http://news.therecord.com/arts/article/345127
'I'm just an actor' TheRecord.com - arts -
Starring in four upcoming films. Interviewing Snoop Dogg in Amsterdam. Singing for ABBA's Benny and Björn. Kissing a transvestite played by Rupert Everett. Raising three children.; A look behind the scenes of Colin Firth's frantic, happy life. (Just don't
Nancy Mills
New York Times news services
Mention the name "Darcy" and Colin Firth doesn't exactly cringe, but he isn't thrilled either.
"It does haunt me," he says, referring to the character in Pride and Prejudice (1995) that made him an international star. "I joked the other day, 'I should change my name to 'Mr. Darcy' and be done with it."'
Firth's work in that much-admired miniseries, based on Jane Austen's novel, launched a new wave of Austenmania and propelled Firth, 47, into a wide range of roles that might otherwise have eluded a British actor uninterested in leaving England for Hollywood.
In the next few months alone, he'll be seen in four movies: He's one of the possible fathers in the musical Mamma Mia!, playing opposite Meryl Streep, and will co-star with Helen Hunt in the romantic comedy Then She Found Me. He's the son in When Did You Last See Your Father?, a family drama with Jim Broadbent as the father, and the fiancé of Uma Thurman's character in The Accidental Husband.
And he has four more awaiting release, ranging from the bawdy British comedy St. Trinian's and the low-budget drama Genova to an adaptation of Noel Coward's play Easy Virtue. He's also rumoured to be involved in a version of A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey.
After years of struggle Firth sounds genuinely content, although he doesn't readily admit it. "I'm not a person who spends 24 hours a day basking in joy," he murmurs in his typically self-deprecating manner, speaking by telephone from Italy, where he and his wife, documentary maker Livia Giuggioli, have a second home.
"But I'm happy with the way things are. In these last couple of years, I couldn't have asked for more variety and stimulation.
"For my wife's documentary In Prison My Whole Life (about imprisoned political activist and former Black Panther member Mumia Abu-Jamal), I was sitting in a room in Amsterdam interviewing Snoop Dogg on a Wednesday. Two days later, I was singing for Benny and Bjorn (Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba, whose music provides the score for Mamma Mia!). The week before I was kissing a transvestite, played by Rupert Everett, for St. Trinian's. I was also working with Michael Winterbottom on Genova, which is about grief and death.
"I'm just an actor!," he exclaims. "To be going through all these things is incredibly fortunate."
And he hasn't even mentioned the two movies, now open. In Then She Found Me, which marks Hunt's feature-film directorial debut, Firth plays her character's potential sweetheart.
"The film offers a good balance of showing the defects in people's ability to conduct relationships," he says. "It allows everyone to be sympathetic while seeing the little and big disappointments we inflict on each other.
Firth's parents didn't initially encourage his aspirations.
"I remember watching a crowd scene on television," Firth says, "and my mom said, 'See all those people walking up and down the street? They're actors.' It was a case of 'Do you want to do that? Because that's what most actors do -- you've got two people doing dialogue in front and 200 people walking in the back.' That certainly wasn't my ambition."
As it turned out, Firth became one of the two people in front. He studied at the London Drama Centre, played Hamlet, found an agent, got cast in the West End production of Another Country (1983) and then starred in the 1984 film version. Since then he has worked steadily, making more than 50 films, including The English Patient (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Bridget Jones' Diary (2001), in which he played Mark . . . Darcy.
This summer's Mamma Mia! will give audiences a chance to see Firth's musical side. He sings ABBA's Our Last Summer -- not the group's biggest hit, which is fine with Firth.
"It's not hugely well known," he says, "so I'm not on sacred ground."
Nevertheless, the chances of his becoming a pop star are slight at this point.
"It's sad to let go of some of your dreams," he says, "but I think that one can go. I still have a private fantasy that it would be nice, so I haven't totally grown out of it. But do I really see it in my future? No. I'm not going to move over into rock 'n' roll now -- although I have to say, when I was doing Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003) and they gave me that long hair, my instinct was to get in front of a mirror and put a guitar on."
Recently Firth has begun to reorder his priorities, for which he gives partial credit to When Did You Last See Your Father?
"This movie is not just about the death of a father," he says. "It's about being a dad, and I'm a dad. Rarely do I do a film that wakes me up, but this one has made me want to be careful. I want to make sure I don't harm the people around me."
Firth has three sons, the eldest, 17-year-old Will, from a four-year relationship with Meg Tilly, his co-star in Valmont (1989). He and Giuggioli, whom he met while making the miniseries Nostromo (1996), have seven-year-old Luca and four-year-old Mateo.
"I'm not prepared to recklessly abandon myself to my job," Firth says.
"What happens when I come home is what it's all about. I want my life to be more important than my work.
"I think I'm moving in that direction," he concludes.
"I'm mellowing in my dotage."
