Colin Firth - a pleasure to meet you! (Shakes hands)

COLIN: Pleasure...

Q: You are in Bridget Jones's Diary. You play Mr. Darcy. Of course the folks at A&E remember you playing Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. There is a connection here.

(A film clip from Pride & Prejudice, where Lizzie tells Darcy about Wickham running off with Lydia)

COLIN (laughs): There's not ever going to be an escape, is there?

Q: What did the writer have in mind putting that name in there and then having you in the movie?

COLIN: Well, I don't know - when she first was writing Bridget Jones as a column, I don't know if she specifically had the Pride and Prejudice story line in mind at that time. She quite clearly had a fixation - I mean Bridget Jones, not Helen Fielding - a fixation with Mr. Darcy, and she used that when she transferred it into a book. And I think she decided that the Pride and Prejudice structure would suit her agenda very well, and we've seen it done.

Q: Millions of people have read the book but for those who haven't, maybe just a little thumbnail sketch of the story?

COLIN: Well, a thumbnail sketch of the story, it would be quite handy to go back to Pride and Prejudice.

(Film clip with Mark and Bridget: Mark is very, very inarticulate - insulting Bridget in various ways - in a similar way as Mr. Darcy in the "You must allow me to tell you how much..." scene in P&P.)

COLIN: You've got a girl who's looking for a partner, or is under pressure to have a partner for one reason or another. Someone who basically misjudges the first person she encounters in the story and - well - she misjudges him negatively. Then she meets another man whom she misjudges ... positively, if you like. Following very closely to the Pride and Prejudice story: the charming, rakish, devilish fellow is actually not going to get her anywhere. She eventually finds that the pompous, aloof, rigid, dull creature that was snarling at her from across a crowded room, is the man who has something to offer.

So I think it's about misperceptions, first impressions and finding happiness in the places you least expect.

Q: I don't want to give too much away, but you end up in a fisticuffs with Hugh Grant. Was that fun getting to punch him out?

(Film clip of Mark and Daniel's fight out on the street)

COLIN: Absolutely. Yes, I'm sure he had just as much fun as I did. I think we decided to step aside a little bit from the old movie punch out, the western swings, the carefully choreographed, rather less than plausible.

Q: You mean you connected? You really...?

COLIN: No, we didn't. We just grappled at each other like a couple of five-year-olds. Which is what I think most fights probably are like, between adults.

I think they're ridiculous things. I think we wanted to capture that sense of the ridiculous between men who are not used to fighting each other. This is a couple of suits throwing themselves at each other. These aren't people who know exactly how to place a punch.

Q: Let's talk briefly about the cast. We mentioned Hugh Grant. Renée Zellweger plays Bridget. There was some controversy, especially in Britain, about her being cast. She's from my home state Texas and I went in thinking "Is she going to be able to pull this off?" and you do believe her. She is very good in this. Did you have any concerns at all about her being in the film?

(Film clip of Bridget writing in her diary)

COLIN: None what so ever. No, I think it's preposterous. I think it is misplaced territorialism on the part of the English. I think it's the usual griping in the British press.

I think it's exciting when someone represents something that is not entirely of their own background. I think the actor's background is irrelevant if they are talented. It's interesting to see somebody so English, with the character being represented from an outsider's point of view. Particularly that she does it so triumphantly! I don't know how many times we have to see skepticism proved wrong.

Q: Well the last time I guess was Shakespeare in Love.

COLIN: Well, Gwyneth has done it three times.

Q: Right. Speaking of Shakespeare; theatre has always been important to you. Is that still a priority?

COLIN: It's always been important to me, yes. I try to keep it as something of a priority. It doesn't mean that it's the thing that I devote most of my time to, because there are elements of my life which are difficult to conduct if I'm in the theatre. Theatrical commitments are often very long and I have a life which requires me to travel quite a lot. But it's something I want to keep alive. Absolutely.

Q: Anything planned?

COLIN: Hamlet is next. That's coming up at the end of the year. In London.

Q: Now that's a role that you played before, is that right?

COLIN: As a student, yes.

Q: Yeah. How do you think that will differ? The difference between playing it as a student and now?

COLIN: I have no idea. This is why I'm doing it. To find out.

It will differ by twenty years. I don't think it's appropriate to think of drawing on that from the first time. I think probably not. It'll have to be new. I did hear a quote [which I find comforting] from Albert Finney - who played it memorably - apparently saying that Hamlet should be played either at twenty or forty. So the first time I was nearer to twenty. I'm now forty so if he's right, then...

Q: ...the timing is good.

COLIN: Hopefully it has a nice symmetry about it. Yes.

Q: You've done some writing recently.

COLIN: Uummmm.

Q: Department of Nothing?

COLIN: That's right!

Q: Tell me about it.

COLIN: Gosh. You've done your homework, haven't you??

Q: Well, I have to tell you, your fans have been writing me to ask you about certain things.

COLIN: Oh, I see.

Q: I have been doing my homework, but the fans from Pride & Prejudice are avid and they want to know all about you, and that's how I found out about that.

COLIN: Well, the Department of Nothing wasn't a commission, really. It was a charity exercise. Nick Hornby ambushed me with this project, and I'm very glad he did, because I've been tampering with the idea of writing for years, and doing it as a sort of hobby. This was the time to put my money where my mouth is and actually do something with a deadline.

We were just sitting in a restaurant and he said that he had this project for his autistic child's school foundation, and he was just asking a number of friends to contribute monologues to an anthology. He made me shake hands on it, and here was a gentleman's agreement which I had to honor.

I wrote more than one story before I settled on the one I eventually contributed to the book. It just came very, very quickly, having tortured myself with others that were complete failures.

It's the voice of an eleven-year-old child and a relationship with a very old woman - his grandmother - who's dying. She recounts surrealist fantasies to him, which he then imparts to his schoolmates.

Q: Likely to keep doing that? Do you like to write?

COLIN: I will have another stab at it. There's no question about it.

Q: Colin Firth, thank you so much for your time. (Shaking hands)

COLIN: Thanks...

(End clip from BJD: the lake scene)