"Uncle Face" Colin Firth: I do resemble the character I played

Interview with The Genius Catcher

The moment I saw Colin Firth, it took some effort to restrain myself from calling him "Mr. Perkins."

In the film Genius Catcher, Colin Firth plays Max Perkins, editor of Scribner Press. In the history of literature, Perkins' name has always appeared with great writers such as Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and so on. The film tells the story of Perkins and Wolff. On March 10, 2017, "Genius Catcher" was released in Chinese mainland. On March 6, he gave an exclusive interview to Southern Weekend in London.

Colin Firth in front of him was younger than on screen, unlike 57, a decent Middle-Aged British man: relaxed, casual, amiable, and polite. He has many recognized labels: representative of a gentleman, an Oscar winner, the most British Actor, etc. The screen images he has interpreted are unique, but they all have a kind of restrained and restrained beauty, which is rigorous and tight. Because of this, the deepest impression and the biggest subversion of a table with him is his relaxation and ordinary casualness. This kind of commonality lies in the fact that when he answers questions, he never deliberately makes surprising remarks; it is more like deliberately avoiding the views of beauty and superiority.

<h3>Why is John Lennon not the typical British figure? </h3>

<b>Southern Weekend:</b> What made you take on the movie "The Genius Catcher"? Is the temperament of the story, or the complicated friendship between Max and Thomas?

<b>Colin Firth:</b> I started out as interested in American literature of that period. I don't know Thomas Wolfe. I don't think many modern readers know Thomas Wolfe either. But I did have a great interest in Fitzgerald and Hemingway, as well as writers like Faulkner and Steinbeck who don't appear in the film.

As a reader, I am most interested in American literature from the early to mid-20th century. After reading Max Perkins' biography, I fell in love with the character of him. It turned into a passion, and I wanted to know him a little more, how much because he was mysterious. He didn't want to get the public's attention. He is incomparably determined to hide in the shadows and be the driving force of these outstanding talents.

In particular, it is worth mentioning that he is not just the Bole and pusher of these talents. The well-known writers he has worked with are both the most beautiful and the most troublesome. Perkins' personality seems to be the opposite. You see Thomas Wolfe[ in the movie], he's a casual guy who doesn't filter information, doesn't have editing skills, and even has very little self-control, while Perkins is extremely self-controlled. In a completely different way, Fitzgerald was equally troublesome, and he had no idea what was good for him, and neither did Hemingway. These people are drunkards. They hurt themselves either one way or another. These people are geniuses again. They all contrast with this man in the image of a father.

Perkins was extremely modest, generous, wise and independent. He's not just a conservative man. He worked for a very conservative publishing house, but Fitzgerald and the others had nothing to do with conservatives, and he had to fight for them. Perkins discussed Fitzgerald with the Scribner Press, which had little interest in him, believing his work to be obscene, frivolous, decadent and depraved. And Perkins saw his worth. So, from a story perspective, Perkins took a huge risk.

<b>Southern Weekend:</b> The story takes place in the United States, but do you think Perkins is more like an Englishman?

<b>Colin Firth:</b> I understand why anyone thinks that. He was a New Englander, and I think in New England at that time, the people who came out of his social environment were very similar to Perkins. The United States is a pluralistic country, and we present every country and every culture in a very original way. But I would say that Perkins is definitely American.

He was a Very, Very Typical Aristocratic New England intellectual. It is true that he has similarities in image to the British. But you live in the UK, you know, the British are not as typical as people think. You walk down the streets of England, and they don't wear three-piece suits and top hats, nor are they particularly gentlemanly. I can understand that perception, but I think he's a kind of American.

<b>Southern Weekend:</b> People see you as the typical British gentleman. You must have heard a lot of people give you such comments. What is your definition of a gentleman?

