British star Colin Firth has a lot to handle in Bridget Jones's Diary. Not only does he have to compete as a rival for the affections of RenŽe Zellweger against English sex symbol Hugh Grant, but as the character Darcy, he's got to hold his own against Hugh in a hilarious street brawl that doesn't exactly cement their relationship in the movie. Firth, who won many of the hearts of many women after playing a different Darcy in the BBC's Pride And Prejudice, talked about his discomfort with being regarded as an emerging new hunk on the block.

Q: Is there any truth to the rumor that while Renée was trying to gain weight for her role, that you were trying to lose weight for yours?

Colin Firth: I want to find out who's leaking this information! But no, I wasn't losing weight for the picture. Though Hugh and I were both very precious about our exercise and dietary habits. And it was certainly in marked contrast to what Renée was doing.

But no, the story goes really like this, from my point of view. The producer rang me up when we were about two or three weeks away from shooting the film. And he mentioned this fight that we were going to be doing. And there had been an idea at one point, that in the process of the fight, our shirts were going to be ripped from our backs. You know, to reveal glistening, rippling, taut muscles.

You know, that this was going to be a sexual revelation of the decade! Like all women were going to find this moment an epiphany, so how do you feel about your body. Well, I have to say that I expressed a certain amount of caution! And skepticism about ripping my shirt off and, uh, having that effect on the world!

Q: How did you resolve that dilemma?

Colin: I was offered a trainer. And basically on the assumption that within two weeks, I could reach that point. And I sort of thought, well if you're paying for the trainer, let's see what happens. And so that was basically it. So we decided to pursue that. It wasn't a weight loss program, actually. It was just seeing if I could make myself a little more, well, macho.

Q: What did your training consist of?

Colin: I think it was fairly standard stuff, really. They had me do weights and running.

Q: Was it a letdown for you that you didn't rip each other's shirts off the way you described?

Colin: I was not disappointed! And I think we were relieved that we didn't do that.

Q: The audiences may be a bit disappointed!

Colin: Well, I feel we should leave the mystery intact.

Q: How fun is it to take part in a brawl, especially with Hugh Grant as your opponent?

Colin: It was a lot of fun. And we didn't choreograph it, to make it seem more real. Obviously, there were one or two things that had to be disciplined, and not just to protect ourselves. In order for a punch to be convincing, you need an expert to tell you from what angle the camera has to shoot it.

But most films would have you believe that ordinary guys in suits, if it comes to fighting each other, will be fully accomplished in the art of, you know, breaking somebody's jaw. When in fact, they probably scrap like a couple of seven year old girls, which is what we did. And I'm sure if Hugh and I came down to that in real life, that's probably what we'd do! Although Hugh would probably have you believe that he's been militarily trained. And that we were safely in his hands!

But that was one of the few occasions where shooting the fight was as funny as the result. Because very often it doesn't work out that way. It's often a bad sign if we're laughing. It means that the audience isn't going to!

Q: What drew you to the Bridget Jones project?

Colin: A good script, it was as simple as that. The script took a long time to develop, and they were trying to pull a lot of elements together. And that was a slow, fairly unwieldy process. So it wasn't until I saw the final draft, really, that I was sure that it was all right.

Q: What did you think about Renée being blasted by the British tabloids for her accent in the movie?

Colin: I didn't see all this fuss. It must have missed me, and passed me by. I didn't read anything about it, but I think the story has been slightly trumped up. I was definitely there, but I just had no patience for that at all. I find it the most absurd and meaningless piece of empty carping, and all too characteristic of our press, unfortunately. But the proof in the pudding is in the eating. If it works, it shuts everyone up. Every time the British press makes that fuss, they seem to be proved wrong. Resoundingly so. And I don't know how many times that's going to have to happen for them to not jump so quickly to whine like that. But Renée answered that question for me from day one. I mean, she arrived with the accent and all those cultural aspects of the character, in the bag. She'd been in England for a while, and I got to know her as an English girl, really. Renée never dropped the accent between takes, to the extent that I find it very odd to hear her now! I find her Texan accent that she's doing now, very strange and unconvincing! And very confusing.

Q: You became such an international heartthrob playing Darcy on BBC's Pride And Prejudice, and here you are as a Darcy again, in Bridget Jones's Diary. Is that kind of reputation that follows you around whether you like it or not, more a blessing or a curse?

Colin: Well, I couldn't be more used to it. I can't see it as a curse anymore, it's so prevalent in my life. You know, six years of being used to something like that is, I don't know, it's just like living with a.... birthmark!

Q: Let's talk about life after Bridget Jones. You may very well end up with even more of a hunk image here in America, because of this movie. Have you given any thought to that?

Colin: I don't know. I think it's exhausting to have expectations all the time. I mean, there's nothing in my life that makes me feel that's what I am at all. I might quite like to be reminded of that, in some sort of meaningful way. But to be quite frank, absolutely nobody treats me like a dream guy of anybody!

It remains so abstract. And people close to me don't take me seriously with a label like that, at all. So it really doesn't affect me, except as something that might get written somewhere. And it always makes me feel like they're writing about somebody else.

I talked myself out of that years ago, such as it were. I mean, I didn't have that sort of burning ambition to be famous when I started out. Partly because it just never entered my head that it could be possible, and partly because that wasn't what interested me.

And by the time exciting things happened and possibilities presented themselves, I think there has been such a pattern of things not working out the way one expected, both favorably and unfavorably, that I don't really invest anything in those kinds of speculations anymore.