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Cindy Pearlman
NYT Syndicate
It's been five years since Colin Firth won an Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance in The King's Speech (2010), and since then he hardly seems to have slowed down enough to catch his breath.
He's been seen in 10 films since then, ranging from a Woody Allen comedy to an action-packed spy drama, playing everything from a deranged killer to a traumatised World War II veteran, and he shows no signs of easing off anytime soon: Genius, set to open nationwide on June 17, is the first of three films in which he'll be seen this year, along with the ocean-going drama Deep Water and Bridget Jones's Baby, the second sequel to the hit romantic comedy Bridget Jones's Diary (2001).
Firth specialises in meticulous, inhibited Englishmen on the big screen, but in a recent telephone interview the 55-year-old actor came across as funny, relaxed and not the least bit uptight.
Genius casts him as book editor Maxwell Perkins, who during his four decades at the prestigious publisher Charles Scribner's Sons edited the work of Erskine Caldwell, F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, James Jones, Alan Paton, Thomas Wolfe and other legendary literary figures.
Based on A Scott Berg's best-selling Max Perkins: Editor of Genius (Dutton, 1978), which won the National Book Award, the film co-stars Nicole Kidman as costume designer Aline Bernstein, Wolfe's girlfriend during the late 1920s, with Jude Law as Wolfe, Guy Pearce as Fitzgerald and Dominic West as Hemingway.
Ironically, the film is filled with famous names but is about Perkins, who was unknown to the public and liked it that way.
"This was an interesting piece," Firth said,"given that we live in times when people covet fame and document every moment with selfies. Max was heroic because he wasn't on the front lines. He was a facilitator of others' talents.
"Without him, these authors wouldn't have achieved what they achieved," the actor continued."His eyes, ear, judgment and integrity were so finely tuned. But he didn't want any credit. He wanted to remain invisible."
The same could be said of King George VI, the stuttering accidental monarch Firth played in The King's Speech, and many of the other characters he has played through the years.
"Of course, it's not the first time I've played a rather restrained man in a suit," he admitted.
Genius focuses primarily on Perkins's work with Wolfe, a loose cannon whose obvious literary talent was matched by his frenetic energy and his inability to concentrate on anything for long ” in short, a writer who desperately needed an editor's guiding hand.
"Taking a character like Max and pitting him against someone whose energy is completely contrary to his was a very interesting challenge for all of us," Firth said."My instinct was to take Max even further into repressed silence, which is how he was observed to be. People talked about Max being barely audible at times. Meanwhile Jude is jumping off the walls and swinging from the chandeliers."
To prepare for the role, Firth buried his nose in books.
"It was a discovery for me," the actor said."I'd never read a word of Wolfe. The quantity was so vast. Nothing of Wolfe's source work was lost. It went into short stories and subsequent novels. It's all there."
He also rediscovered a past literary favourite.
"I think I misjudged F Scott Fitzgerald as a young man," Firth said."I thought he was writing beautifully about wealth and status. But Perkins was astute enough to realise that he was underestimated and was really writing about the poverty of the spirit and disillusionment of men and women.
"I fell in love with Fitzgerald all over again."
Firth grew up in Hampshire, England, the son of two teachers: Shirley Jean Rolles, a comparative-religion lecturer at the Open University, and David Firth, a history lecturer at Winchester University College. He spent his early childhood in Nigeria, where three of his four grandparents were Methodist missionaries, but was brought back to England at 5. He first became interested in acting via school productions, and went on to study at Drama Centre London.
His professional career began onstage, in the West End production of Another Country (1983), and thereafter he worked steadily on stage, on television and in films.
It was the miniseries 'Pride and Prejudice' (1995), in which he played the brooding Mr. Darcy opposite Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth Bennet, that made Firth a sex symbol, first in England and then in the United States. He's been a star ever since, mixing drama and lighter fare in such films as The English Patient (1996), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually (2003), Mama Mia! (2008) and A Single Man (2009), which earned him his first Oscar nomination.
The King's Speech won him the Oscar, one of four the film won, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. Helena Bonham Carter was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Queen Mary, while Geoffrey Rush earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his work as unorthodox speech therapist Lionel Logue.
The Academy Award changed his life, Firth said, but only to a certain degree. After all, he'd been a movie star years before Oscar came calling.
"Things did get busier in terms of what the possibilities were for me, which was and is quite exciting," he said."But in the end you can only film one movie at a time. You can only get into the skin of one character each day.
"And, in the end, it's still a spin of the dice," Firth continued."It was a spin of the dice before I won the Oscar, and it will remain a spin of the dice for the rest of my career.
"I don't think my name translates into box office," he added."I'm not valuable financially in that way."
That may or may not be true. Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), a comic-book-based action film in which he played a dapper superspy, scored a worldwide hit and earned $414 million, in the process winning Firth a new generation of fans. A sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, is due in 2017.
"One of the things that makes you want to act, speaking only for myself, is this ability to suspend disbelief and enter this story world, which 'Kingsman' allowed me to do," he said."It was like stepping into the shoes of the people who were my heroes growing up. My character in 'Kingsman' was like the Henry Higgins of the spy world."
Later this year Firth will be seen in the based-on-fact drama Deep Water as Donald Crowhurst, a Brit whose 1968 attempt to win a prestigious round-the-world yachting race went awry in unexpected ways. Then there's Bridget Jones's Baby, in which he will return as Mark Darcy, the romantic ideal of Bridget (Renee Zellweger), with Emma Thompson and Patrick Dempsey also along for the ride.
"I used to joke that we needed to show my decrepitude in this one," Firth said with a laugh."All I can say is that I'm happy because I love these characters. Audiences are so invested in these characters, and for so many years I've been constantly asked about the next chapter. I know the fans are really excited."
Bridget Jones's Baby and Kingsman: The Golden Circle are both big-studio films, but count on Firth to keep offbeat fare such as Genius and Deep Water on his slate as well.
"I'm still attracted to the stranger, smaller films that offer that insight into a life," he said,"even if they don't top the box office."
The King's Speech did score at the box office, of course, despite not being obvious multiplex fare, but Firth has learned to temper his hopes and fears alike.
"I don't dwell on expectations," he said."I've also always been someone who likes to keep my expectations in check. Even in the happiest moments, I know that they will pass. If you think this way, then you savor the best of times."
Firth and his wife, producer/director Livia Giuggioli, live in London and in Italy with their sons, 15-year-old Luca and 12-year-old Matteo.
At home, the actor insisted, he's anything but a restrained man in a suit, and he wouldn't mind bringing some of that wild-and-crazy Colin Firth into his work.
"As much as I find repression interesting on screen, because it's such a mystery, if someone wants me to wear a mankini in a film, I'm available," Firth said."I'm ready to burst out of a cake!"
