EF: This morning we have actor Colin Firth, well known to A&E audiences for Pride & Prejudice. His new movie is Bridget Jones's Diary. 

(clip of Mark in pinstripe suit toasting Bridget's birthday) 

EF: Colin Firth, pleasure to meet you. (shakes hands) 

CF: Pleasure. 

EF: You are in Bridget Jones's Diary. You play Mr. Darcy. Of course the folks at A&E remember you playing Mr. Darcy in P&P. There is a connection here. 

CF: There's not ever going to be an escape, is there? (laughs) 

EF: What did the writer have in mind putting that name in there and then having you in the movie? 

CF: Well, I don't know when she first, when she was writing Bridget Jones as a column, I don't know if she specifically had the P&P story line in mind at that time. She quite clearly had a fixation, I mean Bridget Jones, not Helen Fielding, a fixation with Mr. Darcy and she used that when she transferred it into a book and I think she decided that the P&P structure would suit her agenda very well and we've seen it done. 

EF: Millions of people have read the book but for those who haven't, maybe just a little thumbnail sketch of the story? 

CF: Well, a thumbnail sketch of the story, it would be quite handy to go back to P&P. (clip of the "I like you very much" scene between Mark and Bridget)  You've got a girl who's looking for a partner or is under pressure to have a partner for one reason or another who basically misjudges the first person she encounters in the story and, well, she misjudges him "negatively" (?) and then she meets another man whom she misjudges positively and likes, following very closely to the P&P story - the charming, rakish, devilish fellow who actually is not going to get her anywhere and then eventually finds that the pompous, aloof, rigid, dull creature that was snarling at her from across a crowded room is the man who has got something to offer so I think it's about, again it's about misperceptions, first impressions and finding happiness in the places you
least expect. 

EF: I don't want to give too much away but you end up in a little fisticuffs with Hugh Grant. Was that fun getting to punch him out?  

(clip of fight of the two clumsily grabbing at each other) 

CF: Absolutely. Yes, I'm sure he had just as much fun as I did. He, yes, well I think we decided to step aside a little bit from the old movie punch out, the western swings, the carefully choreographed, rather less than
plausible... 

EF: You mean you connected? You really...? 

CF: No, we didn't. We just grappled at each other like a couple of five year olds. Which is what I think most fights are probably like between adults. I think they're ridiculous things. I think we wanted to capture that sense of the ridiculous between men who are not used to fighting each other. This is a couple of suits throwing themselves at each other. It's not, these aren't people who know exactly how to place a punch. 

EF: Let's talk briefly about the cast. We mentioned Hugh Grant. Renee Zellweger plays Bridget. There was some controversy, especially in Britain, about her being cast. She's from my home state of Texas and I went in thinking is she going to be able to pull this off and you do belief her. She's very good in this. Did you have any concerns at all about her being in the film? 

(clip of Bridget writing in her diary) 

CF: None none whatsoever. No, I think it's preposterous. I think it's misplaced territorialism on the part of the English. I think it's the usual griping in the British press. I think that it's exciting when someone represents something that's not entirely of their own background. I think the actor's background is irrelevant if they're talented and I think it's interesting to see somebody so English with the character being represented
from an outsider's point of view, particularly that she does it so triumphantly and I don't know how many times we have to see skepticism proved wrong. 

EF: Well the last time I guess was Shakespeare in Love. 

CF: Well, Gwyneth has done it three times.  

EF: Right. Speaking of Shakespeare, theatre has always been important to you. Is that still a priority? 

CF: It's always been important to me, yes. I try to keep it as something of a priority. It doesn't mean that it's the thing that I devote most of my time to because there are elements of my life which are difficult to
conduct if I'm in the theatre. Theatrical commitments are often very long and I have a life which requires me to travel quite a lot. But it's something I want to keep alive, absolutely. 

EF: Anything planned? 

CF: Hamlet. Hamlet's next. That's coming up at the end of the year. In London and... 

EF: Now that's a role that you played before, is that right? 

CF: As a student, yes. 

EF: Yeah. How do you think that will differ...the difference between playing it as a student and...? 

CF: I have no idea. This is why I'm doing it, to find out. It will differ by 20 years. I don't know if it's appropriate to think of drawing on that from the first time. I think probably not. It'll have to be new so... I did hear a quote from, which I find comforting, from Albert Finney who played it memorably, apparently, saying that Hamlet should be played either at 20 or 40. So the first time I was nearer to 20. I'm now 40 so if he's right then... 

EF: ...the timing is good. 

CF: Hopefully it has a nice symmetry about it, yes.

EF: You've done some writing recently. 

CF: Ummm. 

EF: Department of Nothing? 

CF: (bemused) That's right. 

EF: Tell me about it. 

CF: Oh gosh, you've done your homework, haven't you? 

EF: Well, I have to tell you, working at A&E, the fans, your fans have been writing me to ask you about certain things. 

CF: Oh, I see. 

EF: I have been doing my homework but the fans from P&P are avid and they want to know all about you and that's how I found out about that. 

CF: Well, the Department of Nothing, that was, it wasn't a commission, really, it was a charity exercise. Nick Hornby ambushed me with this project and I'm very glad he did because I've been tampering with the idea
of writing for years and doing it as a sort of hobby and this was the time to put my money where my mouth is and actually do something with a deadline. We were just sitting in a restaurant and he said that he had this
project. It was for his autistic child's school foundation and he was just asking a number of friends to contribute monologues to an anthology. And I shook hands on it. He made me shake hands on it and here was a gentleman's agreement which I had to honor. I wrote more than one story before I settled on this one. That was the one I eventually contributed to the book, just came very, very quickly, having tortured myself with others that were complete failures. It's the voice of an 11 year old child and a relationship with a very old woman who was his grandmother and who's dyng and recounts surrealist fantasies to him which he then imparts to his schoolmates. 

EF: Likely to keep doing that? Do you like to write? 

CF: I will have another stab at it. There's no question about it. 

EF: Colin Firth, thank you so much for your time. (shakes hands) 

CF: Thanks. 

(last film clip is close-up of Mark Darcy by a lake)

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