perception that I'd done nothing but. So 'Pearl Earring' felt a little like coming home in a way, and I took great satisfaction in something that didn't have a twinkle in its eye."

There's not much eye twinkling in 'Girl With A Pearl Earring', but there's still quite a lot going on behind Firth's gaze. His smoldering performance as the troubled artist helped earn the film a reputation of being one of the sexiest movies of the year where no one takes their clothes off.

Laura Metzger: "It felt like a lot was happening, was bubbling under the surface between your character, Vermeer, and Scarlett Johansson's character, Griet. What kind of challenges did that create for you as an actor because there's not a lot of physical action in this story?"

Colin Firth: " I'm glad it was bubbling under the surface because not a lot was happening on the surface. I think, in some ways, it's a great joy for actors to be released from dialogue and specific directed gestures that it makes it very much our own territory. The written word is the one thing we do not do as actors so we make gestures, we apply tones, we interpret the words, and when the words are taken away then we become the authors of our own interior dialogue, if you like, and I found that very liberating and I think we all enjoyed that responsibility."

Laura Metzger: "Could you identify with this character and what motivates him, because his art is the most important thing in his life, perhaps at the expense of others?"

Colin Firth: "Well, possibly, and I think he is someone who's capable of sacrificing people. He simply has the kind of ego that is driven by the creative process, I think a lot of creative people have an enormous self-centeredness. The pursuit almost requires it, perhaps, and it's often used as an excuse for the most appalling behavior. He leads two lives, really, and I think a lot of us probably do. I think that most of us in a family situation have some kind of secret world that we're in."

Laura Metzger: "You are getting recognition for your work in this film. Do you aspire for more of a profile in Hollywood in any way?"

Colin Firth: "No, not really. The trappings that it brings, it would be foolish not to look for or enjoy. Recognition, employability, money - I'm not lofty about that. But I also have my eye on durability. Even if Hollywood was begging me to come into its bosom, which it isn't, I think there are times you've just got to return to what you know and to keep it simple. I don't want to blow it, basically."

"Colin Firth: this complex actor studies the quirks of life" 

by Graham Fuller.

Looksmart highschool, december 2003

After excelling as repressed, troubled, or traumatized Englishmen in such films as A Month in the Country (1987), Apartment Zero (1988), and Tumbledown (1989), and as the French seducer in Valmont (1989), Colin Firth became a star by playing two Darcys: the arrogant Mr. Darcy, careless with his shirt, in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice (1995), and the haughty lawyer Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001). Pop-culture iconhood was confirmed for the pleasingly taciturn actor, now 43, when journalist Bridget interviewed "Colin Firth" in the second Bridget Jones novel, which is currently being filmed.

As the 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer in Girl With a Pearl Earring, based on Tracy Chevalier's novel, Firth makes his entrance not as one of Vermeer's leering dandies but as a haunted man, hatted and cloaked, who seems to step from the shadows of a Rembrandt. The shot sets the tone for Vermeer's chaste but manipulative relationship with an innocent serving girl, Griet (Scarlett Johansson), who, much more than his vain, invariably pregnant wife, is his soul mate. Peter Webber's exquisitely rendered drama opens December, following the recently released Richard Curtis comedy, Love Actually, in one strand of which Firth plays another artist enamored of a maid.

GRAHAM FULLER: I think it's important I tell you my mother named her dog Darcy--in honor of Pride and Prejudice rather than Bridget Jones's Diary.

COLIN FIRTH: Are you kidding? Pride and Prejudice on the telly, or the book?

GF: On the tally.

CF: Good heavens. [sighs]

GF: You're working on Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason?

CF: Yeah, we've just started that.

GF: You're obviously playing Mark Darcy again, but who's playing Colin Firth?

CF: That's quite easy--there will be no Colin Firth. It's never been contemplated that Bridget would interview me. It's been rumored she would interview George Clooney or another actor instead, but that scene's gone.

GF: Renee Zellweger says she's going to be less passive as Bridget this time round. Any thoughts about Darcy?

CF: Part of me thinks, How do you prepare for a role you've done before? I'm very suspicious of it seeming too easy, because that way you let yourself in for a few shocks. I don't think Darcy really exists as a fully rounded creature. He's more of a suggestion, and it's difficult to develop a character based on an enigma. If you want to see inside him, what you end up with, inevitably, if you do it properly, is an ordinary human being. But I think we have to be kept wondering about Darcy, so it's a delicate balance.

GF: How did you go about finding Vermeer in Girl With a Pearl Earring?

CF: I never found him. It was a constant chase. There's nothing that gets under your skin more than something you can't quite get 'hold of, something that weaves a spell but doesn't satisfy. I think that's the experience you have in front of Vermeer's paintings if they get to you. Many people think his paintings are serene. I don't think they are, but you can't say they're disturbed. It means the experience of looking at them is constantly animated. I couldn't quite nail Vermeer, but there comes a certain time on a certain day when you've got to get in front of the camera and just bloody act.

GF: As much as Vermeer changes Griet, she changes him. She has an understanding of art that no one else around him shares.

CF: He would've known other artists, so it's not as if he wasn't able to talk the talk with somebody, but I don't think he expected companionship in that understanding, certainly not from a woman, and certainly not from the domestic help. His life as an artist is utterly separate from his home life, and entirely solitary, and Griet is the only person who penetrates it.

GF: An intense, almost entirely nonphysical intimacy evolves between them. There's that scene when Vermeer is mixing paints with Griet and the little finger of your right hand hovers by the little finger of Scarlett's left hand. If you'd put your hand on top of hers, it would've ruined the spell.

CF: You could blow it just by moving a millimeter. The director pointed out to me that because of the camera angle, people think our fingers touch, but they actually don't. If we'd been shagging all day, it would be absolutely irrelevant whether our fingers were a millimeter apart or not.

GF: Vermeer doesn't exploit Griet, but--

CF:--Well, he does in a way. Whereas Van Ruijven [Vermeer's patron, played by Tom Wilkinson] would've violated her physically and traumatized her that way, Vermeer goes much deeper and has a much more lasting effect on her. There is a cruelty in his relationship with her. It was more noticeable in scenes where I was less patient with her, and more unpredictable and capricious, but those had to be cut. I had to take a breath after the scene where I pierce Griet's ear and walk away from her. Without needing to go into the symbolism of what the piercing means, it's clear he's finally got what he wants. She's made a sacrifice, he's drawn blood, she's become the painting he wants--and she's gone through God knows how many barriers to achieve that for him--and he's given her nothing. She thinks he might kiss her, but he just goes back to the easel. Instead of breaking down in tears as a lesser actress would've done in a bid for an award nomination, Scarlett struggled with her emotions, swallowed them, and came back again to her dignity. It was fantastic to watch.

You could say that Vermeer gave Griet a gift as well, but who knows? Interestingly enough, in Tracy Chevalier's take on it, this experience finished Vermeer off. He was dead within 10 years, and his work was never as good again. And what we know is that he died in despair.

GF: Who do you play in Love Actually?

CF: Much more of an ordinary bloke. He's a successful thriller writer--a shy, diffident Englishman--who is betrayed by his lover and rents a cottage in France to get over it and work on his book. While he's there, he falls in love with the Portuguese cleaning girl. They have a language barrier, and therein lies the humor. It's a comedy of misunderstanding.

GF: What has been the long-term effect of Pride and Prejudice on your career? You know, the heartthrob thing.

CF: I only think about it if I get asked in this sort of situation, and then I suddenly go, "Oh, I don't know." People have assumed I've been irritated by it over the years, but I've only been irritated by the strenuousness with which I've had to explain that I'm not bothered by it. [laughs] I've continued to keep my roles varied, though I tend to get noticed more when they're more in line with Darcy. I can live with that. You shouldn't be lofty about anything that raises your profile.

"Colin Firth: Still sitting pretty" by Fiona Morrow.

Enjoyment.independent.co.uk, 19 December 2003

From Mr Darcy to Vermeer, Colin Firth seems drawn to smouldering roles - but he thinks he's dead ordinary

There's something slightly cheesy about Colin Firth. Not in the flesh, you understand, but in the idea of him. It's something about the way middle England panted in unison when he strode out of that lake in Pride and Prejudice.

"Ooh, Colin," you could hear them whisper, faintly reproachfully. "You are naughty."

Now, I had as big a crush on Mr Darcy as the next gal. I was 14 at the time, and I got over it as quickly as I did strawberry-mint lip gloss. My Mr Darcy served his purpose and was then cast aside - and Timothy Dalton never did it for me again. Ever.

Unlike the erstwhile Bond, Firth's career is easily split into pre- and post-Pride and Prejudice. He started out well. Another Country, Apartment Zero, A Month in the Country, Tumbledown, Valmont: small but interesting projects, with Firth given the chance to develop complex, often troubled characters. Mr Darcy changed all that: suddenly Firth was bankable. He became an actor sought out by the high-end heritage market of the British film industry. But for every English Patient and Shakespeare In Love on his CV, there's a Relative Values or an Importance Of Being Earnest. Bridget Jones's Diary was fun, but What A Girl Wants? Love Actually? What more evidence do I need to muster? Definitely a bit cheesy.

