Two names may come to mind when you think of charming British gentlemen. Colin Firth and Hugh Grant.
Did you know he regrets playing Mr. Darcy?
Would you like to learn more? Keep reading for more facts.
Colin Firth is a famous actor.
When he is performing, he is a brilliant actor.
While many know him for his period pieces, he has an impressive filmography.
We adore him and love watching him, but we don’t know much about him.
We are here to help with that.
There are some interesting facts about the brilliant actor. To find the facts you didn’t know about him, keep reading.
1. When he was a kid, his family moved a lot.
The family was often relocated because his dad was a teacher. Colin’s sister was born in Nigeria where they lived for a while.
He credits them for how he has turned out, even though they moved a lot and it was difficult for him to adjust.
2. His parents were upset that he chose acting over going to school.
“They were disappointed and alarmed. I kept hanging in by the skin of my teeth,” he told The Arts Desk.
Colin was helped with his shyness by acting.
3. He turned down the role in Bridget Jones’s Diary.
He told Cinema Blend that it was one of his most memorable roles.
“I started off thinking there was no way in with that character. I originally turned it down, because I didn’t think.”
He thought, “How do you play this guy who doesn’t do anything really?”
“He just sorts of stands around and scowls and looks imperious. And I thought, ‘Well, sure, I can do that, but will anyone give a damn? It’s not appealing!'”
4. He regrets his role in the movie Pride and Prejudice.
The actor said that playing the leading man hurt his career.
“[…] because it tended to create this image that can restrict what kind of roles you are going to be able to find,” he told Good Housekeeping.
5. The lake scene in Pride and Prejudice wasn’t supposed to be sexy.
This scene was when he got wet, so viewers could see his six-pack through his white shirt.
That wasn’t the intention.
Andrew Davies told the New York Times about the mini-series:
“It was simply meant to be an amusing moment in which Darcy tries to maintain his dignity while improperly dressed and sopping wet.”
There is a statue of Firth at Hyde Park in London.
After the lake scene was voted one of the most memorable, three sculptors created a statue of it. There are steamy scenes on British TV.
6. He doesn’t want to work with Woody Allen again.
He is not the only one. Dylan Farrow made sexual assault allegations against Allen.
Allen and Firth worked together on a movie.
7. He’s a family man.
Firth and his wife, Livia, have been together for over 20 years. They have two children. Luca and Matteo.
8. He liked working with Amanda Bynes.
They played father and daughter in the movie What a Girl Wants. “I was incredibly impressed with her,” he told UK Cinemas.
He said that he felt old since she was so talented at a young age.
9. The lake scene in Love, Actually was not very deep.
What about Colin and the lake scenes? After splashing around in the lake with his manuscript, he and Sienna Lúcia Moniz were secretly kneeling.
The lake was only 11 inches deep.
“No one inspected the depth of the lake, so you see them sort of lying around pretending to be swimming,” the director shared at the Montclair Film Festival.
10. He thought that Love, Actually would be a disaster.
He was worried that it would be too much for the writer/director to pull off.
Firth was proved wrong as it pulled in over $250 million worldwide.
11. Colin is fluent in Italian.
He picked up the language from being married to an Italian woman.
He showed off his skills in a speech at the Venice Film Festival.
12. He likes taking roles that explore real feelings people deal with every day that society doesn’t want them to talk about.
“Violence, hysteria, fear, paranoia, weakness, cowardice, which I think everybody lives with but they tend to be shameful emotions. I think it’s important to reflect them. I think also that the story about the bloke who’s absolutely fine isn’t really a story,” he said to The Arts Desk.
“And so the further you can go with the problems the more the story is there. It’s not really a question of how [expletive] up can I make this person? It’s more to do with how high can I make the stakes, how big can I make the obstacles?”
I do believe the drama is more interesting if the obstacles are bigger. I think the actor can make a choice there quite a lot.”
13. Firth felt like an outsider.
He didn’t have a chance to really stay in his hometown for a long time since he moved a lot.
He admitted that it made him feel a little bit out of place with the people around him.
14. He felt pressure to perform well in the movie The King’s Speech.
He knew how important it was to get the role right because he had played characters with similar issues in the past.
15. Unlabelled stories are important to him.
“People are people. We cannot live in a world where minorities of any kind aren’t given the same rights. I would love to be in a world where ethnicity and sexual orientation and choice of religion are not primary to how we judge them.”
“To say this [A Single Man] is a gay film is to say a film featuring an Asian person is an Asian film, or a film featuring a Jewish person is a Jewish film. A lonely man lost his lover, and that’s what we’re invited to respond to.”
“I don’t think anyone would call it a gay film after they finish watching it,” he told Fade In.
