Great Expectations star Jeremy Irvine reveals 'acting masterclass' with Colin Firth in The Railway Man - but says he doesn't want fame (COVENTRY TELEGRAPH)

 By David Bentley on December 10, 2012 9:12 PM

Jeremy Irvine is having the year of his life. No sooner had he made his film debut as the lead in Steven Spielberg's War Horse in January than he found himself being asked by director Mike Newell to play Pip in his adaptation of the Dickens classic Great Expectations, now on release in cinemas.


And then he was in demand yet again when Colin Firth wanted Irvine to play his younger self in upcoming war drama The Railway Man.

In The Railway Man - due out in 2013 (no UK release date has yet been announced) - Irvine plays the young Eric Lomax, a British army officer sent to a Japanese prison camp during World War Two and forced to work on the infamous Death Railway from Thailand to Burma. Firth portrays the older Lomax.

"I met Colin Firth and had dinner with him and he was the one that actually got me the role, which was nice," says the 22-year-old rising star.

"We kind of share the movie and he was so generous. We'd rehearse in his living room and I was thinking 'My God, this is the kind of acting masterclass you can only dream of when you're at drama school'.

"At the time, you're just working with someone who's really good at what they do and really interesting, and of course afterwards you go 'Wow, that was really kind of him'."


READ MORE: http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/2012/12/great-expectations-star-jeremy-irvine-on-his-acting-masterclass-with-colin-firth-in-the-railway-man.html

Colin Firth: Nature of torture for Firth AAP, The West Australian June 25, 2012, 12:12 pm (THE WEST)

Firth said trying to find forgiveness for something which is arguably unforgivable was a complicated journey. Torture, he has come to realise, is closely linked to a feeling of shame on the part of the victim.

"It's profoundly intimate in a very traumatic way," he said. "You're very exposed, it involves humiliation, and those are very hard things to get beyond."

It is clear Firth has a deep respect for Eric Lomax, a World War II prisoner of the Japanese who survived the horrors of the Burma-Thailand Railway and late in his life told his story in the best-selling book The Railway Man, the basis for this film.

"I think the people who do manage to share it in some way are sometimes the lucky ones - those who manage somehow to find a voice by whatever conduit have done something really quite powerful," Firth said. "The experience is quite beyond our comprehension really."

Co-star Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai, 47 Ronin) hopes his role of a brutal torturer will educate young Japanese people who have been taught nothing of the horrors Imperial troops inflicted on their prisoners in Burma and Thailand.

"When I read the script the first time I felt shocked, I was moved and I cried," he said. "I thought this role must be played by a Japanese-born actor and we should tell the story for our generation."

He said filming at Hellfire Pass in Thailand where so many prisoners of war died was a very spiritual experience but after filming the "deep" torture scene on the Gold Coast he said the ocean views and relaxed beach walks provided a welcome emotional balance.

Firth said he had no idea how he was going to approach the torture scenes until he saw how his co-star was doing it.

"That opened everything up and transformed it and I found it an extraordinarily powerful experience," he said.

He was also full of praise for Nicole Kidman, who plays his wife. "Some things are just easy," he said, laughing.

"An awful lot of this movie I just had to imagine how things were possible but that I did not have to imagine, she did the most beautiful job."

Filming for The Railway Man will continue for three more weeks at the set of a POW camp built in the Numinbah Valley, behind the Gold Coast, and at the old railway yards in Ipswich.

READ MORE:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/entertainment/14033266/nature-of-torture-for-firth/

Extras playing British POW's in Colin Firth movie leave set after being pushed around by 'Japanese guards' for 13 hours (for £2.80 an hour) by Andrew Drummond (MAIL ON LINE)

By ANDREW DRUMMOND

The prisoners of war were at breaking point. All day long they had been kept at a Thai railway marshalling yard in the tropical heat, covered in grime, drenched in sweat, prodded and pushed by  Japanese guards shouting from the tops of cattle trucks that the prisoners were expected to board.

The wagons were there to transport them to the infamous Death Railway running from Thailand to Burma – but the prisoners couldn’t take any more.