So I wasn't nearly as excited at meeting Firth as perhaps I should have been. Certainly, every female with a pulse to whom I mentioned the interview appeared to go glassy-eyed at the mere sound of his name.

A tall, slim, rather diffident Firth arrives. He's smiling and instantly affable, looking younger than his 43 years but also less substantial than he does on screen. His is a handsome face, but not extraordinarily so. We're in Luxembourg, on the set of Girl With a Pearl Earring, the film version of Tracy Chevalier's bestselling novel. Firth plays the 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, who becomes captivated by the family maid, Griet (played by Scarlett Johansson).

It's a pretty torrid tale: Vermeer and Griet's mutual attraction is repressed beneath the demands of social etiquette; the slightest glance becomes weighted with meaning, the sexual atmosphere building to an almost unbearable intensity.

Plenty of opportunity for Firth to smoulder, then? "Oh, God!" exclaims Firth, aghast. "I hope it doesn't come across like that. I don't consciously smoulder anyway - I never have." He pauses for a wry little grin: "Smouldering is something that's kind of come to me.

"Actually," he adds, not ready to let the subject lie. "It was a bit worrying the other day on set. I was looking at Griet and going through my own process and doing what I thought, you know, was wanted, and afterwards I got a comment about my smouldering look and I just thought, 'Oh, Christ'." He says it more in sadness than in anger, as though really fearful that he is reduced to "one look".

Unfortunately, because Girl With a Pearl Earring is a film of intent rather than action, Firth does vacillate rather between a smoulder and a scowl. His limitations in the emoting department are not helped by the fact that he's up against Johansson, an actress who can say more with her eyes than any page of dialogue.

"Very few actors would decide to take on a role and just do a look," comments Firth, a little dejectedly. "You hope you can be elegant without speaking, and that once the film's cut together, you come out in the wash the way you intended to."

Such concern is emblematic of his lack of arrogance: he seems genuinely surprised and cheered by his good fortune in doing a job he enjoys.

He became an actor, he says, as a last resort. The son of academics, Firth lived in Nigeria until he was four, eventually growing up in Hampshire where he attended the local comprehensive. His posh accent is the product of "old-fashioned drama school RP".

"My father was worried when I decided not to go to university," he recalls, "but only because he wanted me to be able to find something that was stimulating from which I could make a living. I lit on acting because there really wasn't anything else that seemed feasible."

Though he loved what he was doing, the decision preyed on his mind for many years: "I did say to my dad later that I felt like I hadn't fulfilled the family tradition and that I had missed something by not going to university, by not following that path." His father, however, sees it differently: "He told me that, considering all the things I've learnt for various roles, I haven't missed out on much."

It soon becomes clear that for Firth, it's the research that really gives him a kick: "I enjoy the homework very much," he says with a slightly embarrassed guffaw.

Girl With a Pearl Earring has certainly delivered for him on that front: "It's allowed me to go to school, in a way," he shrugs. "I like going to the galleries and pretending to be this bloke. That thrills me."

The bloke himself remains an enigma: "Here's a guy we basically don't know anything about, whom Tracy has written a story about. And this story is told through the eyes of a girl who doesn't know much about him either. I think," he says, after pausing for a moment to think, "that what Tracy has done brilliantly, and what the production has done so far, is to keep that mystery intact. I just hope I can continue to do the same in my leg of the relay."

He rubs the side of his face, crosses his legs and frowns: "Vermeer's only hint at a self-portrait is in a mirror," he ponders. "It's in the background of - I think it's called The Concert [in fact it's The Music Lesson]." He shakes his head and shrugs: "The titles are all so interchangeable... But anyway, it's basically two people standing at a virginal at the back of a room, and there's a mirror above the instrument which reflects [the player's] face and then if you look further you can see the leg of his easel..."

He stops and pulls a sheepish face: "I've never quite been able to make it out myself, to be honest, so I'm just going on what others say. But there seems to be some kind of box and his foot - so he's quite consciously hinted at himself, but kept himself out of it."

As he prattles on happily, I realise that the great sex symbol of the Home Counties is, in fact, a big kid, eyes still wide with wonder at the world. Even that laugh, with its throat-tickling rumble, belongs to a boy.

I tune back in, and find that Firth has moved on to the known facts he has unearthed about Vermeer: "He had 15 children, four of whom died. There were wars going on - the French invaded, and the dykes were broken in a kind of scorched earth policy. He grew up in a pub that his mother ran..." He leans back in his chair to deliver what is clearly his favourite piece of Dutch miscellany: "The annual beer consumption in Delft was absolutely jaw-dropping!"

We pause in respect for the constitution of the apparently permanently pickled locals before returning to art. Specifically, Firth's lack of aptitude for it: "The physical side of painting is beyond me," he proffers. "You can't teach me to draw a face with two eyes in the right place. All I'm hoping for is to look as if I've picked up a palette before and to hold a paintbrush without dropping it."

He won't be drawn on how he thinks the film is going. "I'm hopeless at predicting that kind of thing - I was the one who thought Shakespeare In Love couldn't work, which shows how strong my instincts are. I just thought: 'there have been so many star-studded flops,' and my worry was that it would be panto for clever clogs."

As for his own part in it, he starts to giggle: "I was the absolute antithesis of everything that was charming about that film - the guy with no humour, no poetry and no romance. The beauty of the film," he declaims in cod-Shakespearean, "was thrown into relief by my lack of it."

He's less happy-go-lucky when, inevitably, we find ourselves having a Mr Darcy moment. "You know, this whole star persona nonsense that came from Pride and Prejudice is not something I actually occupy, and I only ever have to answer for it in a press situation."

He lets out a sigh. "When the question is asked, I often have to wake myself up to remember what to say about Mr Darcy. I can't recall it very well, not least because it was a very ordinary working experience. I've had to talk about it so much, I can no longer distinguish my own memories from other people's mythology about it."

He does remember thinking it wouldn't be up to much: "I went to South America [to film Nostromo]. I thought it would be nice to be away when everyone was having a go at it."

He didn't pay much more attention when he got a call from home saying he was the subject of some intense press interest: "I just thought it was the sort of thing that mums say."

Meanwhile, on the set of Nostromo, Firth fell in love with an Italian, Livia Guiggioli (they are now married). Intrigued by reports of Firth from England, her family went to check him out at the cinema. "The only thing that was on at the time was Circle of Friends," he grimaces. "And appealing in that I am not. They were in despair at this ghastly, bloated, moustachioed English fool. Then, when they were sent tapes of Pride and Prejudice, there was a general kind of disbelief that anyone could find this man sexy." Firth himself remained unconvinced until his mum sent him a recording of a radio discussion about the series: "I thought, 'Christ! This has never happened before, this is extraordinary.'"

He leans forward to add sincerely: "It can make you a bit jittery." He continues, sounding as though he still can't quite fathom it: "The interesting thing was that I thought I'd been doing great up until that point. I'd been doing stuff that I found really interesting. I'd been working away - had never been out of work, actually. I was doing central roles in things that interested me a lot and were sometimes well received. If people liked me, they liked me and if they didn't they didn't. And then, with Pride and Prejudice, it was as if I'd never done a thing before."

Or since? I prompt: "Well," he shrugs, resigned, "if people want to bang on about it eight years on, if they're still interested, I can't really complain."

He has, of course, had a hand in inspiring such longevity himself, by starring as Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones's Diary and its forthcoming sequel.

"I know," he shrugsapologetically. "The first one just seemed such fun, but I was worried about a sequel. The very idea conjures up all sorts of dreadful thoughts. But I read the script and found a new affinity with it, so..." he trails off. "Nevertheless," he picks up, with a shake of the head, "I have to say I find it weird that there is this hologram of me as Mr Darcy still wandering about."

The notion reminds me of something Firth told me about the moment he saw his first original Vermeer: "I don't know if I've ever seen such a difference between reproduction and the real thing. Even in print, you can see they're marvellous, but nothing compares to coming face to face with one."

Firth may not be a great work of art, but he's certainly nothing like his image. Neither scrumptious nor cheesy, he's more like a reliably decent pint of beer. Something, it seems, of which Vermeer himself would have approved.

"Colin Firth taking the lead"  by Ruthe Stein.

San Francisco Chronicle, 14 December 2003

A new baby recently arrived in the Colin Firth household, consuming the stalwart British actor with dad duties like changing diapers. He and his wife, Italian producer Livia Giuggioli, have another son, who is 3, and Firth has a 13-year-old with actress Meg Tilly. When all three boys are around, his London home gets so noisy that it's hard for Firth to think, let alone concentrate on preparing for a new role.

