Authors: Alison Maloney
Colin Firth
With thanks to Jim and Rob
First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
Michael O’Mara Books Limited
9 Lion Yard
Tremadoc Road
London SW4 7NQ
Copyright © Michael O’Mara Books Limited 2011
All rights reserved. You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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ISBN: 978-1-84317-688-6 in hardback print format
ISBN: 978-1-84317-717-3 in trade paperback format
ISBN: 978-1-84317-720-3 in EPub format
ISBN: 978-1-84317-721-0 in Mobipocket format
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Cover design by Ana Bjezancevic
Front cover: Craig Barritt / Getty images for AFI.
Designed and typeset by Ana Bjezancevic
Printed in the UK by CPI Mackays, Chatham, ME5 8TD
2.
Acting Up
3.
The Past is Another Country
9.
True Romance
11.
Stage Fright
12.
Darcy Revisited
14.
Hollywood Hope
15.
Love and Beauty
17.
Man on a Mission
18.
Father and Mamma
20.
A King Among Men
OREWORD
T
HE
MOMENT
I fell for actor Colin Firth was not, as it was with most fervent fans, the iconic scene when he emerged dripping and indignant from the pond in
Pride and Prejudice
. It was when he proved his heroic worth by coming to my rescue, in real life, and being every inch the gentleman off the screen as he was on.
The occasion was a press junket for
St. Trinian’s
at a posh London hotel, where Colin was paired up with the executive producer and co-star Rupert Everett for all interviews. Despite the boarding school remake being his own project, Rupert appeared, looking unshaven and grumpy, in a shell suit, and slumped in his seat with little more than a glare in my direction. By contrast, Colin, casually dressed in a black jumper and smart jeans, greeted me with a winning smile and a warm welcome.
Throughout the interview, every time Rupert responded to my questions with a monosyllabic and sullen tone, his charming co-star jumped in with chatty, frank and downright witty replies.
As the interview drew to a close I felt an overwhelming rush of gratitude for this self-effacing star, who laughs off his ‘sex-god’ image and greets plaudits and awards with a look of slight embarrassment. And I was smitten.
We have met many times, before and since, and he is never less than enthralling. A devoted family man with a deep-seated perspective and a strong sense of injustice when it comes to political matters, Colin is intelligent, articulate and friendly. While writing this biography, and in talking to many actors and directors who have worked with Colin throughout the years, a picture emerges of a hugely likeable man who commands both respect and affection from everyone he meets.
Despite fame, fortune and female adulation he remains a truly charming man.
NTRODUCTION
‘D
ARCY?
B
UT
ISN’T
he supposed to be sexy?’
This damning indictment was Jonathan Firth’s reaction to brother Colin’s casting in
Pride and Prejudice
.
Yet in 1995 his taciturn romantic hero made TV history when he emerged from an impromptu dip in the lake, with the merest glimpse of flesh showing through his soaking-wet white shirt. Half the nation swooned and the thirty-five-year-old actor became the thinking woman’s sex symbol, taking on a persona that was to prove both a blessing and a curse in the years to come.
Now the Oscar-winning star of
The King’s Speech
, Colin’s life has been one of contradictions. He is the quintessential Englishman who spent his early life in Nigeria and a year in the States, has an Italian wife and a Canadian son. He is perceived as a public school toff, even though he went to a secondary modern in Hampshire. He is the romantic lead
who has had only three serious girlfriends and is devoted to his wife; the rom-com star who prefers dark, twisted characters to comedy.
A nomadic childhood in Nigeria, Missouri, Essex and Winchester left Colin feeling like an outsider and yet, by forcing him to change in order to blend in, steered him towards his chosen career. Before he had finished drama school, Colin had been cast in a hit West End play, which resulted in a film role, and he hasn’t stopped working since. Picking up his Oscar for
The King’s Speech
in 2011, he joked, ‘I have a feeling my career just peaked.’ In fact it was the highest pinnacle of the many he conquered throughout his career, which had often seen him reach the verge of greatness, only for him to come across another trough.
‘I have this weird thing where I keep getting discovered,’ he says. ‘
Another Country
was a break for me, then
Tumbledown
was another break. Everyone talked about the fact that nobody knew me until then, then Darcy came along and the same was said again. Then
Bridget Jones
– and still no one knew me.’
