The Brit Pack
It was Gore Vidal
who said, while ruminating on the subject of Britain's decline, "What are
you going to do with a country whose only real export in the past thirty
years has been actors?" Step up production may have been the reply.
The Face took six of the best from the Class of 86 and arranged a summit.[for
the record, the Brit Pack included Colin Firth, Paul McGann, Gary Oldman
and Tim Roth]
When he finally
enters late in the day (Chaka Khan having given way to Anita Baker, the
brie all but crawling off the table), Colin Firth, a tall, duffle-coated
figure, is immediately co-opted into the group photo backline without the
benefit of makeup or warm-up. Despite having met Roth two years ago under
similar circumstances, Firth is clearly the outsider. He’s still wondering
what exactly Hollywood is, having been treated to the whole ‘go West young
actor’ routine following his debut in Another Country.
Hollywood.
however, doesn’t really interest the diffident, beautifully-spoken Londoner
who has unintentionally “cornered the market in wet, sensitive, naive young
chaps” and has just emerged “blinking in the light, like a
refugee” from
a solid year’s work on just-screened Granada TV epic Lost Empires. This
distance has caused Firth to question the very essence of acting, “putting
on a frock and chasing around one’s ego”. He’s not sure he wants to be
doing it when he’s 45. |
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