Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geofrey Rush talk about the past, future and speech impediments

We were lucky enough to attend the 54th BFI London Film Festival press conference for The King’s Speech. In attendance were the all star cast of Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush alongside their director Tom Hooper where they discussed the past and the story about the reluctant king; King George VI.

Based on the true story of the Queen of England’s father and his remarkable friendship with maverick Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue The King’s Speech stars Academy Award nominee Colin Firth (A Single Man) as King George VI, who unexpectedly becomes King when his brother Edward abdicates the throne. Academy Award Winner Geoffrey Rush (Shine) stars as Logue, who helps the King find a voice to lead the nation into war.

Tom, you’ve recreated real lives quite a bit before, I wondered if when dealing with a Royal subject you had any extra concerns especially since when some of the people in the film are still alive?

Tom Hooper: I wanted to be hugely careful about the accuracy of the film. We all did a lot of research as history and facts do matter to me. At the same time it’s always a balancing act between verifiable historical truth and dramatic shape and that relationship is one we constantly discussed. The great excitement of this film was the discovery nine weeks before the shoot that Lionel Love’s grandson had all these never seen before papers, autobiographies and medical notes. So to have this insight into the relationship was really incredibly exciting.

Is there a message for the challenges that people and families with disabilities face?
 
Tom Hooper: I think it’s important to know that this film isn’t about the miracle cure. When Colin and I listened to King George VI making his final broadcast he was still clearly a man coping with a stammer and we wanted to avoid any Hollywood climax where he was suddenly he was completely liberated and was Laurence Olivier. I think for most people living with disabilities it’s not about a cure its about working with it and that’s an incredible important part of the movie.

Colin Firth: I feel a responsibility to the peoples who do have the issues I was trying to enact, good story telling, like Tom said, isn’t about trying to provide answers for things. I think it’s about being honest about issues and problems and the way people navigate them.

Colin, congratulations, an incredible performance. How important is it to you that the film is stamped with a flock of awards next year?

Colin Firth: Firstly, thank you. I don’t know whats going to happen next year. The fact that people are talking that way is incredibly gratifying. This wasn’t a walk in the park by any means.

Colin, How much research did you do in order to achieve the stammering performance?

Colin Firth: A lot, but it’s the third time I have played somebody with a stammer but what was interesting to me was that I couldn’t just pull my stammer out of the drawer. Anyone that has experienced it would tell you, it’s not the same for everybody. As an actor what you’re really playing is not stammering. At different times of my life I have spoken to people including our own writers who has overcome a stammer himself. It wasn’t so much what happened physiologically but I had to apply it to the way Tom, the director wanted it. There was an awful lot of technical plotting to it. What interested me most rather than whats going on in a mans muscles was the fear, when going to a restaurant you don’t order the fish, if you can’t say ‘f’ so your life is dictated by that fear. No matter what else is at stake, it’s “can I say it” and those things are very helpful to me as an insight.

Have your views of the British Monarchy changed at all after making this film?

Helena Bonham Carter: I was unaware to the extent and how chronic his stammer was so this film is a fresh angle of a very famous period of history. The pressure on this man and his personal crisis was totally new to me. I also think it’s an interesting story about the most reluctant king. The duty, the responsibility and sheer hugeness of the job makes me never want to be royal, although I effortlessly am at times (laughs). The Queen Mother was extraordinary, she was a professional public figure and expert at it, she had the character and the confidence. However married a man that was not born to be a king and had to do a job that he was not suited to. I think he drew upon her confidence where he lacked it and it was a really true partnership, the classic woman behind the man.

Geoffrey Rush: I’ve always had an intriguing fascination obsession with the whole dynasty of British royalty. I find the complexity of the history and the shaping of the various houses and weird claim linage. The house of Windsor that is still with us was for me the first kind of reality TV show. In the late 60’s they let the first TV crew into the house and I just found it so intriguing. I would like my country to be a but more adult and independent but I do find the presence of royalty and contemporary life intriguing.

How much of the film is true and how much is it filled in blanks?

Tom Hooper: Everyone knows the Royal families ability to control the flow of information ot of the palace is pretty formidable. I think that reflects our ability to tell their stories even when it’s a few decades later. The most valuable source were the diaries for us, Lionel only started writing them when he became king. Even in the diaries published later in the year were clearly careful not to disclose too much detail about the detail that’s happening in the therapy. The things I got out of it were dialogues, for example at the end of the speech when Lionel said to the king, “you still stammered on the W” the king says “well I had to throw in a few so that they knew it was me” – that’s a direct quote. In terms of where the content of the therapy scenes, really that comes out of David Shdyff’s imagination, but he was born in 1937 and he has a terrible stammer as a child and went throgh his own therapy so things like the swearing technique was used with david and it was an incredibly helpful thing. It’s very much a mixture of imagination with fact.