When offered the part of the dashing Mr Darcy in
Pride and Prejudice
, Colin was thirty-four, and considered himself past the age of the romantic lead. But his smouldering performance – and that iconic lake scene – set him on a path that would take him from heart-throb to national treasure, through roles as Renée Zellweger’s suitor in
Bridget Jones’s
Diary
, one of three potential fathers in
Mamma Mia!
and grieving university professor in
A Single Man
.
But it was his portrayal of stammering monarch George VI in
The King’s Speech
that would bring Colin out of the shadow cast by Jane Austen’s hero. At fifty, Colin is happier than he’s ever been. He has a beautiful wife and three sons,
whom he adores, his career is soaring and his mantelpiece is groaning with awards. And the aristocratic Mr Darcy has finally been trumped by a king.
This book traces the highs and lows of the esteemed actor’s life and career, from his unconventional childhood and unhappy schooldays, the college days that turned him
around and his early career. We trace the inside story of his rift with Rupert Everett, his playful rivalry with Hugh
Grant, his years in the wilderness with Meg Tilly and the moment he fell in love with his stunning Italian wife, Livia.
Find out about the causes that move him to direct action
and the family that keep him grounded.
The first ever biography traces the route from Hampshire to Hollywood, via stately homes and sumptuous palaces, and gives a true insight into one of Britain’s greatest actors.
HAPTER
1
Out of Africa
O
N
A
WARM
, sunny day in 1995, Colin Firth stood by a cool, clear lake in the grounds of Cheshire’s beautiful Lyme Hall. As the cameras started to roll he slowly stripped off his jacket and waistcoat for the scene that would change his life for ever.
Yet, ringing in his ears were the words of his younger brother and one or two female friends who had expressed amazement at his casting as the ‘dashing and handsome’ Mr Darcy in the BBC’s production of
Pride and Prejudice
. Secretly, the thirty-four-year-old agreed with their harsh assessment.
‘I am totally unlike him,’ he told the
Daily Express
some years later. ‘He was this taciturn, dark, sexy guy and that is just not me. He rode horses and owned a wonderful home in Derbyshire. I ride a bike, talk a lot and do not live in luxury.
‘I nearly turned it down because I could not have been more wrong for the role. And that one decision, had I gone ahead with it, would have changed my life.’
Mr Darcy’s impromptu dip, and subsequent stilted conversation with Elizabeth Bennet as he stood, dripping and abashed, in a white shirt and breeches, would become one of the most iconic scenes in TV history. But it was to prove a double-edged sword. While launching a career which most fledgling actors can only dream of, Darcy was to become a ‘part-time burden’ which would stay with him for the next fifteen years. Journalists would raise the name of Austen’s surly hero in every interview, casting directors would struggle to see beyond the curly mop and white breeches, and even his wife Livia would tease him when he clambered out of bed looking less than perfect with a cheeky, ‘Oh look, it’s Mr Darcy!’
‘It got my name recognized but it also put me in a box,’ he told
The Times
in 2007. ‘Things were going well; I was building a diverse working life. Twelve years on it feels like a school nickname you can’t shake. It occurred to me the other day to change my name to Mr Darcy and be done with it.’
The part had him pigeonholed as ‘posh totty’, the strong, silent type. He was the quintessentially English heart-throb with the cut-glass accent and, many assumed, a wealthy family and public school upbringing. In fact, the public perception of Colin Firth was way off the mark. The future star had a nomadic childhood in Africa, England and America and a chequered education in a variety of state schools. A search back into the Firth line shows no links to landed gentry and no Jane Austen-style fortune. As Colin himself asserts, ‘I don’t own a horse or acres of property. I’m a secondary-modern school kid with no links to nobility. Yet I played this taciturn, dark, sexy guy and everyone remembers it.’
• • •
Colin’s parents, David Norman Lewis Firth and Shirley Jean Rolles, were both born in India where their own parents were missionaries. His paternal grandfather, Cyril Bruce, was an ordained minister and the son of a wool merchant from Huddersfield. Shortly after graduating from Cambridge in 1930, he moved to the Indian province of Bellary, where he would preach for nineteen years.