Robert Siegel: Colin Firth talked with us about the virtue of making a movie that's been made before.

Colin Firth: I had two conversations within about a day of each other, one with a girl of 17, who 
thought that the idea was very cool, and said that other friends of hers were looking forward
to seeing The Importance of Being Earnest.  And my dad, who said 'oh, they're not doing
that again, are they?' And so I think these things go in cycles. And um - a 50 year interlude
is respectable. I think it's a new interpretation for a new generation.

RS: When did you first encounter this play? In school? Did you see it as a kid? Did you
see that film?

CF: I didn't see that film, and I must have encountered it in school. And I do not remember
a time before which I knew about Oscar Wilde. And actually, I would say the same about
Noel Coward. I just grew up with him. I can remember being a very small child and these
names having a fascination for me. 'Coward' and 'Wilde'.  You know,they were so odd that
I thought it bespoke of their stature, somehow. And of course, Wilde wrote fairy tales and -
I can't remember whether I grew up with those either, but I knew that this was an important,
witty man that was eminently quotable.

RS: Tell me a little bit about where you grew up, and when theatre at all started to figure in
your life.

CF: I was born in England, but within a very few weeks, I was taken to West Africa, where
my father was teaching history in Nigeria. It could well have started then. My mother went
to see Judi Dench in - I believe a tour of - I think it was Twelfth Night. So I funnily enough
grew up with her name in the family as well. And - we moved around England quite a bit.  I
had one year in the United States, in St Louis, where I was in 8th grade. I saw films like
everybody else -and uh - I wanted to be on stage, I - I don't remember - being taken to
much theatre.

RS: What do you remember of your year in America, in St Louis?

CF: It was such a staggering experience. The cultural difference was so enormous that I've
never forgotten it. I mean in the summer, we spent three months touring the rest of the 
country.

RS: Going out west?

CF: Yeah.  I have never forgotten the moment when I first saw the Rockies.  We were
stopped somewhere in - I suppose it must have been Colorado, and I'd never seen
mountains like that and it took my breath away.  I can remember standing there - it was the
evening, it was sunset, and um - I found it absolutely overwhelming, I could understand 
why people climb mountains, or want to paint them, or write about them or something. But
um . . . .

RS: Very, very vivid impressions of America from when you were an adolescent.

CF: Absolutely, yeah.

RS: And then back to England for the rest of . . . ?

CF: For the rest of my life. Um - well, yes, I went back to England, and I had a very
conventional schooling in England, and then - um - yeah, then the acting thing.  But the -
the travel has always remained a part of my life.

RS: But you say 'and then the acting thing'.  Is there some moment when it's clear to you
that you're going to be an actor and not a historian, or not a dentist or something.

CF: Well, I do - there is a moment I can mark, about a year after I came back from America,
where - I - I don't know how serious I was in making the announcement, but I did
announce to myself and everybody else that I was going to be an actor.

RS: Well, at that time -  this would have been in the early or mid 1970s?

CF: Yes.

RS: Was there somebody in your mind when you thought of becoming an actor who was
the actor?  That you'd become an actor like: fill in the blank?

CF: I do certainly remember watching very young - um - Spencer Tracy. Uh - I noticed
Hopkins very young - Antony Hopkins. But the one that I think probably captivated me
more than any other that I can think of was -uh - Paul Scofield in Man for All Seasons. I
don't know what age I was when I saw him, but - this was something new. Because there
was a paradox to what he was doing, in that he was so - utterly - true.  It was so unadorned.
And - how can it be true? It's acting. It's false.  I mean, I know that we're all trying to be
true, but there was something so expressive of - integrity in what he did. He was portraying
a man that didn't have an acting bone in his body. And that was the thing that gripped me
the most.  It's not in anything he seemed to be doing physically. Um- it's not in anything
one might in the crudest sense call acting.  It's just there in his eyes. It's there in his voice.
It's there in his stillness.  And I think that was the thing that I - most wanted to pursue.

RS: And to this day, when you do a work like The Importance of Being Earnest, are you
still striving for that kind of naturalness?  In what is after all - it's a  period piece, it's a
comedy, it's um - you guys do mug it up a little bit throughout this movie.

CF:  Of course.  I mean, I'm not playing Thomas More.  You know, and of course, he was
playing a character who - you know - it required that sort of understated - um - humanity.
But however - whatever convention you're working with, and whether it's pantomime or, or,
or - however broad the comedy is, it's still important to look for a core of truth, of reality. It
doesn't have to be 'Truth' with a capital "T", but you are representing a human being,
whatever you're doing.  If it's comedy, it's going to be funnier if it's rooted in truth.  But I
find it much more difficult than drama.  I think that uh - something like The Importance of
Being Earnest, as soon as you analyze it, it's dead really.  Um - so you've got to kind of -
it's a bit like playing jazz or something, you've got to find a current, and hop on it, and let it
carry you.

RS:  Tell me about your singing performance in The Importance of Being Earnest.

CF: (Laughs) Is there really anything to be said?

RS:  (Laughs)  Well, tell us first about the song.

CF: (Clearing throat) Well, the song is a poem that was composed by Oscar Wilde.  I'm
actually not sure what its origin is, but um - it's words by Oscar Wilde, um - music by
Charlie Mole who is our composer. And it's used to serenade Cecily and Gwendolyn.  Um
- during the sequence in the play where they reject us.

Excerpt from opening of "Lady Come Down", sung by Colin and Rupert.

CF: I did uh - study the guitar part, hoping that some kind of ability on the guitar might
make up for the shortcomings - the vocal shortcomings, but uh - I'm afraid it all added up
as - one big shortcoming.

RS: (Laughing) You say you're not planning a cross over album?

CF: I think whether I was planning it or not, I think it's probably immaterial. I'm not sure
anyone's going to have me.

RS: (Laughing) Well Colin Firth, thank you very much for coming in to talk with us.

CF: Thank you. 

RS: Actor and sometime singer Colin Firth stars in The Importance of Being Earnest.

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