For his latest film Kingsman: The Secret Service, Colin Firth had to bear a lot of bruises and pain during months of intensive training. He talks about giving the British spy a suave makeover
When Matthew Vaughn first met with Colin Firth to discuss Kingsman: The Secret Service, the director warned his leading man that, should he accept the role, there were tough challenges ahead. “He said, ‘It’s going to hurt and you’ll hate me by the end,’” said Firth. He was indeed about to embark on a role unlike any other that he has tackled during his career and he clearly loved it. After a particularly gruelling day, nursing cuts and bruises, he questioned why he had taken on an action role in a spy movie but the rewards were enormous.
In Kingsman: The Secret Service Firth is seen as Harry Hart, a crack operative with secret independent intelligence organisation. Hart is a British gentleman — a suave sophisticate impeccably attired in the finest Savile Row suits. Firth underwent months of intensive training to get into peak condition for the action role. “It was about six months, three hours a day. Three hours a day, every day with this extraordinary team of guys. I’m not an athlete, historically, at all. This was taking a man in his 50s and starting almost from scratch — not quite from scratch, because I’d done some fairly standard middle aged man’s maintenance, over the years with my trainer. There were things with lower body, squats and lunges and painful things. Then there were the hopeless first months where not only was it agony, but there was also a sense of shame that these brilliant men had to be lumbered with me. They must have been thinking, ‘What on earth have we got hereIJ’ But then sheer persistence can deliver. I certainly did try. The spirit was willing,” he said.
One of his first scenes was a brilliantly choreographed sequence where Hart is at the centre of a mass fight inside an American church. For Firth, there was also an intensive period of weapons training. Hart is an expert in hand-to-hand combat but he’s also equipped with guns and all the latest hardware and gadgets that a 21st century spy should have — including an umbrella that acts as both a shield and fires bullets and a cigarette lighter that happens to be a grenade.
And, of course, his beautifully tailored suit is made of a special bullet-proof material. “There was an ex Special Forces guy, telling you how to hold a gun in your hand, how to roll around and how to shoot. Then there were the actual firearms guys, who tell you how to actually operate the guns, how to reload them as well as how to use the various objects we’ve got and how to fight multiple opponents. It was as much of a dance as it was a fight thing. It’s a choreographed dance in which you’re all dependent on each other. Once you start to speed it up, there are risks because if you mistime something, then you get walloped or somebody else gets walloped,” he said.
The team also included pilates expert David Higgins who was on hand for emergency repairs. “If you did hurt yourself, David was there to make sure you could be back in 10 minutes. My shoulder went in the wrong direction because I was throwing people and doing somersaults. Bruises were a bit of a badge of honour. I remember there was a huge bruise that covered my entire left arm,” he shared.
The concept of Kingsman: The Secret Service was born when Vaughn was working with Mark Millar, the comic book author, on set for Kick-Ass in 2009. Both huge James Bond fans, they came up with the idea about an elite spy. A couple of years later, Millar, with illustrator Dave Gibbons, began working on the graphic novel, The Secret Service, which was published in 2012. Meanwhile, Vaughn and his regular writing partner, Jane Goldman, were working on the screenplay for Kingsman. Amongst their other collaborations Vaughn and Goldman also adapted Millar’s comic book, Kick-Ass, for the big screen. Kingsmanhonours the long tradition of British film spies — from Harry Palmer, played by Sir Michael, to James Bond, whilst creating a unique world where a league of gentlemen secret service agents battle, unseen, to protect the world.
“It’s subverting, the baggage that I bring. Matthew takes all the genres we’ve seen and then likes to subvert them one by one, almost. It’s a spy film but we’re going to send it up a little bit and then just when you think it’s sending up, it’s going to go a little bit dark. He knows how to navigate through all of those little things, which are based on people’s expectations and yet it’s not quite pastiche. You have to be master of tone to be a good director. It’s a rather mysterious talent,” said Firth.