The Mail on Sunday has been told that, ignoring shouts of ‘Wait’ and ‘Hold on’, they walked off... the film set.

It was the last day of shooting on The Railway Man, a film starring Oscar-winners Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.

Based on the book of the same name by British war veteran Eric Lomax, it is an account of how he came to terms with his treatment by Japanese torturers in Thailand 70 years ago.

Colin was happy to pose for pictures on set with some of the extras, who refused to do overtime because of the poor pay

Both Firth and Kidman were happy to pose with fans and Australian tourist Gary Gibbs and his wife couldn't believe their luck when they bumped into the pair while on holiday in Thailand

The Railway Man is the story of Lomax, a Scottish officer in the Royal Signals who was tortured by the Japanese Kempeitai military police after being taken prisoner in Singapore in 1941 and sent to work on the Death Railway.

The trauma affected him for most of his life and he was treated by a foundation for victims of torture.

Eventually he found peace after tracking down the Kempeitai interpreter, Nagase Takashi, who was at all his interrogations and beatings.

Firth plays Lomax the returning veteran, with Jeremy Irvine taking the role of younger Lomax. Kidman is his wife Patti.

The so-called mutiny in Bangkok is unlikely to affect the way the industry treats extras in Thailand. Film companies come to Thailand for its cheap labour and pick up extras to play foreigners in films by word of mouth, or through leafleting bars.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160374/Colin-Firth-movie-The-Railway-Man-Extras-leave-set-pushed-Japanese-guards.html#ixzz1yAHECTsk

Colin Firth: Modern 'mutiny' on Death Railway: Extras playing British POW's in Colin Firth movie leave set after being pushed around by 'Japanese guards' for 13 hours (for £2.80 an hour) By ANDREW DRUMMOND (MAIL ON LINE)

Jeremy Irvine, left, and Colin Firth, right, pose on set in front of a steam train at Hualamphong train station in Bangkok, Thailand. Both actors play former POW Eric Lomax at different stages in his life

The prisoners of war were at breaking point. All day long they had been kept at a Thai railway marshalling yard in the tropical heat, covered in grime, drenched in sweat, prodded and pushed by  Japanese guards shouting from the tops of cattle trucks that the prisoners were expected to board.
The wagons were there to transport them to the infamous Death Railway running from Thailand to Burma – but the prisoners couldn’t take any more.

The Mail on Sunday has been told that, ignoring shouts of ‘Wait’ and ‘Hold on’, they walked off... the film set.

Extras standing along the train lines at the Bangsue train yard in Bangkok, Thailand on the set of The Railway Man. They ultmately refused to do overtime and left the crew with a few, mainly Iranian extras posing as European POW's




And just as it had affected the real Second World War prisoners on the Burma-Siam railway – also the subject of David Lean’s 1957 Oscar-winner The Bridge On The River Kwai – The Mail on Sunday has been told that the tropical heat, lack of food and relentless orders were too much for many of the 100 extras playing British victims of Japanese brutality on set in Bangkok.

It’s said most just walked off, leaving only 17 Iranians and a handful of backpackers to finish shooting in the Bangkok darkness.


The last straw came with an announcement by German production manager Ralf Eisenmann that overtime would be paid at 200 baht (£4) an hour and extras would get just half that for transport home after midnight.

It’s said to have made many extras unwilling to continue despite pleas by managers.
Fortunately for the film-makers, enough extras in British PoW uniforms remained to complete the final scene.

Extras playing the Japanese guards were too polite to complain.


Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2160374/Modern-mutiny-Death-Railway-Extras-playing-British-POWs-Colin-Firth-movie-The-Railway-Man-leave-set-pushed-Japanese-guards-13-hours-2-80-hour.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Colin Firth brings star power to Ipswich Jacinda Tutty June 12, 2012 - 5:14PM (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD)

Move over Hollywood, Ipswich is about to hit the big screen thanks to a new movie starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.

Famous for his role as the swoon-worthy Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, Firth stars in The Railway Man - an adaptation of the memoir by Eric Lomax who was a prisoner of war forced to work on the notorious Burma Railway.

