17/01/2004

Firth on breasts and bad hair

Colin Firth's new film Girl With A Pearl Earring is a far cry from Bridget Jones — in it, he plays 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer who befriends his young maid (Scarlett Johansson).

But you can see why he's often cast as the tall, dark, handsome, silent and mysterious type. For one, he is tall, dark and handsome (pretty much a prerequisite), and he's also enigmatic, thoughtful and intelligent.

Firth seems serious at first but once he warms up he proves a right cheeky monkey. That's clear in his banter with Girl With A Pearl Earring co-star Scarlett Johansson. The film illustrates eroticism with furtive glances as opposed to naked flesh. When Johansson explains the pressure put on them to make that more concrete by having him watch her wash her breasts in a basin, Firth quips: "All that pressure was from me."

To play the Dutch master, Firth donned a fetching hair piece his co-star describes as "a Fabio wig".

"The wig was ah... it was a lovely script and if you know if you accept this part, a wig awaits you, it's an alarming prospect," he says. "Had it been anyone other than brilliant hair designer Jenny Shircore, it would have been the kiss of death."

Firth is well aware his bad hair film could change his sex symbol status. "My fear was that the rest of the world would react to my wig the way Scarlett did," he laughs, referring to the fact that his co-star said the wig looked particularly weird the first few days before it fell properly. I'm doing what I think is a sexy, smouldering look and she's giving me, 'I can't believe it's not butter'."

Not much is known about Firth's character Johannes. "The secret was in the mystery. What you have in terms of historical understanding is mystery. The author Tracy Chevalier also wrote mystery. I was perpetuating that interpretation," says the 43-year-old star.

"It was a balancing act — fleshing him out without revealing too much and preserving the enigma."

Much is being made of the fact that Girl With A Pearl Earring has a lot less dialogue than many modern movies. "Dialogue is often very limiting, particularly if it's anything other than excellent," says Firth.

"Mediocre dialogue is utterly crippling to the process and brilliant dialogue a free ride, but no dialogue is a very liberating and inspiring thing to do as long as you've got the confidence of a great director. "I've got this complex view of this woman and am going to have to do it all with my eyes. It gave us an added sense of responsibility."

Referring to some of the terrible lines he's had in the past, he says, "I insisted someone else's line was cut as I refused to be in the same room with the line. It was, 'You played me, Ross, you played me... and I'm not a piano'."