Latest Colin Firth Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• In filming you're waiting. You're waiting for lights. You're waiting for people set things up. And when you're not waiting, you're repeating. And neither is conducive to spontaneity, you know. Comedy makes you very, very neurotic because you think, I - but did I nail it?

  Colin Firth

  Thinking, People, Waiting

  Source: www.wbur.org

• I had heard all sorts of stories about Woody Allen's directing - directorial approach. And some of them turned out to be myth. But, one of them was that he doesn't rehearse and another was that he doesn't really direct, if he doesn't like it...he cuts it out of the movie, or even replaces you.

  Colin Firth

  Cutting, Woody, Myth

  Source: www.wbur.org

• I feel more comfortable in drama. Comedy's is a high-wire act. I find it stressful. It's a precision science, in a way. And when you're filming, the thing comedy depends on becomes a much more difficult commodity. The thing you depend on is spontaneity.

  Colin Firth

  Drama, Comedy, Spontaneity

  Source: www.wbur.org

• What infuriates me is that in America violence is judged in context, whereas language is not. So with language there is an arithmetic that says: one f*** is a PG 13, two f***s is an R. They don't say: one bullet through one head is a PG 13, two bullets through more than two heads is an R.

  Colin Firth

  Two, America, Bullets

  Source: www.theguardian.com

• If I were to write a book about the progress of getting to a third film, it would be a long one.

  Colin Firth

  Book, Writing, Long

  "Colin Firth on the Long Road to "Bridget Jones's Baby" and the Unconventional "Kingsman 2". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. September 16, 2016.

• I can actually get involved in getting stories off the ground that no one would ask me to be in because I'm the wrong age, the wrong sex, the wrong nationality, or whatever. I've found it quite exhilarating to have that freedom to tell the stories that aren't just about middle-aged white English guys.

  Colin Firth

  Sex, White, Guy

  "Colin Firth on the Long Road to ‘Bridget Jones's Baby’ and the Unconventional ‘Kingsman 2'". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. September 16, 2016.

• So, you don't have laughs as a reference point any more, it becomes a bit of a science after that. And the last thing, you would love to be able to depend on a sense of spontaneity, but hours of waiting and then hours of repetition are not conducive to spontaneity so those are your obstacles. On the other hand it's a lot of fun. Plunging into a bit of physical comedy and abandoning all dignity, no one can really hurt you much after you much after that, once you've done it.

  Colin Firth

  Hurt, Fun, Hands

  "Gambit - Colin Firth interview". Press conference, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• Just driving I just was in a car on flat ground and I couldn't make it go. Having ticked driving and taken three driving lessons, I just was unable to produce any motion whatsoever under perfectly normal circumstances. I think we've all been busted on driving, and riding.

  Colin Firth

  Taken, Thinking, Perfectly Normal

  "Gambit - Colin Firth interview". Press conference, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I have a great deal of respect for the craft, I don't know how much respect it has for me. But it's a precision process. Doing it on stage would be, I think, terrifying. Doing it on film has its own difficulties, because film is not conducive to spontaneity. You might have a run through and get a few chuckles at eight o'clock in the morning, but you don't keep laughing at the same thing all day long.

  Colin Firth

  Running, Morning, Thinking

  "Gambit - Colin Firth interview". Press conference, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• It didn't have to be a newfound respect for the craft, I knew that it's notoriously difficult and frightens a lot of people off. I don't think anyone knows quite who to attribute it to, but the dying actor who says: "dying is easy, comedy is hard." I hear it.

  Colin Firth

  Thinking, People, Dying

  "Gambit - Colin Firth interview". Press conference, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• However good a communicator a director is, unless they've been actors, it's just not the same as the shorthand you get with someone who's been an actor.

  Colin Firth

  Directors, Actors, Shorthand

  "St Trinian's - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• But it's interesting being directed by someone who is a very good actor. There's nothing like it. It might sound like a territorial thing about what I do, but I don't think you can understand what it is until you've done it. I know that to be a fact.