All this havoc helped him get a handle on 17th century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer, who had 11 children running around his cramped home in Delft and a wife who was a bit of a shrew. Vermeer nevertheless created some of the most remarkable paintings ever committed to canvas. His simple yet mystical images remain in the mind's eye long after viewing.

Cast as Vermeer in the holiday movie "Girl With a Pearl Earring,'' Firth immediately knew he could never capture the great man's genius.

"I couldn't touch that. You can't play genius,'' he said over coffee during the Toronto International Film Festival, where "Girl'' premiered.

Firth, 43, has built a career on costume dramas -- most memorably as Mr. Darcy in the 1995 miniseries "Pride and Prejudice,'' a role that made him the hunk du jour of the "Masterpiece Theater" crowd. As is often said of him, Firth seems to belong in britches. He looked out of sync in jeans and casual sweater, like a time traveler trying to blend in.

On the other hand, he's completely convincing in the robes of a marginally prosperous mid- 1600s painter. Firth found the "practical details'' of Vermeer's life a "useful accessible element'' in capturing him.

"This was a man who painted seemingly serene pictures repeatedly, capturing the calm of the moment in a house that is incredibly chaotic,'' said Firth, who studied Vermeer's work in museums. "Everybody knows what it's like in a noisy house. Everybody knows what it is to need to work, to close yourself off in a room and have the sounds going on. Everybody knows what it is like to have a bit of a secret life, a secret passion or a dream. Looking from my own vantage point, I think one of the most interesting things is that kind of creative intensity within a very earthbound domestic environment.''

Firth wouldn't reveal much about his own secret life, except to say that "you can share these things with your partner.'' He's become guarded since his first brush with fame, when paparazzi followed him home after he had purchased a vacuum cleaner. A headline in the tabs screamed, "Mr. Darcy does the household chores.''

The notoriety intensified after Helen Fielding, in the midst of writing "Bridget Jones's Diary,'' named the romantic hero Mr. Darcy in the actor's honor. Firth was catapulted to a gentler English version of superstardom when he was cast as Darcy in the screen adaptation. He's reprising the role in a sequel.

Firth is opinionated on the subject of Vermeer's secret life, which, the movie suggests, may have entailed a romantic liaison with his young housemaid, possibly the model for his sexually charged painting "Girl With a Pearl Earring.'' In her novel of the same name, Tracy Chevalier took fictional license in telling the story of Griet, a 16-year-old employed by the Vermeers to tend to the children and perform menial tasks for Mrs. Vermeer. Scarlett Johansson, fresh from enticing Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation,'' again plays muse to an older man in "Girl.''

As portrayed in the movie, Vermeer's relationship with Griet is loaded with sexual tension, but Firth is convinced it was never consummated. "I don't think he does womanize at all. I think he is utterly faithful to his wife. His mother-in-law covers up (the times she sees Griet and Vermeer together) because his wife is extremely jealous, and the mother-in-law knows there will be nothing but trouble.''

Still, the scene where Griet poses in his studio is awfully hot, especially when Vermeer smears red paint over her lips. According to the movie, this accounts for the girl's moist red-parted mouth, which leaps out from the canvas far more than her subtle earring.

"The direction in that scene was eloquent,'' Firth recalled. "You see a brush going across her lips, then you see my thumb going across. There was no more contact (between them) than that.''

Firth came away impressed with Johannson, no more than a teenager herself.

"She's quite committed to what she does. I think she's exceptional.'' Her resemblance to the model in the painting is remarkable. "Scarlett has a Scandinavian background, so she is not a million miles away. She is very fair skinned, and she bleached out her eyebrows. She wore no makeup, just white (coloring). She showed a lack of vanity.''

Because so much of the movie deals with her character, Firth didn't feel a need to do extensive research on methods of painting.

"If the movie was all about Vermeer, we would have seen more of that. In the end, I wanted to look like I could hold a brush and put it on canvas. I've had a go at painting. It's not a regular hobby, but I know how to do it. The way Vermeer moved things around his desk was more interesting for me than watching his hand on the canvas.''

Although it's not obvious to the audience, it meant a lot to Firth that the tools in the studio were reproductions of what Vermeer would have used. The brushes were crudely made of horsehair and crooked wood, the paint composed of shellac and various odorous components.

"One of the things the film actually can't really communicate, which is really striking, are the smells. Some of them would have smelled horrible. Vermeer would have had to make his own paint in the laboratory and get those colors right.''

On most movie sets, Firth has felt "an element of stress because you are carrying a lot of responsibility.'' It was acute on "Girl With a Pearl Earring, '' the first movie in which he has the undisputed male lead.

By contrast, "Love Actually'' was a lark. A huge ensemble cast meant "I wasn't carrying anything. I was just having a holiday on a film.''

By odd coincidence, his character in that movie also has a relationship with a maid. Firth said that actually happened to Richard Curtis, "Love's'' writer and director.

"He was in France writing, and he fell in love with a Portuguese cleaning lady.'' Unlike the movie, however, their romance did not have a happy ending. "Richard never even spoke to her.''

Firth laughed when told that there's an impression in the United States that he and the other prominent British actors in the movie are all pals. He said he doesn't hang out with Hugh Grant -- his co-star in the "Bridget Jones'' movies as well as "Love Actually'' -- or Alan Rickman or Emma Thompson or any of the others.

"We're not one big happy family at all,'' he says. "But 'Love Actually' was a happy shoot.''

"An Interview with the Director and Stars of "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Jeff Otto

Filmforce, 11 December 2003

IGN talks to Peter Webber, Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth about bringing the story behind one of the most mysterious and famous paintings to the big screen.

The life of legendary Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is shrouded in mystery. One of his most famous paintings, "Girl with a Pearl Earring," provides the basis for both the story of the film and the book on which it is based. The story is a piece of historical fiction, as very little is actually known about how the painting came to be or who the girl in the painting was. Was it a relative of Vermeer's or possibly his wife? The book and movie proposes that it was actually a servant of his household.
 

In director Peter Webber's feature debut, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Scarlett Johansson plays Griet, a servant to the Vermeer household with a keen interest in the art world and ultimately in Vermeer himself. Colin Firth plays the part of Vermeer, who becomes gradually fascinated with this curious, intelligent and enticing servant. They become friends of sorts as Vermeer uses her as a model in a few of his paintings. Their relationship is innocent at first, but is gradually laced with a sexual tension. Vermeer's wife, in particular, becomes vaguely aware of this situation and orders Griet out of the house. Vermeer fights for Griet to stay and ultimately uses her as the subject for one of his great masterpieces.

© Lions Gate; Photo: Japp Buitendijk

IGN got to speak with director Peter Webber and the film's two star's, Colin Firth (Vermeer) and Scarlett Johansson (Griet) to discuss the making of Girl with a Pearl Earring.
 
Peter Webber himself was an Art major in college, although he says he did not expect a film like this as his first film. He has actually been quoted as saying that he is not at all a fan of costume period pieces. As it turned out, there is a much deeper story in Girl with a Pearl Earring than is at first evident on the surface. Webber love of art comes across very clearly and vividly in the film thanks in no small part to the stunning camera work of Eduardo Serra. Thanks to Serra, nearly the entire film itself takes on the look of one of Vermeer's own paintings.
 

Webber did not seek out the project at first. It actually sought him, much to his surprise. "I didn't have this project in mind... I was known for making very different kinds of films and television in England. ... My most famous drama in England, which is quite controversial, [is] something called Men Only, and it's a rather kind of shocking exploration of male sexuality. [It] caused a bit of a stir in England. And, Andy [Tucker], the producer, I'll tell how it happened: ... I'd gone into the office to see someone there and there was a painting, the painting was on the wall, just a postcard or a poster, I don't remember now, and he heard me talking about it and I just felt this tap on my shoulder. And he said, 'Well, why don't you read the script?' I think he was as surprised as I was. When I started to read it, through all that, I had a passion for the painting of Vermeer for a long time. ... The first few pages I was thinking, 'You know, my first movie's not going to be this. It's a bit polite, it's a costume drama.' And, as I read through the script I was falling in love with it. But really the scene that did it to me was the piercing, the ear piercing. Because I thought, 'You know what? This is not the film I thought it was when I started to read it. This has got a fantastic dark undertone; it's got an obsessive romantic relation at this heart of it. This cruelty, this passion, and there's interesting stuff about the relationship with money and art. It's about power, it's about sex, it's about a whole bunch of stuff.' And I thought that was a film I could make. ...What I was scared of is ending up with something that was like Masterpiece Theatre, [that] very polite Sunday evening BBC kind of thing, and I [was] determined to make something quite different from that and the material was there to do it with."
 

With the recent acclaim Scarlett Johansson has received for her work in Lost in Translation, it's hard to imagine that casting her in this film was a tough sell at first for Webber. "Actually, it wasn't the case," says Johansson. "I actually had to audition for it. I went in for a reading and originally didn't have the part actually, which I was quite upset about. But you learn to deal with those things..."
 