<b>Colin Firth:</b> England itself is diverse, especially counting the British Isles. The British have everything. I don't want to say something contradictory and hypocritical. Because I'm really like a lot of the characters I've played. I do fit the image of the British in everyone's eyes. But I don't think it's a very representative image of the British. I don't understand why Sid Wess (sex pistols bassist, punk spirit symbol), John Lennon and Damien Hurst (Britain's most expensive selling contemporary artists) are not typically British figures.

Britain's popular culture over the past six decades or so has left a huge reputation in the world, not because these people conform to the specific image of the so-called British, but the stereotype is deeply rooted in people's minds.

<b>Southern Weekend:</b> In the movie, Perkins never takes his hat off, whether at home or in the office. Is this a feature of that era, or is it a feature of the characters?

<b>Colin Firth:</b> There's a source for that, he just rarely takes his hat off. And there are reasons for that. In a book later in Thomas Wolfe's career, there is a description of Max Perkins. He changed Perkins' name, called him Foxwood Edwards, and imagined him putting his hat on the edge of the bed when he slept, getting up and wearing his pajamas and putting on his hat to take a shower, forgetting to take it off. He was famous for never taking off his hat. He also wears it in the office. He had said a reason, he always wanted to give the impression that he was about to go out. If someone comes to the office and he doesn't want to talk to him, he can put a hat on his head and say, "I'm only a minute old, I'm going out." ”

Another reason is the back of his ear, the hat can help him hear the sound, as long as he wears it back a little, the hat becomes a sound collection cover, and it will also push his ears forward a little. So there are very real reasons to wear a hat. It was also the decision of director Michael Grandagi. It can powerfully symbolize the character's self-preservation, and I don't want to spoil it, but the director wants the hat to be very important to him, like a mask or a way of covering himself.

<b>Southern Weekend:</b> Which scene in "The Genius Catcher" is the hardest to shoot?

<b>Colin Firth:</b> I couldn't pick the hardest shots, each with its own difficulties. A lot of the episodes take place in the office, we shoot them in order, it feels a lot like performing in a theater. We rehearsed many times and were already very skilled in filming, and Michael Glendagee is an experienced theater director. The scene in the office is my greatest satisfaction. I shot jude Lowe and I did for two or three weeks. Like The King's Speech, there are only two people in a room scene. I love the feeling of shooting. Some of the location scenes were a bit difficult to shoot because we weren't in New York but to pretend to be in New York, it took some little tricks. But from an acting point of view, it is not a big challenge. It's a little more difficult for the director.

<h3>"Wolfe wrote it too dirty, Fitzgerald just like I wanted."</h3>

<b>Southern Weekend:</b> Of the three writers in this film who worked with Perkins, which one is you most interested in?

<b>Colin Firth:</b> That must have been Fitzgerald. I like Hemingway, but not love. Wolff was powerful. I found some of his writing to be exquisite, but it was also very irritating, and it was hard to believe that it was edited by an editor. I can't imagine what these words would have been like without Perkins, because sometimes he writes too dirty. But Fitzgerald's brushstrokes are exquisite, insightful and accurate, and they are emotionally right for me. His work can be reread over and over again, especially The Great Gatsby and Gentle Night. So it's not just the three of them, but all the writers Riezgerald is also one of my favorites.

<b>Southern Weekend:</b> Is their image in this film different from your previous impression of them?

<b>Colin Firth:</b> I didn't think so. I have some knowledge of these writers. I've also met members of the Hemingway family, and they've all been writers I've been interested in since I was very young. These interesting people are worth studying. Their lives are as interesting as their books. So people make a lot of movies about them.

There's nothing in our movie that I didn't know about and surprised me about, except for his relationship with Max Perkins. It's an untold story. Literary and publishing people who know 20th-century American literature may know more about Max Perkins, who is well known in the industry but not known to outsiders.

