Firth and foremost
British actor Colin Firth plays against type as a murderous writer in true-crime drama The Staircase.
THE true-crime drama The Staircase recreates the sensational case of American novelist Michael Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his wife in 2001. Her lifeless body was found at the foot of the stairs in their home.
In the lead role is Colin Firth, who has made a career of portraying posh – and largely sympathetic – British characters in films such as the romantic comedy Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and historical drama The King’s Speech (2010).
But the 61-year-old says he enjoyed playing against type as the morally ambiguous Peterson, who was suspected of bludgeoning wife Kathleen (Toni Collette) to death at the family mansion in North Carolina, in what became a widely publicised court case.
Taking on this role was not, however, part of a strategy to switch things up in Firth’s career or change how audiences see him, he says.
“It’s great if that’s the effect. I think that’s positive,” says the British actor at a virtual press event.
“It was a simple case of thinking this was a good script. I was struck by the quality of the writing and I found the whole thing very intriguing.
“So, there was no career strategy involved. This just came out of nowhere and hooked me,” says the star, who also appeared in the Mamma Mia! musical franchise (2008 to 2018).
Firth confesses he is not a big consumer of true crime himself, saying that the genre “isn’t where I go for my entertainment”.
But he was attracted by the complexity of the character. While it is not the first time Firth has played a real person – he portrayed the late British monarch George VI in The King’s Speech, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar – this was a lot trickier.
“This was unique in my experience in that it’s hard to construct a biography of a character that’s, to some extent, hard to understand,” the actor says.
When it came to research, there was much to study, including the 2004 French docuseries The Staircase, on which this drama is partially based.
“There was so much material in terms of the documentary, outtakes from the documentary, interviews that he’s given, stuff he’s written – and that was sort of a hunting ground, in a way.
“I was less interested in finding a way to mimic anything or assimilate his mannerisms just for the sake of it,” adds Firth, who also stars in two films in the Kingsman spy movie franchise (2014 to 2021).
This is one of the few times the British performer has played an American, but the actor was not focused on mastering the accent so much as revealing something about the character through his speech.
“It was less to do with sounding American rather than English or putting him on the map. I was looking for codes and wondering what you can find out about a person by the way they speak and by means of body language.”
Firth did his best not to take a moral stance on Peterson, whose case continues to stir up debate.
“I tried not to judge. It’s something that was ingrained into all of us as students (of acting). It’s just not your job, and that’s a creative necessity, really.
“You have to stay as open as possible just for the purpose of the exercise,” the actor says.
And the series as a whole “deftly avoids taking up a single position” on Peterson’s guilt or innocence.
“It’s the nature of the exercise to keep doubt alive, to mess with your expectations, to tease you with a potential resolution or thinking that you now can find some certainty – and then it subverts that constantly,” he says. – The Straits Times/asia News Network
The Staircase is available on HBO Go.