Firth drew inspiration for role from workof 17th-century artist  

Inspiration can come from the oddest ofplaces. In the case of actor Colin Firth,the key to playing 17th-century artistJohannes Vermeer came from the soft,dusty light in the corner of a long-goneroom. 

The end result, "Girl With a PearlEarring," co-starring Firth and ScarlettJohansson, opens this Friday at the
Seven Gables and the Uptown. As verylittle is known of Vermeer's actual life,Firth had to find meaning in thepaintings. "When you've got a bit of ablank canvas, you just have to imposeyour own notions on it," said the actorin a telephone interview. "I couldn'tmake up my mind whether (Vermeer) was a tortured soul or a rather serene fellow." 

But that corner of the studio, where so many of Vermeer's great works were created, haunted Firth. "I thought, that corner of that room that he keepspainting, maybe there's a restlessness to that, despite the seeming serenityof the paintings themselves. I thought, is he trying to solve something? Is helooking for something there? 

"That was something that I could bear in mind when I'm in front of the cameras — he is someone who is constantly looking for that serenity that he portrays, and he seems to keep looking for it in the same spot. He's gotthe whole rest of the town to paint — there's one example of a cityscape,one exterior of houses, a few others. The rest of the time, he paints thesame corner of the same room, over and over." 

In the film, Firth's Vermeer is a quiet man, seemingly overshadowed by his petulant wife and regal mother-in-law, frustrated by the demands of his patron Master van Ruijven (Tom Wilkinson), who seems to want to controlthe artist like a puppetmaster pulling strings. But in the crisp, blue-gray lightof the almost-bare studio, he breathes more freely — like he's in control ofthis small but perfect domain. 

Firth, no stranger to period roles (he'sperhaps best known for his dashing performance as Mr. Darcy in the BBC miniseries "Pride and Prejudice"), viewed as many Vermeer originals as possible in preparation for the role, though he says it takes "a bit of a world tour" to see them all. Four of them reside handily in London — "the best one the Queen's got, under a bit of strip lighting next to a picture of a horse." (It's clear what he thinks of Her Majesty's curatorial standards.) 

And he worked to keep the story simple, letting images and actions speak louder than words. "What I brought to it was a feeling of, the less said the better. A lot of the paring down of dialogue was my responsibility. With thefull endorsement, I must say, of the writer (Olivia Hetreed, who adaptedTracey Chevalier's novel). She was always looking out for a possibility ofeconomizing." 

Firth, also recently seen in theaters in the romantic comedy "Love Actually," is currently at work filming another big-screen adaptation. "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," a sequel to the popular 2001 film "Bridget Jones'sDiary," will be in theaters in late 2004, with Firth, Hugh Grant and RenéeZellweger reprising their roles. Though Firth said he was initially reluctant tomake a sequel, he now says he has "high hopes" for the film. "The onlysensible attitude to it was to be cautious. People want the same film andthey don't want the same film. You have to really hit the right note with thisthing. As long as you can take it forward in some way, it's justified." 

The classically-trained actor, whose dark eyes and stalwart bearing have inspired legions of female fans, is amused by his inadvertent heartthrobstatus. (Told of a colleague who packed her "Pride and Prejudice" tape for atrip to the labor room, his response was a heartfelt — and horrified — "Ohmy God!") 

In Helen Fielding's book "The Edge of Reason," on which the "Bridget Jones" movie sequel is based, the fictional Bridget conducts an interview with the non-fictional Colin Firth. Unfortunately she keeps getting muddledbecause she's obsessed with the "Pride and Prejudice" scene, beloved bymany, in which Mr. Darcy jumps into a lake and his shirt gets wet and clingy. 

"I did that interview with Helen Fielding," Firth remembered. "She didn't make it up, we actually did it. It's fun to be written into a piece of fiction. I guess that sort of thing is more common because popular culture draws on itself increasingly for its sources."

Mindful of the power of surprise, Firth politely declined to discuss how that particular scene would be handled in the film. Nor would he comment on whether the notorious reindeer sweater, worn by the hapless Mark Darcy in"Bridget Jones's Diary" would reappear. 

Mark Darcy was, undoubtedly, less of a challenge than Vermeer — though in retrospect, Firth thinks he found the latter character only when he stopped working so hard. "In some ways, I reached my frustration in not being ableto nail anything about (Vermeer)," he says. "I just thought, maybe this is it— you can't define anything. So I stopped trying, and let that somehowcharacterize what you do."