  Colin Firth

  Thinking, Interesting, Sound

  "St Trinian's - Colin Firth interview". www.indielondon.co.uk.

• If I'd loved my chemistry teacher and my maths teacher, goodness knows what direction my life might have gone in. I remember there was a primary school teacher who really woke me up to the joys of school for about one year when I was ten. He made me interested in things I would otherwise not have been interested in - because he was a brilliant teacher. He was instrumental in making me think learning was quite exciting.

  Colin Firth

  Teacher, School, Math

  "St Trinian's - Colin Firth interview". www.indielondon.co.uk.

• It's an unknown quantity. It's actually almost a cliché to say it, how hard comedy is. What's that famous quote? "Dying is easy, comedy's hard." I think the broader it gets, if you miss by a millimetre, you've missed completely. It's a very hard thing to do.

  Colin Firth

  Thinking, Missing, Dying

  "St Trinian's - Colin Firth interview". www.indielondon.co.uk.

• It's a funny thing - the reality is I have no feelings about school. It's long gone. Funnily enough, the bad memories - of which I don't have any left to be honest, I can just remember a sense of tedium - have faded. And teachers that I liked have remained quite vivid. There are three or four left.

  Colin Firth

  Teacher, Memories, School

  "St Trinian's - Colin Firth interview". www.indielondon.co.uk.

• The skill of a good actor is to make it always seem like you're in that fantastically spontaneous moment. Very often, a stand-up comedian has a different instinct, which is to reinvent. Once you've laid down some material, and made them laugh, you move on and find some new material.

  Colin Firth

  Moving, Skills, Laughing

  "St Trinian's - Colin Firth interview". www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I often think it can often be very difficult for comedians to revisit the same gag. I think Russell's a bit more than a comedian.

  Colin Firth

  Thinking, Often Is, Comedian

  "St Trinian's - Colin Firth interview". www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I have almost no memory of them [St. Trinian's films]. I don't think I've seen them since I was quite young. I was a bit frightened of the girls. I fancied them. Even though I was young, I found them attractive and rather frightening. I've always been attracted to frightening girls! I'm married to one!

  Colin Firth

  Girl, Memories, Thinking

  "St Trinian's - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• To work effectively in a film, you have to repeat and work consistently. Basically, you shoot a big master then you do close-ups. You're supposed to be in the same moment, the same 30-second moment, for a day.

  Colin Firth

  Film, Moments, Bigs

  "St Trinian's - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• They said: "Make it in this amount of time and go for it now..." Which is why I was suddenly ambushed and we all found ourselves doing it. I suspect this wasn't quite recognisable in its genre to give people the confidence just to throw money at it.

  Colin Firth

  People, Giving, Found

  "Then She Found Me - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• The way I've described Helen's sort of rigorous honesty I just think he also has tremendously. It's very strange... he just has this sort of way of making it happen really. You're not really aware of being directed, so much as being a part of this thing.

  Colin Firth

  Honesty, Thinking, Way

  "Then She Found Me - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• So, I think there's a danger that good stuff can fall by the wayside if it doesn't conform to formula. But I think it comes down to money and they just don't know where it's going if they haven't got any precedent.

  Colin Firth

  Fall, Thinking, Stuff

  "Then She Found Me - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• But this is where you get all the market research and things get in danger of becoming formulaic, and where you depend on brands and getting recognised actors. It's the thing that precludes risk very often, otherwise everyone would be avant-garde all over the place.

  Colin Firth

  Risk, Would Be, Avant Garde

  "Then She Found Me - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• Something like Shakespeare in Love, which became such an established hit that it now seems like a foregone conclusion... but it really wasn't. The script was around for a very, very long time and had people chickening out all the time.

  Colin Firth

  Long, People, Scripts

  "Then She Found Me - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.

• I think it helps to get a film made because people who put money in are nervous. They like to have something recognisable enough to make them secure that there's a pattern there - that someone else put their money into something like this and made it back.

  Colin Firth

  Thinking, People, Patterns

  "Then She Found Me - Colin Firth interview". Interview with Rob Carnevale, www.indielondon.co.uk.