I didn't know Fitzgerald was so dependent on Perkins. I didn't know Perkins was like his father. I didn't know that Perkins had given him financially and spiritually. Perkins was his emotional support, and it was important to him to know that he had that kind of support. So it's something I don't know, but I know the problems between him and Zelda (Fitzgerald's wife), the difficulties he experienced during the writing process, the difficulties he had in selling books. Fitzgerald's books were poorly rated and sold poorly at first, and they were discontinued while he was still alive, writing short stories and scripts for Hollywood in order to make money. It wasn't until the 1950s that Fitzgerald was slowly discovered and appreciated. I remember coming out with a biography about him. By then Perkins had died, Fitzgerald had been dead for a long time, and even when I was very young, there were people who thought Fitzgerald was a frivolous writer.

But importantly, it was Max Perkins who suggested the title "The Great Gatsby," and it was Max Perkins who came up with the plot structure of the book. This is one of the most famous novels. There's a letter Fitzgerald wrote to Perkins: "I wrote a good book, but the story structure of the book was choreographed by you." That's one of the reasons Why Thomas Wolfe and Max Perkins are at odds, because Perkins is seen as the driving force of masterpieces, and people start to see a pattern that thinks maybe Perkins is the genius behind these works, and Wolff doesn't want Perkins to take credit for himself.

<b>Southern Weekend:</b> Perkins himself did say that books belong to authors.

Colin Firth: Yes, from the relationship between writer and editor, it also reminds us of the relationship between the director and the actor, the relationship between the dancer and the choreographer. Many people need such a character to inspire in the creative process and bring a certain sudden enlightenment. A good teacher can do that. Before you meet that good teacher, you feel stupid. It's not because they bring you more information, but something in their personality that makes you want to dig deeper, channel the energy of creation, and turn you into a creative person. They can't put creativity into your body, you have to have it yourself. They are the ability to inspire you. I've had one or two of those guys in my life, met them when I was in school, and film directors. Some people might say that you were well coached and that the director made you do it. The director can't make you do anything. It's like a rider, you can't force a horse to do things, you have to build a relationship with a horse. If you have skill, you can ask the horse to do things, and it will understand your requirements.

I don't think Wolff wrote any better work after Perkins left him. So did Hemingway. I think it was largely Perkins' early career at Hemingway that contributed to his best work. This is just my personal opinion. Not only these few. And John Macund, Mar king Rowlings, Lin Ladner... Lin Ladner, in particular, was a terrible alcoholic, a very difficult man, and when he worked with Perkins, he wrote his best work.

<b>Southern Weekend:</b> In the past, writers might not have been able to succeed if they weren't appreciated by editors; today it seems easy for everyone on the Internet to become a writer. What impact do you think the age of the web has had on literature?

<b>Colin Feith:</b> It's hard to say. We don't yet know its real impact because it's still evolving. Mass communication, I think to pay attention to its dangers, which are now obvious. We're all saying that the internet has affected politics, it's affecting business, manipulation, spying, jamming, all sorts of problems. It is indeed worrying that some people are now making it a business to interfere with information, manipulate data, and manipulate people's minds.

On the one hand, the Internet makes the expression of opinions more democratic, and on the other hand, it also creates too much noise. Interestingly, because of the saturation of information, people are starting to see the impact of all this on the real external world. I think the reverse reaction is already happening, and people are regaining the value of professional journalism and going back to those spaces where they can be trusted. Originally they had begun to disappear. I remember one of the executive editors of the New York Times saying, it's so interesting that their subscriptions are growing, even for print newspapers. They found another meaning that they hadn't been sure about a few years earlier.

Whatever our political views, I think the environment can change in a variety of different directions. I recently chatted with an editor about the fact that we are entering an era where there are more authors than readers. But I don't think people are going to give up on paper books. People used to think that home videotapes would be the end of cinemas, but cinemas didn't die because people still wanted to get together to watch movies. The Kindle didn't make paper books disappear either. How people want to consume stories or information, I think there is always an emotional preference for each other. I don't know the exact numbers, but people are still reading. New media, new technologies, new tools will bring about change, but it does not necessarily mean the end of the old approach.