The project will be partly shot at Ipswich's Workshops Rail Museum and on the Gold Coast.
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Filming has begun in Ipswich, with Firth set to arrive on Friday.

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale has been making preparations for the visit.

“I'm very excited to be welcoming Colin Firth to Ipswich," he said.

"We've been holding it under wraps for a while now but we hope he has a pleasant experience. He's excited about meeting me and I'm excited about meeting him.


Read more:http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/firth-brings-star-power-to-ipswich-20120612-207rq.html

Colin Firth turns on the charm in Brisbane From: The Courier-Mail June 12, 2012 12:00AM (COURIER)

On Sunday Firth spent time mentoring an exclusive group of Brisbane actors in a Q&A session with actress Sigrid Thornton at the Cremorne Theatre, QPAC.

Sunshine Coast actress Meisha Lowe won a ticket to the event after applying through Actors Equity.

Lowe told Confidential Firth labelled his role in The Railway Man "emotionally challenging."


She said Firth told the audience he decided as a 14-year-old he wanted to be an actor and still "wondered when he should grow up and get a real job".

Following the Q&A, Firth, Thornton, director Chris Brown and a group of friends dined at Italian restaurant Tartufo at Emporium in Fortitude Valley, a haunt often frequented by celebrities.

Tartufo owner Tony Percuoco has met Ethan Hawke, Kate Hudson and Michael Buble at his restaurants but Mr Darcy had him "starstruck".

Living up to his sex-symbol status, Percuoco told Confidential Firth was without his Italian-born wife but spoke perfect Italian to the waitresses.

"Very rarely do I get starstruck but last night he had the whole persona. He spoke Italian perfectly."

READ MORE:  http://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/confidential/colin-firth-turns-on-the-charm-in-brisbane/story-e6freq7o-1226391525008

Colin Firth: Hollywood stars film next week Rebecca Lynch | 8th June 2012 7:43 PM (FRASER COAST CHRONICLE)

FILMING for one of 2013's Hollywood blockbusters is due to begin in Ipswich next week, The Queensland Times can reveal.

Heart-throb Colin Firth, together with Swedish icon Stellan Skarsgard and War Horse star Jeremy Irvine will be on location at the city's railway workshops from the middle of the week, according to the film's publicist Tracey Mair.

But Ms Mair said that Aussie screen legend Nicole Kidman would not joining her male co-stars in the city, after having previously said all the leads would be travelling to Ipswich.

"Kidman's scenes were actually completed in Scotland, the UK and Thailand, but the rest of the cast, including Firth, will be filming on the Gold Coast and in Ipswich mid-next week," Ms Mair said.

Since The Queensland Times first revealed The Railway Man would be filmed in Ipswich, a major online news site dubbed the city an "unlikely location" for the filming of a major movie.


READ MORE: http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/story/2012/06/08/hollywood-stars-film-next-week-ipswich/

Colin Firth: The Railway Man Set

Colin Firth was looking his usual delicious self on the Scotland set of The Railway Man today (May 14th), a film that follows a victim of World War II’s “Death Railway” as he tracks down those responsible for his torture.  Stellan Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman and Jeremy Irvine also star in the Jonathan Teplitzky-directed flick, based on a true story.

READ MORE:  http://socialitelife.com/love-actually-to-get-a-sequel-photos-05-2012

Colin Firth: Kidman and Firth film in Northumberland - last updated Thu 10 May 2012 (ITV NEWS)

Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth Photo: ITV


Hollywood stars Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman were in Lindisfarne, Northumberland today filming their latest Blockbuster, The Railway Man.

The film is about Berwick's Eric Lomax who survived a prisoner-of war-camp. He still lives near Holy Island and Firth plays him, while Kidman plays his wife Patti. But today, they weren't having much luck because of the weather.

TO SEE A SHORT NEWS VIDEO OF THE HORRIBLE DAY THEY HAD FILMING IN THE RAIN CLICK HERE.

Colin Firth: Hollywood star Colin Firth hits town (QUEENSFERRY GAZETTE)

HOLLYWOOD magic has been sprinkled on Bo’ness this week with acting royalty Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman in town to film The Railway Man.

