11:40am Wednesday 3rd February 2010
By Steve Pratt
British actor Colin Firth’s career-high performance as a gay American college professor has earned him an Oscar nomination. He tells Steve Pratt why he’s reluctant to discuss it, about turning 50 and about his gay kiss.
IT’S the day before the Oscar nominations are announced and Colin Firth is trying not to worry whether he’ll be among the best actor nominees for his career-high performance in A Single Man, playing a gay American college professor in the early Sixties.
He’s already secured a Bafta nomination.
How does he rate his chances of Bafta and Oscar success? “One in five,” he replies, deadpan.
This proves a rare moment of humour in the interview. He doesn’t allow himself much frivolity when discussing A Single Man, the directing debut of clothing designer and photographer Tom Ford.
But what would an Oscar nomination mean to Firth? “God knows,” he says. “I’m trying not to think about it and you have a whole bunch of journalists wanting me to comment on something that hasn’t happened.”
Come yesterday and he was duly nominated, the lone Brit fighting for the gold-plated stuatuette with George Clooney, Morgan Freeman, Jeff Bridges and Jeremy Renner, on March 7.
Just the idea of being nominated causes him much soul-searching, based partly on experience based on his reaction to a previous Bafta nomination in his mid-20s. “You don’t know how much you have invested in something until you get a disappointment,” he says.
“Even having the good news on something I don’t think tells you the full story. You can think you’re quite blase – and I’m not saying I’m blase about it by the way, or that I have any expectations – but years ago I had a Bafta nomination and was very blase about that, and thought awards were unhealthy for our business and the rest of it.
“And I didn’t go to the Baftas – I was filming at the time, it wasn’t a great statement or anything – but I wasn’t there and thought I was very cool about it until I found out I hadn’t won.
“I was absolutely shattered and I was astonished that I was shattered. I’m quite good at getting over these things quickly, but I was surprised at how disappointed I was.”
So perhaps his reticence to get caught up in the whole hoopla that precedes the nominations announcement and the ceremony is understandable.
What’s clear is that Firth’s head won’t be turned by all the attention. “It’s just how things work out,” he says philosophically.
“It does buffet you around a bit and you can take some bruises. I’m getting on a bit and have been up and down a few times, but this has been enormously satisfying and a lot of fun.
It’s probably easier to keep a perspective on what it is because I’ve had a lot of other experiences leading up to it. I’m too old to get swept away by it completely.
“I’ve had little enough of this to be jaded by it, so I’ll let you know how it is when it’s all over.
This doesn’t happen every time you do a job.
It’s not for keeps really. The film will always be around, but I’ve already moved on.”
That “too old” comment is an indication that, at 49, he does think about age. Not in any vain way, but as a fact of life that needs to be confronted. After using the phrase “because I’m getting on a bit”, he feels the need to indicate he’s not trying to make a point about ageing and deteriorating.
“Fifty does feel like quite a big number if you haven’t been there before,” he explains.
“I don’t relish the idea of losing my faculties, but I do relish the idea of roles getting more interesting which, for the moment, does seem to be happening.
“As a young actor, I remember thinking I could do with a wrinkle or two just to get something interesting on to this face. I’ve longed for a bit of texture, a bit of character. I just felt I looked terribly boring. A few lines work quite well really as long as you don’t fall apart completely.”
To the outsider, Firth looks like a workaholic, with a succession of movies over the past few years, including the Abba musical Mamma Mia, St Trinian’s 2, A Christmas Carol, Genova and now A Single Man.
“I don’t work as much as it looks. Even close friends of mine will say I never stop. I spend much more time sitting around,” he says, adding up how few days and weeks he’s spent filming most of his recent movies.
“I’m not working my fingers to the bone really.
It’s not as much time as it looks. The publicity and attention some things get is disproportionate to any effort I’m putting in. I don’t know how many days off you get a year, but it sounds to me like I get more off than you.
‘THE only thing I will say is that it increasingly gets eaten up by this sort of thing and that is work.”
He means press and publicity. At junkets, some actors can’t help saying how wonderful the director was, their co-stars were and even the women who made the tea. Firth is more analytical and serious, especially around A Single Man. He accepts the promotion has to be done because this is a small independent film without the financial and promotional clout of a big studio picture. Success will be based on the buzz surrounding the film, the festivals at which it’s seen and the all-important word of mouth generated by happy customers.
Apart from Oscar nominations, the other thing that must be investigated is the gay kiss he shares with his screen lover (played by Matthew Goode) and the one he rejects from a friend (Julianne Moore).
“It never occured to me there was any issue about playing gay until Julianne had to kiss me and I had to resist, which made that very difficult for that moment,” he says.
“And Matthew Goode is a pretty good kisser”
Who’s better? “Julianne is much better, but I wasn’t supposed to enjoy it. That was the one moment Tom had to get on my case. He said, ‘you’re supposed to be a gay man, keep your hands to yourself, get your tongue out’.”
■ A Single Man (12A) opens in cinemas on February 12.
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