How are you with public speaking and do you ever get stage fright?

Helena Bonham Carter: I don’t like making speeches, this is not my idea of complete joy. I’m an introverted actor who likes pretending in other peoples characters. It’s just a completely crazy choice of profession. I’m fairly introverted but at times I spasm extrovert.

Geoffrey Rush: I’m a patron of the film festival in Melbourne and an Ambassador for the Orchestra and a few public things like that, so I’m often asked. I’ve found that I prefer to write notes or write the actual speech so that I can hone it, to make it entertaining so I can at least get a laugh by the second line. I did go through a phase of dread inducing panic attacks before going on stage in the early 90’s. And then I got an international film career and they sort of disappeared (laughs). I think that was the cure I’m not sure.

Colin Firth: I do suffer from those fears, infact I had incredible stage fright the last time I went on stage, I had to open with a two page monologue with no prompters, no dress rehearsal. I locked myself in the toilet at curtain up. I wasn’t planning to stay there (laughs).

Speaking of fear, during the “swearing scene” did you worry at all about how the Queen would react?

Colin Firth: It’s crossed my mind. It’s something we’ve touched on on several occasions. I don’t know, I think it really works in our story. I don’t think we’ll get anybody to verify that it is inaccurate, I just like it as a note, an important note; to go from a near complete reversal when confronting his brother to a sort of catharsis release of rage. You can’t really get that arc without that piece.

Had it been my script version, it would’ve been a lot worse, there was a moment when producers just came running in saying “no, you can say that and that but not that. You cannot finish it with that word if you want a release in certain countries.” (laughs) It wasn’t frivolous, we actually thought that it had a genuine place.

Geoffrey Rush: Did you say: poo, bum for the airline version? (laughs)

Colin Firth: Haven’t got there yet but I’m sure it’ll be delightful. (laughs)

The children were great in the film, it’s a shame they won’t be able to see it in cinemas, not officially atleast. Can you comment on that? Especially when the BBFC give more violent things lower certificates.

Tom Hooper: My head is in my hands about it. You know I went to see Salt and a tube if forced down Angelina Jolie’s throat and water then poured down her throat to simulate drowning, that’s not a problem. The Daniel Craig scene in the last Bond where his b****ks are smashed in through a chair with no bottom and that doesn’t get a 15. And this extraordinary devision between language and violence and sex and violence greatly disturbing. These are scenes that are still in my head that I don’t want in my head. They’re troubling me and I’m my age.

Helena, when playing a real person, do you go by the research or the script? And do you try them out at home?

Helena Bonham Carter: Yeah otherwise they wouldn’t be any fun. (laughs) No, I mean you do when you’re playing a real person you have a real responsibility. So I did read William Shaw Cross for a bit, I read the unauthorised biography. I didn’t have very long, only two and a half weeks. I think I was playing a witch in Harry Potter at the time, my son whose six said at the time “mum do you have to be the witch or the queen tomorrow?” I said “oh that’s a good question” (laughs). You do all the reading, but ultimately you have to serve the story, you take what’s relevant.

Colin, how much of King George VI did you know and Helena how much of the Queen Mother did you know before she passed on?

Colin Firth: I didn’t know much, almost nothing at all. My parents were children during the war, so I remember my mother talking about it, about his reluctance and how much of a personal struggle there was for him. And I remember her telling me about the stammer and I remember her telling me about the relationship between him and Elizabeth how she understood it.

Helena Bonham Carter: I met her I think at the premiere of A Room with a View when I was very young. I got what most people perceive as a great grace, she also had that cloud of charming vagueness but I think underneath it she had a great inner strength. Cecil Beecham said she was a “marshmallow made by a welding machine”. So I thought if I can get that duality then yeah.

As we move into a future without the British Film Council, is it more important now for leading British actors to support British films?

Geoffrey Rush: I think they should.

Helena Bonham Carter: If they offer us the roles for everything, we don’t create our own roles, but if someone came up with some brilliant roles and offered them all to me…

Colin Firth: The thing is to try to do it well, you get some good material then we do it justice. Something like the film council will have to exist. But yes the simple answer to your question is yes, I do think we have to.

The King’s Speech Film Page | Colin Firth Profile | Helena Bonham Carter Profile | Geoffrey Rush Profile

THE KING’S SPEECH ARRIVES IN CINEMAS IN 2011 FROM MOMENTUM PICTURES