The role of the brooding Darcy in the 1995 TV version of “Pride & Prejudice” helped make Colin Firth a star. Will the big-screen remake opening tomorrow do the same for Matthew MacFadyen?
The studio is banking on the chemistry between the film’s leads to bring in young filmgoers who have probably never picked up Jane Austen’s oft-filmed romance. In one corner, there’s Keira Knightley (“Pirates of the Caribbean“) as brainy Elizabeth Bennet who, along with her four sisters, must be married off; in the other, MacFadyen, 30, as Darcy, the aristocratic millionaire Elizabeth thinks she despises until she learns to listen to her heart.
Although MacFadyen swears he’s never seen any of version of “Pride & Prejudice“, he knew about Darcy.
“He’s the guy who’s sort of the quintessential strong, silent person you don’t like, the arrogant one who turns out to be good,” he said.
As for creating combustible chemistry with Knightley, MacFadyen is modest to a fault.
“I’ve got this theory: I think chemistry is nonsense, really,” he said. “If you’re acting the scene well, then there’s chemistry. But if you’re not, then there isn’t. Maybe I’m wrong.”
MacFadyen is best known here for the British police series “MI-5“. It was not only a key to launching an international career, it changed his life; he married his co-star, Keeley Hawes. They have an 11-month-old daughter.
“Yeah, we met at work,” he said. And no, it was hardly love at first sight. “It was a slow burn,” he said, then laughed.
MacFadyen’s domestic situation can’t be compared to the lovely scenario presented by “Pride & Prejudice“, in which Darcy’s millions dissolve all Elizabeth’s financial worries.
Hawes has “been subsidizing me for the last year,” he said. “She had the baby as well, she’s done three jobs since I’ve made this film.”
After seeing him as Darcy, audiences will consider MacFadyen a romantic. Is he truly?
“My vanity is that I’m quite romantic, that I’m very romantic,” he said, then laughed. “But my wife doesn’t think so. She says, ‘You’re not romantic at all.’ I could do better.”
By Stephen Schaefer for The Boston Herald.
(Source: Pride and Prejudice boards)