BAFTA-winning Leading Actor Colin Firth, star of The King's Speech and A Single Man, discusses his childhood, films and career in this Life in Pictures video.
The full length Colin Firth interview video is available to watch now on BAFTA Guru.
It was BBC television's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that made Firth a household name. As the iconic Austenian hero Mr Darcy, Firth became associated with a decidedly English brand of sex-appeal and inspired an unlikely cult of attraction around the character. In 2001 he returned for a tongue-in-cheek reprisal of the performance, playing Hugh Grant's love-rival Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones's Diary.
Recent years have seen his film choices diversify and his performances increase in critical recognition. BAFTA success came in 2010 when he won Best Actor for his powerfully restrained performance in Tom Ford's A Single Man. Again, in 2011, Firth took home the Leading Actor Award for the multi-BAFTA winning film, the King's Speech.
I did not grow up speaking like this and yet I've made a career out of it: that's quite bizarre
In this Life in Pictures interview, available to view in full on BAFTA Guru, Firth tells Francine Stock about his good fortune in finding material that 'feeds into completely different sensibilities'.
He describes the 'completely uncomplicated satisfaction' involved in making films such as Mamma Mia!, as well as the awe with which he perceives his films' writers. He also discusses the 'baggage' of being associated with Darcy, and considers the irony of having forged a career playing middle and upper class characters after his Secondary Modern schooling.