The Oscar winners were at Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway on Wednesday, along with renowned Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fame.

It was the start of a three-day date at the popular tourist venue, which sees Bo’ness join filming locations in Thailand and Australia.

Schoolgirl Leigh Bloomfield (13) will be the envy of many a female, after ‘Mr Darcy’ himself got out of his chauffered Mercedes to pose for a picture with her and other locals. Leigh declared on Wednesday night on Facebook ‘so happy I met Colin Firth, must be the happiest girl in Bo’ness’.

After barely getting a wink of sleep Leigh was back to S2 Academy studies yesterday (Thursday).

Mum Audrey, of Leigh’s Sandwich Bar, told the Journal and Gazette the family had spent an hour trying to catch glimpses of the stars at filming.

It was just as Firth was about to get whisked away from the set at 7.30pm that Leigh, of Thirlestane, had her unforgettable encounter with the heart-throb.

“He seemed like a gentleman,” said Audrey. “She knew him right away from St Trinian’s and Pride and Prejudice.

“She was really shocked. She’s going back tonight to try and see Nicole!”

“The Railway Man” is the epic true bestselling story about Scottish war hero Eric Lomax (Firth), haunted by brutal memories from being forced to construct the Thai/Burma railway during World War II.

Years later, he meets the beautiful Patti (Kidman) on a train, who is determined to rid Eric of his demons.

The movie also stars Jeremy Irvine and Hiroyuki Sanada. Production insiders were tightlipped this week over which scenes were being shot at Bo’ness railway.


READ MORE: http://www.queensferrygazette.co.uk/news/local-headlines/hollywood-star-colin-firth-hits-town-1-2275431

Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth nip down the Legion (NEWS SCOTSMAN)

Published on Thursday 3 May 2012 12:00

 THEY may be Hollywood A-listers, but Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth are expected down at the British Legion as they shoot scenes for their new film next week.

 Crews working on The Railway Man are understood to be setting up at the Cockenzie and Port Seton British Legion on Monday, with the big name duo at the forefront.

 The club, which has its own pipe and drum band, sits close to the shore of the Forth in West Harbour Road. Rumours of the impending arrival of the stars is already creating a buzz of excitement. Susan Bellany, a barmaid at the Thorntree Inn, said: “It is exciting and there’s a bit of a buzz around the place, especially with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman being such big names. 

“They might come in for a pint. We’ll have our lippy on in case.”

 Kirsty Fraser, who works behind the bar at Cockenzie and Port Seton Bowling Club, said: “Nothing much goes on here normally so it’s good news. A lot of people will watch the film just to see our area in it.”


READ MORE:  http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/nicole-kidman-and-colin-firth-nip-down-the-legion-1-2271129

Chiswick's best-known actor Colin Firth will shortly start filming his latest role, The Railway Man. (Chiswick)

Actor gets leading role in World War Two memoir
His first major project for this year is the part of Eric Lomax in the film ' The Railway Man' which starts shooting in the UK, Thailand,and Burma in the next few weeks.

Lomax was a British officer who was captured and tortured by the Japanese during the Second World War. The film is based on his memoir of experiences on the' 'Death Railways' where many British prisoners perished. The railway links Bangkok to Yangon in Burma, now Myanmar.

In later life he sought to track down his interrogators and a documentary, 'Enemy My Friend' was made about his reunion with the Japanese jailers.The script for The Railway Man is co-written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Peterson . The latter worked with Colin Firth on 'Girl With a Pearl Earring'.

The Railway Man is the first major investment of Latitude Media, and was announced at the Toronto Film Festival last year by Lionsgate UK who have the UK distribution rights.

"To have Colin Firth in such a compelling story as The Railway Man is a real coup for us" commented Lionsgate UK Chief Executive Zygi Kamasa, who is Executive Producer for the film. He described it a " an epic tale of love and redemption".

Also starring as the young Eric Lomax is Jeremy Irvine, currently on television starring as Pip in 'Great Expectations'. He has also been featured recently as the boy in Steven Spielberg's film of Michael Murpurgo's novel 'War Horse'.

January 5, 2012

http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=conceleb302.htm