What next for Mr Firth?
It was the role that made Colin Firth a global icon. But there’s a new Mr Darcy at Pemberley – and his name is Matthew Rhys. The 38-year-old Welsh actor will play the character in a forthcoming BBC adaptation of the PD James novel, Death Comes To Pemberley. The story imagines a married Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet six years after Pride And Prejudice – and adds a thrilling murder-mystery into the mix.
Rhys certainly understands that he has a lot to live up to, happily admitting in a recent Daily Mail interview that Firth would beat him in a wet cotton shirt competition, and revealing that he won’t be trying to recreate that scene. ‘Colin is so rooted in the national psyche,’ said Rhys, ‘it would be almost sacrilegious to try to do it – it’s a level of comparison I wouldn’t want. He looked good. Really good… that scene resonated so much.’
In fact, given the roll call of legendary actors who have played the part in the past, Mr Darcy is a particularly daunting role for any actor to take on. ‘Laurence Olivier played him, Colin Firth nailed it, as did Matthew Macfadyen, so there are instant comparisons to be drawn. My saving grace is that it’s not Pride And Prejudice, it’s Pemberley. It’s several years on and he’s a very different Darcy.’
But while Firth will not be reprising Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy in the foreseeable future, there’s every possibility that he will soon return as uptight barrister Mark Darcy, in the Bridget Jones films. A third film, Bridget Jones’s Baby, is currently in development with the original cast, including Firth, while Helen Fielding’s latest Bridget Jones novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, is to be published on 10 October. A film version of Mad About The Boy will doubtless follow.
What is certain, however, is that Firth has been working on The Railway Man. The film is based on the harrowing true story of British Army officer Eric Lomax, who spent much of the Second World War as a Japanese prisoner-of-war, working on the infamous …and what next for It’s years since he was last spotted at Pemberley, but could Colin Firth’s latest role win him a second Oscar? ‘New Mr Darcy Matthew Rhys admits that Colin Firth would beat him in a wet cotton shirt competition’ Burma Railway. Lomax was left emotionally scarred by his experiences, but in 1993 reconciled with one of his former torturers, Nagase Takashi. He subsequently published his memoirs, The Railway Man, in 1995.
Starring as Lomax, Firth has lost plenty of weight for the role and was pictured looking noticeably slimmer at a recent London party, hosted by designer Tom Ford. Indeed, in the past, he has spoken of the importance of appearance when trying to make a role his own.
‘Some people spend days, weeks even, getting inside a character, getting under his skin, working out how he thinks, what makes him tick. ‘My secret is that I get outside the character. Take my character in A Single Man [for which he was nominated for an Oscar]. It’s the big glasses that draw you in; make George’s anguish believable.’
Tragically, Lomax died last October, but in 2011 Firth travelled to Berwick to meet the war hero at his home, where they enjoyed a lunch prepared by Lomax’s wife, Patti.
Firth has already won a Best Actor Oscar for one wartime role – as George VI in The King’s Speech. Can he now repeat that achievement as a heroic prisoner-ofwar?
Our bet? Yes he can.
Rhys certainly understands that he has a lot to live up to, happily admitting in a recent Daily Mail interview that Firth would beat him in a wet cotton shirt competition, and revealing that he won’t be trying to recreate that scene. ‘Colin is so rooted in the national psyche,’ said Rhys, ‘it would be almost sacrilegious to try to do it – it’s a level of comparison I wouldn’t want. He looked good. Really good… that scene resonated so much.’
In fact, given the roll call of legendary actors who have played the part in the past, Mr Darcy is a particularly daunting role for any actor to take on. ‘Laurence Olivier played him, Colin Firth nailed it, as did Matthew Macfadyen, so there are instant comparisons to be drawn. My saving grace is that it’s not Pride And Prejudice, it’s Pemberley. It’s several years on and he’s a very different Darcy.’
But while Firth will not be reprising Jane Austen’s Mr Darcy in the foreseeable future, there’s every possibility that he will soon return as uptight barrister Mark Darcy, in the Bridget Jones films. A third film, Bridget Jones’s Baby, is currently in development with the original cast, including Firth, while Helen Fielding’s latest Bridget Jones novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, is to be published on 10 October. A film version of Mad About The Boy will doubtless follow.
What is certain, however, is that Firth has been working on The Railway Man. The film is based on the harrowing true story of British Army officer Eric Lomax, who spent much of the Second World War as a Japanese prisoner-of-war, working on the infamous …and what next for It’s years since he was last spotted at Pemberley, but could Colin Firth’s latest role win him a second Oscar? ‘New Mr Darcy Matthew Rhys admits that Colin Firth would beat him in a wet cotton shirt competition’ Burma Railway. Lomax was left emotionally scarred by his experiences, but in 1993 reconciled with one of his former torturers, Nagase Takashi. He subsequently published his memoirs, The Railway Man, in 1995.
Starring as Lomax, Firth has lost plenty of weight for the role and was pictured looking noticeably slimmer at a recent London party, hosted by designer Tom Ford. Indeed, in the past, he has spoken of the importance of appearance when trying to make a role his own.
‘Some people spend days, weeks even, getting inside a character, getting under his skin, working out how he thinks, what makes him tick. ‘My secret is that I get outside the character. Take my character in A Single Man [for which he was nominated for an Oscar]. It’s the big glasses that draw you in; make George’s anguish believable.’
Tragically, Lomax died last October, but in 2011 Firth travelled to Berwick to meet the war hero at his home, where they enjoyed a lunch prepared by Lomax’s wife, Patti.
Firth has already won a Best Actor Oscar for one wartime role – as George VI in The King’s Speech. Can he now repeat that achievement as a heroic prisoner-ofwar?
Our bet? Yes he can.