Webber fought to cast Johansson: "Way back then, it's just [about] the script, a conversation between director and producer where a producer said to me, 'We can't raise the money from this actress.' Now I never saw anyone else apart from Scarlett who could do the role. Having seen her audition, I mean it was in a rather bland room like this, she completely blew me away. ...She's an astounding actress for her age. She's got such maturity. She looks like a real person as well. She's not like one of these ridiculous skinny anorexic waifs... And Scarlett is just passionate, committed, intense, clever and a great, great actress who can reveal what she's thinking on her face... Business intervenes sometimes, especially when you're a first time director, you're not in a position at all to try to get exactly what you want. So, to me, it was the happiest day of all when things changed, for a number of different circumstances, and we were able to get the financing, and we were able to do it with the cast that I wanted..."
 
Johansson has gained a reputation for playing characters older than her own age: "Griet was my age. I've always played maybe a few years older. When we did Horse Whisperer I was twelve playing fourteen, or Ghost World I was fifteen playing eighteen. It doesn't make so much of a difference. I think the relationships between the characters are so different. I mean, with Billy [Bob Thornton] and I it was kind of a purely innocent sort of thing. With Bill [Murray] and I, I think that my character needs the Bob Harris character to help her from having a total nervous breakdown. She needs his support. Colin and I, we have a different relationship. We don't need each other. We want each other. You think that my character could survive anything. She could survive another world war. She's so strong. Colin does not help her come unscathed out of the household. It's her inner strength that does. It's not a conscious decision."
 
Although the book was an adaptation of the novel by Tracy Chevalier (who also wrote the script), both director and cast decided to stay away from the book so that the film may stand on its own. "I deliberately held off reading the book for a while as well," says Webber. ... There was one thing I was scared of: I had the script, I had done about eight months working on the script with the writer. ... I was worried that if I read the book too soon, I would have a whole load of knowledge, just there in my subconscious..."
 
"I didn't read it before and I didn't read it during because I didn't want the first person narrative I suppose," Johansson says. "I just didn't want anybody else's explanation of the way the character was feeling. I didn't want to have the pressure of that. Some actors may have studied it, but it just didn't seem right [for me]."

© Lions Gate

Playing the character of Vermeer, Colin Firth actually had the least information about his character because so little is known of the painter. Firth decided that reading the book could only help in his preparation: "I felt like I had been written from a distance. There's nothing wrong with that. Jane Austen does that with her male characters as well and if an actor's going to flesh that out it's up to them to turn an objective into the subjective and that's what I was doing. I just wanted to see if it was helpful. I wanted to see if it clarified things. I wanted to see if, where the script was silent, the book wasn't and what the subtext might have been. I wanted to see if certain bits of dialogue that I have questions about were from Tracy['s script] or were [in the book]..." ... I found the book actually extremely helpful on most of those fronts..."
 
Webber never set out to make a biopic of Vermeer. His hope was to use the few facts known as a stepping-stone for this story. "Nobody, as far I know, certainly not myself or Tracy Chevalier [is] trying to pretend that this is fact. Because so little is known about Vermeer, and that's a gift. ... Because if we were making a film about Rembrandt, we know loads of stuff about Rembrandt. And what happens is, you end up making a biopic. What Tracy was able to do was use the very few facts that are known, is true to those few facts, and then weave an imaginative tale around that. And I think in doing so, probably got closer to the heart of what Vermeer is about then if we had a bunch of historical facts that we knew..."
 

The sexual tension between the characters is one of the things that sets this film apart from the kind of Masterpiece Theatre tale Webber feared: "His painting, his art, is more important to him, actually, than his sex life. So, he's using all of that sexual energy to put into the painting. And if he had walked into that closet when she was taking the cap off, the painting would be over. ... It's the building up, it's the yearning that he was using as an artist. Knowing the way she was looking at him, he knew he'd get certain intensity in that portrait. ... I think that we wanted to paint a portrait of a man who cares about his art above all. ... It's about not getting what you want. We live in a world where you do get what you want all of the time..."
 

"Certainly she's a servant and she does serve Vermeer and the family," Johansson says of her Griet character. "She's a maid, she's taking care of the cooking, the cleaning, the rearing of the children. ... However, it became more apparent to me the more we filmed, how completely in love I was falling with Colin as the Vermeer character. It became more and more apparent to me that the Vermeer character was this sort of untouchable mysterious man, this genius... And my character was completely longing and obsessive and in love with this man. And it was actually physically heartbreaking. I mean, that's how apparent it became. When I saw the Vermeer and Catharina character together, caressing each other, I was, like, physically pained in my heart by that and so, you know, I definitely think that the love affair for me was the most apparent relation between the two characters. The maid and the model are things that come along with the circumstance, but the other is not physical."
 
Although it may be less apparent in the film, Firth believes that Vermeer did have a strong and loving relationship with his wife: "I think if we're commenting on the relationship with his wife in our story, I think that it's sexually alive. I think that he is devoted to his family. I think that he's very, very rooted in the social order of his day. I think there must have been very strong reasons for him wanting to marry her. He changed his religion, he converted, from Protestantism to Catholicism and even though Holland was relatively tolerant in those days, it wouldn't have been an entirely easy thing to do at all..."
 
Webber's love of art provided the initial basis for learning about this mysterious painter and his interest in the story: "Vermeer has always been one of my favorite artists. I find that there's a sense of mystery, of transcendence. There's a really fascinating view of femininity. There's a whole array of things that make him a very special artist and an artist that does transcend his times. It was a real challenge or opportunity to try and capture some of that in this film..."
 
"I tried to be someone who watches, who's engaged in the visual world," Firth says. "The benefit of having artists like Vermeer in the world is that, you know, he saw the world in a way that no one else did. ... The way he treated depth and texture was unique and, you know, because you've got these paintings, you can see like he sees..."
 

Along with the excellent cast and directing work of Webber, the third star of Pearl Earring is the look of the film. The lighting and camera work give the film a look almost as if Vermeer himself had been the director of photography. "We had Eduardo Serra and so I think possibly that's even better than having a dead Dutch painter. He also is an art history major as it happens. He did four years at the Sorbonne. So, we had an awful lot to talk about when we got together. ... I'd seen an English film he'd done, Wings of the Dove, and the great thing about talking to Eduardo, though, was that, although it was obvious that any D.O.P. is going to love to make a film about Vermeer, he is the Master of Light. He was also interested in story and character, and that was really important to me because, although it's set against a very beautiful backdrop, if the characters at the heart of it aren't living, then we'd have been in trouble. And it's getting that combination. Sometimes beauty can be a trap..."
 
Girl with a Pearl Earring opens this Friday, December 12th in New York and L.A.

"Love is in the air..." by Neil Smith

Virgin.net

Last time we saw Colin Firth he was falling for his Portuguese maid in Love Actually. His latest film, Girl With A Pearl Earring, finds him playing the dutch artist, Johannes Vermeer, who claims he was inspired to paint by a forbidden desire for his naive young housemaid (Scarlett Johansson). We quizzed the British actor on art, life and wigs...

VN: What attracted you to the film in the first place?           

Colin Firth: "It was refreshing. It takes itself seriously, which is not a popular position in most films - it is safer to have your tongue in cheek these days. Not a lot big happens on the surface; it's a minimal, finely focused drama that must be made interesting by the characters. It's an exploration of how powerful a relationship can be..."      

VN: Not much is known about Vermeer. Was it hard putting flesh on his bones?           

Colin Firth: "The secret was in the mystery. Basically what you have in terms of historical understanding is mystery, and what Tracy Chevalier wrote in the original novel was also mystery. I was perpetuating that interpretation; in some ways it was a balancing act between fleshing him out and not revealing too much. We weren't trying to do Amadeus with this character, and I think preserving the enigma of the figure was something that had to be handled quite delicately. I felt that ultimately I was the final frontier in keeping that going, through all the various stages of interpretation."          

VN: So much of your love for Scarlett's character is left unsaid. Did you ever feel you might be doing too little?           

Colin Firth: "I think I speak for a lot of actors when I say I love doing less. Dialogue is often very limiting, particularly if it's anything other than excellent. Mediocre dialogue is utterly crippling; brilliant dialogue is a free ride; but no dialogue is a very liberating and inspiring thing to do, as long as you've got the confidence that your director will look at what you're doing. There's nothing more dispiriting than having a lot of ideas about what your fantastic performance is going to be when no one's at the other end of the camera."         

VN: So it was vital you had an understanding with your director, Peter Webber...           

Colin Firth: "I've got this complex view of this woman and I'm going to have to do it all with my eyes; it is entirely mutually dependent and symbiotic. We wouldn't have been able to do any of it if we hadn't known Peter was going after that. There were times when there were only two words being said but the camera would be turning for a very long time, and you were going to have to fill that. It gave us all an added responsibility."     

VN: It sounds like quite an intense collaboration.            

