COLIN FIRTH IN THE FILM

Colin Firth: "I first read Fever Pitch when I was in Rome, and I got quite obsessed by it. I got a longing to be back in England, for those grey, damp, cheerless days." [Time Out, March 1997]

GENRE: romantic comedy

SCREENWRITER: Nick Hornby based on his best-selling book "Fever Pitch", first published 1992*

FILM DIRECTOR: David Evans

PRODUCER: Amanda Posey

PRINCIPAL CAST: Colin Firth [Paul], Ruth Gemmell [Sarah], Holly Aird [Jo], Mark Strong [Steve], Ken Stott [headmaster], Stephen Rea [Ray].

Nick Hornby appears in the film as a bemused coach of a school team which is beaten to a pulp by a side trained by the character based on himself: Paul [played by Colin]. Nick Hornby: "Paul in the film is an amalgam of myself, Colin Firth and a lot of people I know". [Click on picture for wallpaper size version. Click "back" on your browser to return to this page.]

ABOUT THE FILM: Fever Pitch is a film about a mans obsession with football [soccer]. Colin Firth's Paul is a middle-school literature teacher and die-hard gooner [Arsenal fan], hapless against an obsession that began when he as a young boy bonded with his divorced father by spending custody visits at football matches. By the time he's an adult, Paul's devotion to team Arsenal is a blend of blind faith and masochism. When Arsenal has its first shot at a championship in two decades, Paul is on the verge of losing his job, his pregnant girlfriend and his very sanity.




COMMENTS BY COLIN:

While Nick Hornby praises Firth for reading scripts for literary merit rather than with a tape-measure, others regard Colin's career choices as bizarre. In Fever Pitch he is playing a comically obsessed Arsenal supporter. Colin says it's a film "about being English, male, middle class, immature , dislocated and feeling inadequate in relations with women. It's not about Arsenal at all." [Sunday Mail, November 10, 1996]

About the book Fever Pitch: "I never thought I could read a book about a football match and have my heart race, and his analysis about self-loathing and self-doubt and despair and his sense of humour, was so vivid in the book that you know it's good to have something inside, something that you want to carry into the story you're making."
Asked if he can relate personally to the self- loathing and despair in Hornby's book Colin answers: "Yes, absolutely. It's just that in my terms they tend to be about different things than they would be for him, but I think it's always true if you're an actor. It's funny I often start a job thinking 'this is a big reach for me, this character is miles away from me. I'm really going to have to work on this.' I almost invariably find myself thinking at the end 'this is completely me." [Attitude, April 1997]

When Fever Pitch opened in England, April 1997, Colin was interviewed on British radio: "I was in Rome when I read Fever Pitch, and it gave me a yearning for England and the sort of rootedness that Nick Hornby talks about - the kind of rootedness you have to find, because it is not something you grew up with. And I identified with that, because I have a similar middle class background. I felt he wrote about Englishness now - my generation - in an extremely unsentimental and yet not hostile or bitter way. And I found that quite unusual, really." [Radio One interview, April 1997]

RUTH GEMMELL ON ACTING WITH COLIN:

"When I landed the part I didn't know I would be playing opposite Colin," she says. "When I found out that was nerve wracking enough. But then when I had to kiss him before I'd barely knew him, I was terrified. But he's so lovely that he immediately put me at ease.

Like everyone else I'd seen him in Pride and Prejudice and was pretty impressed. So the prospect of working with him was scary. But I decided right at the start that if I felt nervous about the love scenes I would just tell him because he's not the kind of man who would think that was funny."

The pair met in a London pub just before filming began to try and get to know each other.

"We had a few pints, swapped a few stories and by the end of it we knew how we were going to play the characters. By the time the love scenes came around he wasn't the elusive Mr Darcy anymore. He wasn't even Colin the heart-throb. He was just Colin." [Daily Mirror, March 30 1997]

VIDEO: PAL format video available.

* The book Fever Pitch published by Indigo paperback edition 1996 [ISBN 0 575 40015 3] . Nick Hornby's screenplay also published by Indigo 1997 [ISBN 0 575 40084 6]. The screenplay include an introduction with many glimpses from the filming and comments about Colin Firth. Also many black and white photos from the film.

The Fever Pitch Soundtrack CD by Warner MusicUK Ltd 1997. [WE833/0630-18453-2/LC4281]
The soundtrack include some of the film's voice overs by Colin Firth. The music include Van Morrison, Lisa Stansfield, The Who and many more. The CD sleeve also has eight color pics from the film.