Colin Firth Interview (The Vine)

BY SADMAN ON FEB 14 2012, 09:00AM

 Words and interview by Dee Jefferson.


 In Venice for the premiere of Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, based on the best-selling John le Carré spy thriller, Academy Award-winner Colin Firth talks about the film, the director, his relationship with Italy (where he lives sometimes, with his wife, Italian film producer/director Livia Giuggioli), and his relationship with his own acting work.

 In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Firth plays Bill Hayden (nicknamed ‘Tailor’ for his sartorial affectations), one of four suspected moles at the top of the British Secret Service (aka The Circus). The ensemble cast includes British acting royalty Gary Oldman and John Hurt, and rising stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy.


How did you feel you were a good fit for playing this particular role? 
I didn’t actually, I thought it was a stretch – but it was fascinating for all sorts of reasons (some of which we can’t talk about because of how the film ends). You know, you can pick any of these characters in this story – or any of Le Carré’s books, really – and they’re a gift for actors, because he specialises in the layers, and the hidden layers, of people; their mixed motives and hidden motivations, that sort of thing. It’s what he writes about.

What separates it from things like Bond – which I love – is that they are about intrigue and style and danger and conflict, but they’re not really there to investigate motive (unless it’s, you know, to take over the world).

How do you see your character?
Bill Hayden is very vain; he has affectations. We don’t have much time to see his life … and it’s true of any of these characters, you can follow any of [them] and find a fantastic life. … Hayden is an artist, so one of his affectations is of the ‘bohemian’; and so although according to protocol he would go to work in his tie and suit, I wanted him to be a little [eccentric]. Artistic people I think are often very compatible with spying and espionage [because] it is a creative process, and you have to think in a manner which is not just linear or conventional. Hayden is an idealist and he’s artistic, he’s literate, he has an intellect and he paints – and I think that he has the pretensions to go with that; which is why I wanted him to wear red socks and suede shoes and a big coat. And I think that is a cultivated eccentricity.

How present was the previous television adaptation [a 1979 series starring Alec Guinness), when you were preparing for the role? 
It was present to anybody of my generation who grew up in England, because that series had a huge presence. Even if you didn’t watch it, it had a presence, because it was endlessly talked and written about, and loved, and commented on – and if you weren’t watching it, your dad was or someone at school was. So it does cast a long shadow – but [on the other hand] it’s also 30 years ago – that’s a generation, and a lot of people who watched it are dead; we’re a long way from it now. … To think of a time when I was alive as a period movie is a bit strange!


Read more of the interview:  http://www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/interviews/colin-firth-_-interview20120214.aspx