Colin Firth: "Working with a crew is a huge collaborative effort. Everyone arrives on set in the morning and the challenge of the day is to give life to the written word. But you have to be prepared to change the ideas you brought with you that morning, in order to keep the energy and carry the room. If you are in tune, you can feel that moment - it's palpable."          

VN: Did you learn to paint for the film?           

Colin Firth: "I've played around, but anything I could do with a paintbrush would be utterly irrelevant to anything that would be useful to Peter or the film. In the end, as long as you can point your paintbrush in a straight line and not look too closely at what you're doing, I think it's perfectly adequate. And besides, even if I had considerable skills, I don't know how long it would take me to apply them towards creating a Vermeer."           

VN: You have a splendid mane of hair in the film. How did that come about?           

Colin Firth: "When you read a script like this and accept the part, you know a wig awaits you. It was an alarming prospect, and had it been anyone other than [make-up designer] Jenny Shircore, who is fairly well known for being brilliant, it would have been the kiss of death. My fear was that the rest of the world would react to my wig the way that Scarlett did. There I am doing what I think is my best sexy, smouldering look and she's standing there sniggering!"         

"I don't think films are less substantial because they're more popular or because they're lighter" by Alana Lee.

BBC Movies

Colin Firth hasn't been able to escape the 'thinking woman's crumpet' tag since donning the britches to play Fitzwilliam Darcy in TV's Pride And Prejudice. He's subsequently made the transition to movies, starring in Brit romantic comedies Bridget Jones's Diary and Love Actually. 2004 sees him star opposite Scarlett Johannson in Girl With A Pearl Earring and Renée Zellweger (again) for Bridget Jones 2: The Edge Of Reason.

One of the interesting things about Girl With A Pearl Earring is how there's very little dialogue...

It's good not to speak. I think it gives you the opportunity to own it, in a way. When you've got other people's words, you have to go full circle, making their words yours. Doing it in this way, it's much more of a direct line from the source material to whatever it is you're doing in front of the camera. Words can be an enormous asset. They can really catapult you into something wonderful if they're brilliant. If they're not, then they are a gigantic obstacle. If they're not there, then suddenly it's you! You're on! You have to sing and dance, and that's it.

The centrepiece of the film is the evolving relationship between Griet, the servant girl, and your character, Johannes Vermeer, who wants to paint her. How did you make that relationship real on screen?

It all got quite easy once it was between myself and Scarlett [Johansson]. It was a strange job for me because I wasn't present for a lot of it. I mean, I was and I wasn't. I had to be there physically most days so I could walk down a flight of stairs or something. It meant I wasn't really able to establish anything for a long time, but once we got into the meat of it, in that artist's studio, between the two of us... I found that once we hit a certain tone, those elements just actually sort of dictated it. That's when collaboration actually starts to display its benefits - we start to inspire each other. I found that once we were at the proper work, it didn't require great leaps of the imagination. And it was also easy because Scarlett really is so believable.

Why did you take a chance on working with Peter Webber, a first time director?

It didn't seem like such a terrible risk. He's not wet behind the ears. He's very experienced behind a camera. He's made drama. I think we make a rather artificial divide between the small screen and the big screen because the work is very much the same. It depends what sensibilities you bring to it. He knows the world of cinema. He's one of these people whose knowledge is encyclopaedic, but he's also watched and studied things. I felt he was more equipped than a lot of more experienced directors I've worked with. I didn't have the feeling of a man on his first feature film job at all.

How does it feel to be in a movie that a lot of people wouldn't associate you with?

I think it's great. I'm quite happy for those things to co-exist. This film wouldn't be possible without Bridget Jones for me. I enjoy doing Bridget Jones. I don't think films are less substantial because they're more popular or because they're lighter. I certainly know that if you're any more bankable because of the success of one film, then one of the privileges it buys you is to make you credible for a film like this. They then consider me as part of what helps to get the film made. It's a combination of elements that I'm prepared to make use of as long as I can.

"An interview with Colin Firth, star of Love Actually" by Jan Janssen.

Handbag.com

Colin Firth is about to hit the cinemas with the hotly awaited new Brit flick, Love Actually. We chat to him about his acutely romantic character in the film and his sex-symbol status in real life... 

What is it about Richard Curtis's writing that made you want to play in Love Actually?

Richard really does have this fantastically intelligent and self-deprecating wit that you associate with the films he writes. He is doing something that, however mainstream, is quite different from what other people do, and actually, I think that it is only mainstream because he single-handedly made it so. It is quite hard to write about middle-class professional people - usually the stuff of sitcoms - but Richard manages to get some drama out of it.

Did you worry about the overly nostalgic and sentimental side of the film?

That was Richard's intention and he is quite open about wanting to be embracing that aspect of humanity. Great drama comprises both comedy and tragedy, and I think Richard has been able to enmesh both and bring a genuine humanity to his work.

You shot most of your scenes very early on in the production, didn't you?

Yes, even though the production was much more complicated for the other cast members, for me it was a simple pleasure from beginning to end. I think it was easy to say that because in some ways I could just jump right in and feel so little pressure as I'm not carrying the film. My whole story line could have been a total catastrophe and it wouldn't be the end of the world.

How did that affect the way you approached your character?

I decided to see what would happen if I just allowed myself to be carried by someone who has proved himself to be a master of this form. Also, when my stuff was confined to the South of France, the schedule started with my scenes, so it felt like it was my little movie for a while. Thus it was just easy to have a good time and get things right in three weeks.

Bridget Jones's Diary was a major boost to your career as a film star. While the film was shooting, did you know the role was going to have such an impact?

I thought I had a huge advantage as Mr Darcy playing Mr Darcy and as a much more immediately likable figure. But it's always difficult to do justice to a novel that was so closely followed in England and achieved its own cult status, because you wonder whether you've been faithful to the perception of the original work. There was also a fine line to be observed in terms of how sentimental and cute you can be. But I thought that if you have a film with Hugh Grant and Renee Zellweger in the lead roles, Richard Curtis doing the screenplay, and all the publicity of a bestseller behind you, there's a good chance that you're going to have a hit, even though the critics might be ready to pounce.

Obviously, you must be aware that roles like this one and the coming Bridget Jones sequel are only going to raise your sex-symbol profile - which began with Mr Darcy - even higher?

It's simply not something I ever think about, even though the Darcy mystique doesn't go away. I am very surprised now, almost 10 years later, that it is still so present. I'm surprised it was a success at all at the beginning and then I was surprised that people were still talking about it after six months.

Certainly all the attention has been of enormous benefit to my career. I laugh when I think I turned down the role several times. Some of my friends had been warning me off Pride And Prejudice, saying that I could never muster the smouldering sexiness and all that. But then I took that as a challenge and so I've always seen the success of the role as a form of personal vindication.

Do you find your sex-symbol image amusing, peculiar... how do you see it?

Everyone likes to be flattered but it is weird because there is no one way that you feel about that. You do wonder, I suppose, especially as your career has to continue, what it is going to mean and yet I don't think it has meant that much except that I have talked about it in most interviews.

It's utterly bizarre to hear people discussing me in sexual terms. It's not something I'm used to. As an actor, I'm far more used to experiencing failure, rejection and failed expectations. I'm just glad that I didn't achieve my so-called hunk status until I was 35. I know it would have been very difficult to deal with if it had happened in my first film.

Do you view yourself in much less glamorous terms?

Yes. It's the strangest thing to be considered as some sort of sex symbol, like a Warren Beatty. The truth is that, until I met my wife, at 35, I only had two girlfriends. I remember when I was visiting my wife's parents in Italy, before we were married, and I mentioned half-jokingly that I was something of a sex god in England. They both burst out laughing!

Were you ever resentful of your Darcy image the way other actors have come to distance themselves from certain key roles in their past?

No, I was delighted that my career had received this enormous jolt of energy, but it took me so by surprise and I couldn't really make sense of it. I had never focused on playing romantic characters, so I actually felt like it was happening to someone else, and I didn't quite know how to answer for it.

When journalists asked me about the experience, I tended to sidestep it and immediately that became identified as an attempt to shun it. I became, 'the reluctant heartthrob'. It's not that I hated it. I just didn't feel as if I owned it.

Do you ever speculate what would have happened in your career if you hadn't popped out of the water, soaking wet, in that famous scene?

What's extraordinary about all the mythologising that's gone on about Darcy is that, as an actor, you essentially cut yourself off from the character the day you leave the set and move on to your next project. So I find myself dealing with the persistent Darcy aura from a distance - there's a strange disconnection at work just like there is when I hear people referring to me as a star. I still see the same fellow who struggled earlier on in his life.

I still find it amusing that what the public doesn't know is that the original screenplay [for Pride And Predjudice] called for Mr Darcy to jump into the pond nude, which was a scene we couldn't shoot because it was for the BBC.

