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THINK of Colin Firth and
you automatically conjure up an image of tight breeches and
a dripping wet shirt.
Ever since his
unforgettably dashing portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the TV
adaptation of the Jane Austen classic, Pride And Prejudice -
including that lakeside scene - Firth has become synonymous
with "brooding, romantic hero".
But according to the star,
his real character couldn't be more different. He admits
he's dark, but not in the brooding sense.
"I'm fascinated by dark
dreams, by the gloomy side of life," he says with an uneasy
smile. "When it comes to music or literature, I'm definitely
drawn to the dark stuff."
In fact the star says he'd
much rather ditch the romantic leads for a bit of horror,
and reckons his new film, a Hitchcockian thriller called
Trauma is closer to the real Colin Firth than any of his
previous roles.
"It sounds a bit cheesy,
but making Trauma did feel like a homecoming to me," he
reveals. "I've really enjoyed stuff that's happened over the
last few years but it was hard to find anyone who would put
me in anything like Trauma and I had a real hankering for
that sort of material.
"When I was on the set, I
thought I could really spend my life doing this sort of
stuff. And when I saw it too, I felt I just wanted to do
films like this."
Yet, somehow you get the
feeling this might not happen.
After all this is the man
who single handedly made Jane Austen sexy and defined
romance in hit films such as Love Actually, Girl With A
Pearl Earring and Bridget Jones's Diary.
Those roles have helped
him, not only to become one of Britain's most successful
leading men, but also one of its sexiest.
However, it's not an image
that sits comfortably with the Hampshire-born star, who has
just turned 44.
"It's utterly bizarre to
hear people discussing me in sexual terms. It's not
something I'm used to," he says looking horribly
embarrassed.
"I'm just glad I didn't
achieve my so-called status until I was 35. The truth is,
before I met my wife, I only had two girlfriends.
"When I met her parents,
who live in Italy, I jokingly mentioned that I was something
of a sex god in England and they burst out laughing," he
says, laughing himself.
Sex symbol or not, Firth
clearly only has eyes for one woman, his stunning wife,
Italian documentary-maker Livia Giuggioli
The pair met on the set of
the 1995 movie, Nostromo, and married two years later. The
couple have two sons, Matteo, born in August last year, and
three-year-old Luca. Firth also has another 13-year-old son,
Will, who lives in America with his mother, actress Meg
Tilly.
"My life revolves around
my family," he says. "But, obviously you do wonder if you're
giving them enough time."
It's a particular worry
for the hard-working star, who says he becomes "completely
absorbed" in his roles, and none more so than his latest.
In Trauma (pictured), he
plays a man who enters a nightmare world after waking from a
coma to discover his wife, Elisa (Naomie Harris) has been
killed in a car crash.
Firth's character, Ben,
owns an ant farm and, though it meant sharing his scenes
with dozens of creepy crawlies, the star took it in his
stride.
"I'm no great lover of
them, but I'm not phobic," he says of the spiders and ants.
"I think I just have a fairly normal revulsion to being
covered in ants. I got to quite like the spider actually,"
he adds with a smile.
Happily, his next bunch of
co-stars are far more pleasing on the eye. Renee Zellweger,
Hugh Grant and Firth are all reprising their roles in the
eagerly-awaited Bridget Jones sequel, The Edge Of Reason.
And though he can't say too much about the film, he does
reveal that fans are in for a treat.
"The script is very, very
funny," he smiles. "It's strange, but I don't actually
remember even signing up for a sequel, but somehow I seemed
to have ended up in it.
"I think myself and Hugh
would have been the bad guys if we hadn't have agreed to do
it.
"But though a sequel is
fraught with danger and most of us were sceptical about
doing another Bridget Jones, any fears we did have were
allayed the minute Renee opened her mouth," he laughs.
"I thought, 'She's great.
This is going to be fun', and it is."
And whether he likes it or
not, the next Bridget Jones installment won't do anything to
dent that sexy image he's desperately trying to shake off.
But he should count
himself lucky. If the Pride And Prejudice programme-makers
had had their way, we would have seen a whole lot more of
Mr.
Darcy.
"I still find it amusing
that what the public doesn't know is that the original
screenplay for Pride And Prejudice called for Mr. Darcy to
jump into the pond nude," he reveals with a chuckle.
"But of course, we
couldn't do that because it was for the BBC on Sunday
evening." |