Word: Richard Smith

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

Born in Hampshire, England, to a mother and father of missionary parents, Colin Firth had an unusual upbringing in terms of stability. Soon after his birth he lived in Nigeria, where his parents were teachers, for his first four years. He returned to England for the rest of his schooling except for a year in St. Louis, USA for a year when he was twelve.

Being a bit of an outsider, a troubled teen who “went to drama classes that I found the perfect antidote to school.” He initially took the drama classes because he “fancied the drama teacher Frida Kellsal” but it was her influence that gave him the confidence to pursue acting as a career. “She said to go ahead and do it – it was only then that it occurred to me that I could do it.”

At 18 Firth joined the National Youth Theatre in London, later took a position as tea-boy in the wardrobe department at Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre and subsequently enrolled at the reputably tough London Drama Centre that followed Stanislavsky’s style of teaching. His time at the London Drama Centre saw him garner numerous lead roles. His performance as Hamlet was witnessed by talent scouts who realised he had the right gumption to take over a leading role in a West End Play…

TREADING THE BOARDS

Firth replaced Daniel Day-Lewis in the stage play Another Country as the lead character, Guy Bennett, in the West End award winning play. He played the overtly homosexual public schoolboy based on the real life of Guy Burgess the British intelligence officer and double agent, who worked for the Soviet Union.

Another Country was made in to a movie and Firth was given the role of one of the other protagonists, the communist Tommy Judd, a character that he may have considered parodying himself in his own school years. He returned to his role in the stage production and then a television production of Camille, with an all-star cast but it wasn’t until over a decade later that he took on a role (that he had turned down on numerous occasions) that would catapult his fame.

MAINSTREAM RECOGNITION – DARCY I

His infamous role as Fitzwilliam Darcy in the 1995 miniseries adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice ended up melting the hearts (and moistening the loins) of a mass audience and firmly put Colin Firth’s name in mainstream entertainments vocabulary.

This breakthrough television role saw many scripts and offers come Firth’s way over the following years including a supporting role in the Oscar winning The English Patient in 1996. In the same year Firth worked with and met his wife Livi Guiggioli, an Italian film producer. He married Livi in 1997 and had two sons (Firth has a previous son, to which he is also devoted to, from Valmont co-star Meg Tilly).

DARCY II

Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Jones’ Diary, was pleased to snatch Firth for the role of Mark Darcy that was perfectly suited since the novel is loosely based on Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. The novel was made in to a blockbuster comedy film with Reneé Zellweger in the lead role and Firth as her eventual ‘Mr Right’.

With both successful theatre, film and television roles under his belt Colin Firth continued a steady stream of working in all outlets playing a broad range of characters including a Nazi (Conspiracy), an artist with Scarlett Johannson as his muse (A Girl With A Pearl Earring), a cheated husband who finds a new love (Love Actually), Mark Darcy once again in the Bridget Jone’s sequel (The Edge of Reason) and a single father in the a family movie (Nanny PcPhee).

His singing talents were tested in Mamma Mia (the second highest-grossing film of all time in the UK), that had an all-star cast including leading lady Meryl Streep. Luckily for him he was up against the lesser vocal abilities of Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgård. In this role he is one of the possible fathers of Meryl Streep’s daughter who later ‘comes out’ and gets together with a rather hot local Greek man!

CENTRE STAGE

The role of a lifetime came in Colin Firth’s sights after a meeting with fashion mogul, Tom Ford. They had met briefly at one of Madonna’s parties and then met again at the London Premiere of Mamma Mia by introduction through Tom Hanks and his wife. Ford realised Firth had all the right qualities to play the role of George Falconer after this meeting so he asked the Hanks’ for Firth’s email address and contacted him directly. Firth was greatly impressed by the eloquence of Ford’s email and by the sccripts’ sensibility and came onboard for the lead role in A Single Man.

A Single Man, in Firth’s words “Takes place as a day in the life of an English Professor in LA, a guy who has lost his lover in a car accident and decided to kill himself” says Firth “…his pursuits in that day are what changes the outcome of his plans.”

On working with first time film director, Tom Ford, Firth states “Tom Ford sets a tone that’s very clear and makes it very clear the direction in which he wants the character to go rather than manipulating you as an actor. He makes you feel his vision so that it becomes your vision and you feel eager to express it.”

DS: The challenging role of George Falconer covers many emotions throughout a day in his life but perhaps more challenging still were the confines of the tight filming schedule of just 21 days…did Colin feel this added pressure to the workload or under pressure did this extract a better performance?

I didn’t have much time to prepare for the role…and this is very hard to know. The film schedule was worked out really well. I wouldn’t recommend a shortage of filming time but it is odd that it can often work out in a given situation. Your performance can be enriched by a crisis. If I had a choice I would prefer a longer filming time-frame as would any actor.

Ted Hughes [the poet laureate] was known, in the situation of suffering writers-block, to give himself 10 minutes to write a poem – and this pressure would enable him to break away from writers block. The other benefit in the filming of A Single Man is that Tom is very calm and there was never any sense that we were in any haste. This showed the value of a true director.

DS: At the UK premier of A Single Man Firth stated that “there might be risks for a gay actor coming out” and that “If you’re a gay man and you want to play a straight role, you don’t get cast – and if a gay man wants to play a gay role now, you don’t get cast.” Does he think this problem is due to the studios fear of popularity of gay actors in lead roles for the mass audience?

I’ve waded into something here. But talking to gay friends who are actors – and by a casual look around it’s not easy to disprove. It’s more the Hollywood ethos because in the theatre this is never a hurdle and many gay actors are seen in leading roles. Equally there is no fear of bias on a personal level as the industry embraces homosexual actors, no-one in the industry seems in any way homophobic – it only seems to raise the problem when it comes to casting.

I can think of many examples where straight actors have been rewarded for playing gay roles and in retrospect, on discussion with friends, it’s even harder for gay actors to get gay roles rather than straight roles. In Hollywood sexuality is your currency…”

DS: With A Single Man, it is refreshing to watch a film with a homosexual lead character and a storyline that doesn’t focus on homosexuality, or coming out etc. Does Firth think this film could be seen as a breakthrough for cinema and more significantly ‘gay cinema’?

I don’t feel that I am qualified to answer that question – I would love for that to be true! The movie doesn’t stand out as a movie that promotes the movement. In fact George’s homosexuality has little to do with the movie, the film just chooses not to ignore it. I feel that [in a gay cinema context] it is something progressive it would be absurd to marginalise or focus on [homosexuality]. If you did it would make it mainstream. Because George is a widower, the sex is not in the present tense and far more inclusive for that reason.

A Single Man is universal in the material it covers. Everyone can relate to the subjects it covers like pain and solitude, love and loss and that love is all.

The role of George Falconer has already won him international awards including the BAFTA for Best Actor and with an Oscar nomination for the 2010 Academy Awards this not-so-single man’s star is bright (and by the time some of you read this, I’m sure that a golden statuette will be in his hands).