For some reason it became a huge event, even though there was nothing in the way the scene was shot or scripted which gave anyone the slightest suspicion that it would be seen as sexy. And then, of course, I found myself being waved at and followed down the street in London!

"Q&A With Colin Firth" by Martyn Palmer.

Phase9

In the weeks leading up to the start of filming on LOVE ACTUALLY, Colin Firth was having panic attacks and sleepless nights. Not, you understand that the undeniably talented and extremely experienced Colin was over concerned about his role, in this case playing a heartbroken writer, Jamie, who seeks refuge in the south of France. No, that bit was fine. Nor indeed, was he troubled about the quality of the script, which was, he says, ”just fantastic.“ No, he was actually worried on behalf of Richard Curtis, the man who had written LOVE ACTUALLY, and for the first time, would be directing it, too.

”I was first on the schedule and just before we started I had panic attacks and actually woke up in the middle of the night thinking: How is he going to do this? How will he cope? He’s got ten or fifteen stories, some very famous actors and he’s going to jump in for the first time in his life and orchestrate all of that. It seemed to be an absolutely overwhelming task.“

In fact, ”Curtis did very well indeed,“ says Firth. ”He was extremely upbeat, very cheerful and he expressed a lot of enjoyment in the process. And he’s far too intelligent to pretend he knows things he doesn’t which is something you do find with first time directors, quite understandably, when they feel the need to prove they have done their homework and yet it is very hard to have covered everything before you start.“

”Richard, on the other hand, clearly had done a massive amount of homework and quite honestly, a lot of what is required for the job he already had done. He’s a formidable storyteller. He has sat on film sets and watched his work unfold. It would be incredibly hard for anyone who has never made a film before to have any more experience than that.“

Colin joined an all star British and American cast for LOVE ACTUALLY - Hugh Grant as a bachelor Prime Minister who falls for his Downing Street tea lady (Martine McCutcheon), Billy Bob Thornton as a hard-line American president with an eye for the ladies, Liam Neeson as a grief stricken father worried about how his young son is coping, Alan Rickman as a happily married man who is tempted by a young, beautiful colleague, Laura Linney, who is secretly in love with a handsome young man and at the same time, devoting much of her spare time to caring for her mentally disabled brother. And many more besides. The film tackles love in all it’s glory and all it’s heartbreakingly sad and funny guises.

Colin, 43, is one of Britain's best known actors. He starred alongside Renee Zellweger in the hit comedy BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY, playing Mark Darcy the man who rivals Hugh Grant for Bridget’s affections, and is currently filming the sequel. His first big break came playing another D’Arcy - in the highly acclaimed BBC adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE which won him a BAFTA nomination. Colin's numerous other films include THE ENGLISH PATIENT, FEVER PITCH, CIRCLE OF FRIENDS, MY LIFE SO FAR and PLAYMAKER. He was recently seen in the comedy, WHAT A GIRL WANTS and will be on screen in the eagerly awaited GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING soon. Colin lives in London with his family. He is a talented writer and contributed to a collection of stories collated by the author Nick Hornby.

Have you seen any of LOVE ACTUALLY?

Yes. I think it works fantastically well. As far as I’m aware Richard as something like a 100 per cent strike rate with everything he has done and you just can’t believe he has pulled it off again with such an ambitious project.

Although with LOVE ACTUALLY he had to step up a gear, directing for the first time?

Yes, he did. I was first in on the schedule - it started with three weeks of my stuff. And just before we left for France I had a panic attack on his behalf and woke up in the middle of the night. I actually thought, ‘how is he going to do this? How will he cope?’ He’s got ten or fifteen stories, some very famous actors and he is going to jump in for the first time in his life and orchestrate all of that. It seemed to be an absolutely overwhelming task and the read through seemed like a

premiere or a night at the Groucho Club or something - limos, I was expecting bodyguards with earpieces (laughs). He could have taken any one of these stories and developed them into a feature film on their own. In fact, I’m led to believe that they were all stories that he had been toying with as full-length stories. And it’s as if he has put them all into one and left himself with a clean slate.

When did you first hear about it?

There were rumours about it before it became definite. I remember by January (2002) hearing about this thing because there was a reading of the script which I had been invited to participate in but I wasn’t able to be there. There was quite a buzz about the existence of this thing for a long time and you know a lot of talk about it, who may or may not be in it, and who may or may not play which part. I think there were quite a lot of musical chairs in casting as there often is. I knew they were umming and aahing about me and whether I was right for this or right for that. And I think it was ‘well if Hugh is going to be the prime minister then perhaps I’m not right for the Prime Minister’s brother-in-law or something. And it wasn’t until the summer sometime that they offered it to me.

Did you talk it through with Richard at that point?

No, not very much I think it spoke for itself. I think quite often if you see something that needs a bit of work then you go into a period of debate. I just felt that it’s very hard to question Richard really, when he has got it right so often. You can’t really bet against him.

Why does he get it right so often?

I think he has done something which is very hard to do in film and would have been deemed impossible had he not proved otherwise, which is to write about middle class people.

As the title suggests it’s a story about love, and the English are often a little wary of that emotion too…

Yes. The story reflects different kinds of love. The dark side of it is addressed, it’s not really a film about the real guts of dysfunctional love and torture, it’s not that sort of story. It’s an

optimistic film aimed around Christmas time and it has that sort of leaning but it doesn’t ignore the fact that love is painful. There is a scene between Liam Neeson and his little boy where the child has been locking himself in his room and behaving strangely and Liam’s character is afraid that the boy is sick or on drugs or something. And it turns out that the boy says ”no; I’m in love...“ And the father says ”I thought it was something much worse than that.“ And the boy says ”worse? What could be worse than the total misery and agony of being in love?“ And you can’t really argue with that actually.

Talk me through your character. He starts in a bad place...

He is a man who is rejected. That happens at the beginning of the film. He is rejected by his lover and he has retreated to the south of France. He’s gone away and my story feels a bit to one side as a result of that and in fact I had strong suspicions that if they needed to cut anything mine would be the first to go (laughs). So I’m in a cottage in France writing my novel and licking my wounds and the cleaning lady who is Portuguese and speaks no English is my love interest. A friendship develops and the comedy and pathos of the relationship exists in the misunderstanding. Basically you the audience get to understand what I say obviously, but she doesn’t. You get the subtitles of what she says but obviously I don’t understand what she says. You understand everything but we don’t understand each other. And actually it’s a simple love story within that convention.

Your segment in France was the first to be filmed. What was Richard like at that stage?

On a personal level he was extremely up beat, very cheerful and he expressed enjoyment at the process and he is far too intelligent to pretend he knows things he doesn’t which is something you do find with directors, quite understandably when they are beginning. They need to prove they have done their homework and yet it is very hard to have covered everything before you start.

And it’s hard to admit that you haven’t…

Well quite. And you can probably do a multitude of films and there is still a whole bunch of stuff you haven’t grasped. I mean, you can say that from an acting point of view, it’s the same thing - and I’ve done twenty or so. Richard, on the other hand, was very, very on top of it. I mean he had clearly done a massive, massive amount of homework. And quite honestly a lot of what is required for the job he had down already. He was already a formidable storyteller. He has sat on film sets and watched his work unfold and be adapted into another medium and I had worked with Richard briefly. I had done a day on a BLACKADDER film and he was sat next to the camera and incredibly hands on in terms of changing bits of dialogue cutting bits, adding bits, and it would be very hard for anyone who has never made a film before to have any more experience than that.

I watched him on set and he is very relaxed and handles people extremely well…

Yes, he does I think that there was an awful lot he had going for him. He is a very, very diplomatic man, he has a lot of qualities which help him just deal with people. He’s had a lot of leadership experience. For some people the stresses of the job are terrible and however much you are all mates, the director just can’t smile anymore after a couple of weeks because there is too much pressure. And I never saw him get to that point. He was always buoyant, quick witted, approachable. Just like he always is.

It’s billed as a romantic comedy. But in a way there is more to LOVE ACTUALLY than that. Would you agree?

Yes I would. I think it’s a strange mixture this one. Because I think a feel good movie implies escape, fairy tale implies escape. This one I think takes a look at the kind of lives a lot of us lead. I mean these are people who look like us, dress like us, have jobs like ours. And you know that’s probably not every walk of society, he is looking at urban middle class people. I mean he hasn’t crossed a lot of class barriers or regional barriers here, but they are recognisable people and, I don’t know, it’s as if he has sprinkled magic dust over it all or something. Just to give it all a lift and give an optimistic take on some of the more stressful and distressing aspects of our lives. He is not solving the problems of the entire world but the kind of general love difficulties, which a lot of people have, the kind of the things in real life we lose our sense of humour about. This film rekindles the humour and it can kind of help to lighten one’s view of those problems. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

"Colin Firth's Double Challenges" by Paul Fischer.

