Colin Firth at the Berlinale 1999

First director John Madden's comment on casting Shakespeare in Love: "With a movie that has a script like this one, you don't have too much trouble attracting the actors you want. It was...a prerequisite that the actors were passionate about the material, because it's tricky stuff to do... And luckily I was able to get the people that I wanted at every level. /.../ I don't think I've worked on a film where I feel that ... every part is so perfectly cast. It's just as if they already belong to their roles, and....."

Colin [interrupts]: "Thanks so very much!!!"

[laughter]

Madden [laughing]: "... there was nobody else to play this solemn, humourless man called Wessex but Colin Firth, you know!" /.../

Question: "Colin, there are a lot of observations in this film about actors, writers, producers and so forth, and from your point of view... is that contemporary? Do you think there is truth to these observations?"

Colin: "I do! I doubt very much whether...."

Colin is distracted by John Madden fussing about .

Madden: "I'm going to line up the shot for him."

Colin looks at Madden and then at the journalists and explains: "Stage managing going on!"

[laughter]

..."Um, yes, I don't think the process of putting on a play and then doing it has changed very much in... in milleniums probably. Very often actors are called upon to tell stories which they can't possibly know anything about. It's happened to me. I've played a man who had been held hostage for five years and it's beyond my imagination. Completely.

This time we were asked to.... a lot of us were asked to show how it's like to have the jitters before a show: have your heart bumping before you are about to go and make a fool of yourself in front of a large number of people. And I felt we own that territory to a large extent. And it [SIL] was able to poke fun of the absurdity of that, in a way that we all recognize. But with great affection.

There's a lot of negative stuff that can be leveled at actors. You know, we are all precious and competitive and spiteful and egotistical. It played with that, but it also celebrated what is delightful about it, and has probably been a delight for actors for time in memorial. Really... So I think it was very relevant and great fun for the actors. /.../

Question from AOL Entertainment: Mr Firth, did the fact that you took the part of the solemn man have something to do with wanting to flee your image of Mr Darcy???

[embarrassed laughter...]

Colin: No! Um... the image of Mr Darcy isn't really clinging to me quite as palpably as it might seem to others. I think...you know... I felt that I had shaken it off - on my own terms - the day we did the last shot on the film.

I think it's others peoples concern, really, whether that follows me around or not.

So no, I've done a great deal of stuff since then and it hasn't really determined my choices.

I decided to do this on it's own terms, really. It's as John says, it's an irresistible script - it's utterly unique!

Actors have a incredibly strong relationship with language. I mean, we depend on it entirely. Without decent language we can't really do anything very much. It really is our raw material. So something which not only has such beautiful language but also celebrates language and the performance of it, was an opportunity which is extraordinary in film and I don't expect it to come 'round again.

That was the reason. It was being part of it.

... I can't honestly pretend that I had a specifically yearning to play Lord Wessex and nothing else... [laughter and whisper from Madden]

But being part of this and working with John and the people... doesn't really need to be explained.

Madden about the 13 Academy Award Nominations: "It's particulary thrilling to have the whole film embraced. Clearly we are not going to win 13 Oscars. We don't really care about that. To have the film nominated...."