(Colin wears a black or navy crew neck sweater, gray jeans, and black shoes.)
Jane: Colin Firth and Frances O’Connor are among the stars of the latest big screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s comic tale of love and deception called TIOBE. Good morning to both of you.

C & F: Good morning.

J: Oscar Wilde’s plays and books have enjoyed a renaissance over the last few years. What do you think it is that makes his work so timeless?

F: I think it’s because he’s a rebel and I think people like rebels, no matter what era they come from. I think his stuff has just lasted well because of that.

C: Yeah, he always sounds cheeky. I don’t know…no matter how archaic the language is, there’s always something a bit impertinent and a bit surprising about…you know…somebody says something and the answers always take you by surprise….

J: In the film you play the straitlaced Jack Worthing and you, my dear, play, as I told you I love this name, Gwendolyn Fairfax, who has always dreamed of marrying a man named Earnest.

F: That’s right.

J: So let’s take a look at the clip.

(Clip of Jack and Gwen. He thinks Jack is a charming name.)

J: Alright, what’s the joke? You two looked at each other…

C: Actually, I thought she was a little bit over the top there…

(Laughter)

J: With that hat…

F: I don’t have to act to put on an outfit like that. No acting required.

J: Absolutely. Comedy of manners, though, is a hard genre to pull off. What’s the trick as far as an actor’s concerned?

C: ooof. (to F) Do you want to answer that?

F: Ummm, not particularly.

C: I don’t know if there is a trick. We had…whatever it is, we had to adapt it to film and, uh, there’s often a style
applied to Oscar Wilde, which I think can be a bit of a mistake. It just involves a lot of posturing around the stage with this statement on your face, what you’re saying is supposed to be funny. And in fact it lends itself to natural statement far more than you might think. The language takes care of the style in a way. And as long as that’s clear and you’re capable of keeping up with it intellectually, it does the work for you, I think really, so you just do it naturally and speak to each other and the result is very funny.

F: You need to make it human because it can come off as a caricature if you’re not careful.

C: Yeah.

J (to F): Gwendolyn is very independently minded…

F: Yeah.

J: …for her time. Is that what attracted you to this role?

F: She is a great character, but it was more the people in the project and, uh, just great words to say.

J: Was it hard to switch over to the British accent?

F: I spent a lot of time there, so I find it easier every time I do a job there but, uh, I still have to work on it.

J: (to C) Who do you like more, Jack or Earnest?

C: Oh, Earnest was more fun.

J: Really? (laughter)

C: Yes, well, we don’t see much of him, really, do we, and we get a little hint. And it’s always confused me slightly about this play, ummm, who this guy is, because at the beginning he’s…you’d think he’s going to be the devilish man about town and that character very quickly disappears and he becomes a harrumphing earnest person. 

(Laughter.)

J: A harrumphing?

C: Yes, a kind of frothy…um roff roff (sounds like the “woof woof” with Frasier in MLSF)

J: Um, Judi Dench is in the movie. She’s so fantastic, one of my very favorite actors. What was it like working with her?

F: Oh I think she’s brilliant. For me it was such a pleasure working with her because she’s so good at what she does and yet she wants to have a good time when she’s working and so it’s like a perfect combination.

J: You guys looked like you had a lot of fun shooting this movie.

C: It was great fun and I think it…it, you know it starts at the top, really. I mean if you’ve got a director who’s fun and the key actors are fun, and she’s got such a huge reputation and yet she doesn’t, you know, carry it before her in a way that intimidates anybody. It’s quite the opposite. She’s there to make it easy for people.

J: Now this movie reunited you with Rupert Everett.

C: Um hum.

J: After what has it been, 18 years, I think, when you starred in a movie called Another Country?

C: Um hum. That’s right. Yes.

J: And I read that back then you guys didn’t get along so well.

C: Certainly the word’s getting out. He not kept very quiet about it…

J: He’s spreading that rumor.

C: I think he is. And I can tell you on the press junket at the time we weren’t telling everyone about it.

(Laughter)

J: Was it different this time around?

C: It was very different this time around.

J: What happened the first time?

C: Um, he wasn’t sort of very nice.

J: Oh. (laughter)

C: I was delightful. I can’t understand it. Uh, we just didn’t quite…I think I was a bit of a…I…I took everything terribly seriously. I’d just come out of drama school so I think I was frightfully dull and he was extremely sophisticated.

J: I see (laughter)

C: It didn’t work. Now I too am very sophisticated.

J: You look down your nose at everyone else.

C: That’s right.

J: I see. BJD was such a hit last year. Are we going to see a sequel? Going to see another one?

C: Well, I don’t know. I’ve kept my eye on the gossip columns to find out. It’s all gone very quiet. I don’t know. It’s quite a hard thing to marshal, really, because normally, you know, you try to get a film together and if this actor doesn’t work you replace him with that one. You can’t really do that with BJD. You’ve got to get three willing available actors at the same time and a very good script.

J: Well, the script is terrific this time around, is TIOBE. It’s nice to see you, Frances O’Connor and Colin Firth.
 
© 2000 CBS The Early Show
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