Filmmonthly.com, 30 September 2003

"I do like to mix and match", which is why Firth jumped at the chance to play Vermeer. "I was sitting at home one day and a script arrives with an offer 'Do you want to do it?' I go in and met them and said yes,' ", Firth explains, with his typical quiet reserve. "I was just really ready to do a bit of drama, since there had been quite a string of romantic comedies and light stuff, which is nice." Films such as Bridget Jones' Diary, Importance of Being Earnest, and the very slight Hollywood comedy What a Girl Wants and Hope Springs, for instance. "I had been looking for years looking to do something like Pearl Earrings. In fact it was really odd, because in the first week of Pearl Earrings, I just thought 'am I really doing something here where you don't have to be tongue in cheek'?"

It's no surprise of course that Firth is often sent "the light stuff" as he puts it, because for the classically trained actor, stardom occurred through the pages of Jane Austin and one Mr Darcy, who was the beginning of that phase in his career. "I think romance and comedy has obviously found a way to go hand in hand in popular culture and I think if you get successful in one thing, it makes you employable enough." Which is why Hollywood was quick to cast him in the light teen comedy What a Girl Wants, yet Firth denies that he opted to do that film – or any film for that matter – to raise his American profile. "it wasn't that conscious. I think a lot of what we do is very random and on the outside, it is often assumed that everybody has some sort of strategy. I often read an analysis of an actor's career and they talk about choices, in that they made bad choices for a while then good ones as if they were in a world of perfect choice. In fact, it is very odd, just looking back over the last few things, that I have done, I cannot see any pattern. Some of them worked out very badly and some of them worked out well, but there is no exact science."

Firth didn't need too much persuading to join first-time director Richard Curtis' ensemble romantic comedy Love Actually, which contains several disparate comedic tales of love and friendship.

Firth had worked with Curtis as a writer when he adapted Bridget Jones' Diary and understands his unique sense of humour. "He really does have this fantastically intelligent and self-deprecating wit that you associate with the films that he writes," Firth observes. "He is doing something, which however mainstream it is, is quite different from what other people do and I think that it is actually only mainstream because he single-handedly made it so. It is quite hard to write about middle-class professional people, which is usually the stuff of sitcoms, but he actually manages to get some drama out of it." Firth says that is especially evident in Love Actually, which is not all chuckles and guffaws. "Great drama comprises both comedy and tragedy, and I think Richard has been able to enmesh both and bring a genuine humanity to his work."

Much of Firth's sequences were shot early in the production schedule on location in the South of France, and says there were no major dramas working on what seemed like such a complex undertaking. "For me it was a simple pleasure from beginning to end. I think it was easy to say that because in some ways I could just jump right in and feel so little pressure as I'm not carrying the film. My whole story line could have been a total catastrophe and it wouldn't be the end of the world. I decided to see what would happen if I just allowed myself to be carried by someone who hasn't proved himself to be a master of this form. Also when my stuff was confined to the South of France, the schedule started with my scenes so it felt like it was my little movie for a while. Thus it was just easy to have a good time and get things right in 3 weeks."

Firth says he found it difficult to relate to the bumbling romantic he plays, mainly, he insists, "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." Nor as romantic, as he sees himself as "sporadically romantic which means that I don't have a permanent romantic view of life," says the cynical Firth. "I'm interested in emotion, its complications," he adds. "I'm not necessarily an optimist in terms of romantic love. I'm not the type of romantic who enjoys the weepy movie and then sighs sweetly about it. I'm more interested in the obstacles and the impossible than I am in resolution and happiness." Be that as it may, it's Firth's decade-old image of the shirtless Darcy that caused a plethora of females to figuratively kneel at his feet. Darcy still remains a part of Firth's legacy. "It doesn't go away. I am very surprised now, almost 10 years later it is still so present. I'm surprised it was a success at all at the beginning and then I was surprised that people were still talking about it after six months."

Firth was also labelled one of the sexiest men alive, which he found both embarrassing and weird, but delightful as well. "Everyone likes to be flattered but it is weird because there is no one way that you feel about that. You do wonder, I suppose, especially as your career has to continue, what it is going to mean and yet I don't think it has meant that much except that I have talked about it in most interviews," he says with a dry smile.

Firth prefers not to give his sex symbol image much thought. He is married to the Italian documentary maker Livia Giuggioli, whom he met in 1995 in Columbia while making Nostromo. Giuggioli gave birth to the couple's second son last month. Another long-term relationship with American actress Meg Tilly produced son Will, now 12, whom he visits frequently in Los Angeles. "Hey, I have a great life. I've got a nice home, great kids and a wife I love. So I feel blessed. But I consider myself a jobbing actor. I have to pay the bills. So I choose roles that interest me and allow me to get on with it."

Perhaps for that reason he allowed himself to play the predominantly silent, internal and not particularly sexy Vermeer, in this fictionalized story behind one of the 17th-century artist's most famous paintings, suggesting that the girl in the painting was a maid (Scarlett Johansson) and that his wife and family were scandalized that he would use the maid as a muse. Because not much is known about Vermeer, Firth had to invent him by looking at his painting which so happen to be scattered throughout the globe. "The tacit nature of the character has been drawn somewhat on the tacit nature of the paintings. You have this sense of quiet in the work within what must have necessarily been a chaotic household. There's no question about it, with 11 children running around. It was an active world. He grew up in a pub. The beer consumption was enormous. This was a world that wasn't as calm and tranquil as the paintings might lead you to believe." 

Firth says that he relishes the risk involved of starring in a slow-moving painting-like drama that is as distinctive from the likes of Love Actually as you can get. "But that's the fun of being an actor", says Firth, who, in one years, instils both laughter and tears from his audience. "There was a friend of mine who asked me years ago if my primary instinct was to make people laugh or cry. I had never seen it in those terms nor do I, but it was an interesting question to think about. I suppose this was in my early twenties and so without hesitation, I said 'cry'. It's more satisfying is to try to move people, hit the darker emotions rather than to uplift people and I actually think comedy is probably a lot harder."

We will continue to see both extremes of this most quintessential of British actors. After all, he is currently shooting the long-awaited sequel to Bridget Jones' Diaries, The Edge of Reason, due out later next year.  "I think everyone feels exactly the same about the sequel. It's worth doing if it's brilliant, otherwise you go into sequel purgatory. The first film is still so fresh in everyone's minds, which is what makes it so difficult to put together, because you really need the same three people to be available at the same time. That's a challenge."

Love Actually opens in limited release on November 7 before going wide on November 26.

Girl With A Pearl Earring opens limited on December 12 before going wider on Xmas Day.

"Colin Firth...about Love Actually and Girl With A Pearl Earring"

This is Lancashire

Firth is only half joking because Love Actually boasts a jaw-dropping line up of A-list, British and Hollywood talent, including Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Billy Bob Thornton, Alan Rickman, Rowan Atkinson, Laura Linney, Keira Knightly, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy and Martine McCutcheon in a part specially written for her.

Not surprisingly expectations surrounding the movie are riding high but early reviews have been glowing and Firth now says he needn't have spent sleepless nights worrying about his director.

"I think the film works fantastically well," he smiles.

`Richard has something like a 100% strike rate with everything he has done and you just can't believe he has pulled it off again with such an ambitious project."

It's not the first time the pair have worked together. Curtis wrote the screenplay for the Oscar nominated Bridget Jones, which starred Firth as Mark Darcy, suitor to the eternally single Bridget.

His role was another in a long line of tongue-tied, romantic leads in films such as Hope Springs, Fever Pitch and The Importance Of Being Earnest and one which continues with Love Actually.

In the star-studded movie, which interweaves 15 stories of love and heartbreak, Firth plays Jamie, a lovelorn writer who flees to France after being dumped and ends up falling for his young Portuguese housekeeper.

Although his winning portrayal will do no harm to his reputation as a romantic hero, Firth insists in real life he's much more cynical.

"I'm not nearly as nice as that guy," he says of his endearing on-screen character, "I don't feel like him at all. I wouldn't be as patient and I'm only sporadically romantic. I don't have a permanent romantic view of life. I'm not necessarily an optimist in terms of romantic love."

Even so, he'll still be remembered for creating one of the sexiest moments in TV history when, as Mr Darcy, he emerged complete with wet shirt and clinging jodhpurs from a lake. It wasn't just Miss Elizabeth Bennet who swooned, overnight that scene turned Firth into a major heartthrob.

Eight years on, he admits he's baffled by the continuing interest in his Pride And Prejudice success.

"I'm very surprised it's still so present and I'm surprised it was a success at all at the beginning," he shrugs. "It doesn't go away.''

Firth is also clearly uncomfortable at his sex symbol image saying. "It's just weird because there is no one way you can feel about that and you do wonder what it is going to mean as your career has to continue."

It doesn't seem to have done him any harm so far. As well as Love Actually, he's also starring in two of the other biggest movies of 2004 - Girl With A Pearl Earring and the Bridget Jones sequel.

Girl With A Pearl Earring, a sombre period drama in which he plays renowned Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, marks a change of pace for Firth and it's clear he couldn't wait to do something a little darker.

