"Nanny McPhee" is a different sort of project for Colin Firth who's best known for starring roles in romantic comedies and more adult-themed films. With "Nanny McPhee," Firth gets the opportunity to indulge in a little slapstick comedy as well as work with a bunch of kids and a donkey. And speaking of the donkey, Firth says "Nanny McPhee" was one of his more enjoyable filming experiences with the exception of his time spent dealing with that particular creature.
Colin Firth Explains the Appeal of the Family Comedy, “Nanny McPhee:” “My love of storytelling began as a child. I certainly think that’s true of most of us. Mine was possibly more obsessive than others to the extent that I had to pursue it as a profession. I think something about telling stories for children, which takes you back to that root of what made you love doing what you do. I am a storyteller. I’m a professional fantasist and that’s what I do as an actor.
I think there was something liberating about not hiding behind the kind of veneer of sophistication and irony that telling stories for adults tends to involve. We’re just trying to delight children. Scare them, make them laugh, whatever. And it’s just a much less self-regarding process. It brings you back to the joy of being spellbound by the stories that you were told as a child. You just enjoy being frightened or you enjoy watching grown-ups make fools of themselves.”
Firth says the script caught his eye because of its overall tone. “It had an atmosphere to me of things distantly remembered. I knew there wasn’t going to be rock music over it or dance mixes. It was going to be very, very, very accessible.
There’s another element to that. There is a twist and it’s the kind that I like because I think it is very archetypal, which is the dark streak that the story has. I’m not just talking about the threats that loom over the family. I’m talking about the darkness of the atmosphere. That house, it looks a little like the ‘Psycho’ house. I work in a funeral parlor. Nanny McPhee is hideous to look at and the old aunt is a big scary woman with a big false nose. All the fairy tales that have endured through time tend to have that dark streak and children pick up on that. It means something to them. So I liked that.
I think it had an air of campery and absurdity that I like. It didn’t take itself too seriously. It didn’t preach any lofty metaphysics. It just had some homespun wisdom about people having to find their own answers. So there wasn’t some sort of big message going on patronizing kids. I think it was all of those elements.”
Colin Firth on Working with Kids in “Nanny McPhee:” “The problem is, it’s not fair on the kids because the disciplines of a film set are very specific and very particular. What we’re asked to do does not come naturally to us. We have to do things which go against our natural inclinations a lot of the time. You may not want to be deliriously happy for the 50th time at six o’clock in the evening. You may not want to. You played the scene where you killed your wife that morning and now you’re doing this. But you have to, and that is the job. You try telling a five year old that sort of thing. And why should they? So you’ve got to handle it quite carefully.
A lot of the time, you are getting a situation where they’re all going to get very hyper. Yeah, I would just solve the problem by putting as much distance between myself and them as I possibly could. But I have to say, these were good kids. I don’t want to necessarily sell this as if were dealing with some sort of [unruly mob]. No, it wasn’t out of control. They were incredibly sweet. On the most part, pretty quiet. And they were all of different ages so they didn’t operate as a mob. They went from 14 down to about five I think, so there isn’t going to be a natural bond necessarily between that age group.”
Page 2: Colin Firth Analyzes His Character and Discusses Physical Comedy