"I was just really ready to do a bit of drama, since there had been quite a lot of light stuff," he smiles.

Not that filming the Bridget Jones sequel was a barrel of laughs, either as Firth reveals an on-screen brawl with Hugh Grant's character left him lost for words, literally.

"I ended up losing my voice," he says. It was because I was freezing cold -we ended up in the water during our fight. I spent a couple of days in a very, very cold pond with Hugh Grant which left me a little worse for wear."

Despite the incredible success of the last Bridget Jones movie, Firth admits he was initially reluctant to reprise his role as Mark Darcy.

"A sequel is fraught with dangers. I think most of us were sceptical about it, but my fears were allayed the minute Renee (Zellweger) opened her mouth. I thought, she's great and we're going to want to see a lot more of this'."

The path of true love might not exactly run smoothly for Darcy and Jones, but off-screen Firth is happily married to the Italian documentary maker Livia Giuggioli.

The couple have two young children and Firth has another son Will, 12, from his relationship with American actress Meg Tilly.

And despite his flourishing workload Firth admits, there's only one thing that's really important to him - love, actually.

"They're the best thing and the main thing," he says of his children.

"My life revolves around them, everything else matters less."

"Interview with Colin Firth" by Matthew Turner.

ViewLondon.co.uk

We caught up with director Mark Herman and leading man Colin Firth in the run up to the release of their latest offering - Hope Springs…cue too much talking about Heather Graham's nudity contract.

Mark, I believe the townsfolk of the town you filmed in weren't exactly enamoured of having a film crew on their doorsteps. Can you tell us about that?

I think they'd had a bad experience with film crews before and there was a split camp about whether we were allowed to film there or not. There were one or two surprises - I remember they were supposed to close the roads for shooting, but then, suddenly at 3 o'clock in the afternoon there was traffic rumbling by.

So we had to find out own methods. There's a scene where Colin is unfortunately carrying Heather Graham, which he'd done far too much of already, and we had to basically get a gang of old age pensioners to actually walk across the street slowly and hold up traffic.

Was the weather as awful as we don't see on screen?

Yeah. Out of 45 days shooting we had 4 dry days. The most depressing aspect of that was that on the sunny days, because we were continuing a scene, we had to create our own rain. It was soul destroying, really.

Colin, how did you come across the novel?

Well, there was never any question that it wasn't going to be made into a film, partly for the prosaic reason that it's written almost entirely in dialogue form.

It just came recommended - I was having dinner with a friend who'd seen a preview of the galleys of it and he gave me a nod and said 'This has got your name on it, literally'. And by a strange coincidence, the rights to the novel belonged to the producer I was working with, so I was in a very strong position of being able to make a pest of myself and lobby for the job.

Colin, do you accept that there's a sort of Colin Firth part or type?

Well, I think it's far more easily identified by others than by me. I usually find when I get asked questions that it's some assumption about the type I'm playing. I got a new one recently - someone said 'You're always playing someone who's attracted to a woman'.

It used to be that I was always paranoid or a loser or something so there's usually something that you seem to associate yourself with at one time or another.

Is that an actor thing, because all parts are essentially autobiographical?

I think so, I mean essentially you are drawing on aspects of yourself. I think that acting is particular in that there's an emphasis in people's minds on changeability and versatility because acting is perceived to be the art of transforming yourself.

I actually don't see it like that…I find it far more interesting taking whatever it is that I might bring to a situation and applying it to the problems presented by a story. How do I deal with this? How can I make it truthful? But I think the nuances and details are the challenge.

In this case it appealed to me partly because it felt close to me in some ways. This is about a confused, bewildered middle class Englishman adrift in smalltown America and that has definitely been me.

What's been your own experience with America?

I have a very long relationship with America. My mother grew up there and I felt to some extent that I partly belong there. I was schooled there briefly for about a year. We've always been involved with America - I have a son who lives there and it's a big part of my life. 

This is the second time you've played an artist. Do you have any artistic talent?

None whatsoever. I have the level of talent where if I had a lifetime of lessons, I would never aspire to the kind of drawings you see in this film and I've actually just played Vermeer, so you can imagine how far I was from that, really. Basically hours of lessons just so I can look like someone who wouldn't drop his paintbrush.

Can I ask you about the undressing scenes? I thought the bouncing on the bed dance sequence was very discreetly filmed and I wondered whether that was in order to get a specific rating or whether it was at the actress's request?

Mark: The latter. In (Heather Graham)'s last two or three films she didn't seem to have any problems with that part of the contract but suddenly on ours she did. It actually caused a nightmare to shoot and she turned up on set with nipple plasters and so on.

But at the end of the day, if she had taken everything off, we still would have had to cut it out - it just meant that the filming of the scene took much longer.

Colin: You know, you do find though that actresses spend half their lives with people lobbying to take their clothes off and then they finally do it and they get crap for it for years. I mean people still hit Glenda Jackson with it now, still. I do think that if you do it once, no-one lets you forget it.

Mark: One of the ironies of the whole thing was that because of the way we had to shoot it, it meant that we had to do a re-shoot over here with a stand-in actress who basically had to sit in Colin's lap with her clothes off the entire afternoon.

Colin: I'm over it now. Well, the reason we had to re-shoot that scene was because the studio thought it was too naughty. This is a scene where we'd managed to get absolutely no nudity and no sexual activity whatsoever and the studio came through and said 'No, this is too dirty - you're going to have to make a less dirty moment there'.

How about the scene where you had to carry Heather Graham? What was that like?

Well, it was funny for other people. I was wearing appliances by the time we finished that. I mean, that's no slight on Heather - I could have been carrying a gerbil, the amount she put me through, and I'd have needed an osteopath.

Was the running smoking / non-smoking gag in the novel or did you elaborate a bit?

Mark: Well, it is in the novel, but I elaborated because I was trying to stop smoking as I was writing it.

Colin: America does have that effect on smokers though. The golf course really is the only place you can smoke!

What are you doing next? Are you going to do Bridget Jones 2?

I'll do Bridget Jones 2 if it's a good script. I won't be doing the Colin Firth bit though - they'll probably drop that. I'm just about to start something called Trauma, a psychological thriller by Marc Evans, who did My Little Eye.

"Hope Springs" by Jen Foley.

BBC.co.uk

Colin Firth is no stranger to romantic comedies, after wooing Renée Zellweger in "Bridget Jones's Diary" and being the jilted suitor in "Shakespeare in Love". Now he's involved in a bizarre love triangle with Minnie Driver and Heather Graham in "Hope Springs".

You fell love with Charles Webb's novel ("New Cardiff") before there was talk of a film. How did you come across it?

It just came recommended. I was having dinner with a friend who had a preview of the book and said: "This has got your name on it," and then a couple of days later I got the same message from another friend. I went to find it and by another coincidence, the guy who had the rights to it was the producer I was employed by at the time. So I was in very good position to lobby for it.

Do you accept there is a 'Colin Firth' role or character?

Yes, I think it is far more easily identified by other people than by me. I usually find when I get asked questions it's about assumptions about the types that I have been playing. It used to be that I was [playing someone] who was always paranoid, or a loser, and there is usually [a type] that you associate yourself with at one time or another.

Do you think all parts are essentially autobiographical?

I think so. I think like most creative pursuits you are drawing on aspects of yourself. [With acting] there is an emphasis in people's minds on changeability and versatility. I don't see it like that. Although I have made attempts at transformation, to a greater or a lesser success, I do find it quite a fun exercise. [But] I find it far more interesting taking a thing that I might bring to a situation and applying it to particular problems presented by a story - how can I make it truthful? In fact, I think it's harder in some ways to play a character closer to yourself. The nuances and the details that you are asked to deal with - that's where the challenges are. In this case, it appealed to me partly because it felt close to me in some ways - it's about a confused middle-class man adrift in smalltown America, and that has definitely been me!

Do you ever feel tempted to escape and hide away somewhere like Hope Springs?

I sort of try to do that at the same time as keeping [the career] alive. Funnily enough I lived in the place where we shot the film for five years [Firth lived in British Columbia in the early '90s, during his relationship with Meg Tilly], and it was five years in a log cabin, really. I came home, did work, and went back. So I wasn't totally escaping from it, but I do have a tendency to go and find a retreat somewhere.

You're playing an artist in this movie. Do you have any real artistic talent?

None whatsoever. I have the level of talent where I could never aspire to the sort of pictures you see in this film. I have just played Vermeer [in "Girl with a Pearl Earring"] and so you can imagine how far away I was from that. It was basically hours of lessons to look like someone who wouldn't drop his paintbrush.

The romance in "Hope Springs" involves matchmaking. Has it ever played a part in your life?

Not as applied to me, but I did make the mistake of matchmaking once - a heartbroken friend of mine and a girl I thought would be right for him, and I arranged some errand they could go on together. It worked, they fell in love and it was the most disastrous relationship. So t