Q. In SIL would you have preferred to play Shakespeare?

Colin Firth: The issue came up, although I don't know if the part would actually have been offered. But I thought I had nothing to say on the subject of being young, romantic and in love any more. I really don't want to go out and make the moony faces. I want to explore the spoilsports and the funny characters.

Q. So you like being villainous?

Colin: There is nothing especially villainous about Lord Wessex, although he's not a lovable creature. He doesn't mislead anyone. He doesn't even kill anyone. He's there to spoil the romantic plans of our heroes. His greatest crime is his lack of poetry. [Mail on Sunday, Jan 31 -99]

Colin also explains why Wessex marries Viola, and why, in Elizabethan times, their marriage is a good deal for both partners: Wessex is blue-blooded but poor. Viola is rich but a commoner. "But to todays film audience Wessex - of course - comes across as the bad guy, since he separate Viola from her love."

Colin laughs and says that it's not his task to make Wessex sympathetic, that he's done his job if he manages to make Wessex belivable to the audience, even if you don't particularly like him. Colin continues: Wessex certainly is not a lovanble man, but he is not evil. For example, he doesn't kill anyone, when in fact penniless Elizabethan nobelmen rarely hesitated to plot against or kill people who stood in their way...

Elizabethan times is really an endless source for drama. Without money or power you were really very vulnerable. In all books about this period that I've read, I haven't come across anyone without a burning ambition to further themselves. Even a well known and noble person like Francis Bacon did not hesitate to sacrifice people who stood in his way on the way to the top.

One thing that is fashinating with my profession is that one learn a lot about other times and other people. And it not hard to see that we are essentially the same: that the deeds of people such as Saddam Hussein is not so much different from those of Elizabeth....

* EARL OF WESSEX

It became the dominant English kingdom in the ninth century and, under Alfred the Great, captured London from the Danes. Alfred's grandson Athelstan completed the reconquest of remaining Danish territories in 927 and the kings of Wessex became the kings of England.

The title has lain dormant since 1066 when its last holder, who later became King Harold II, died at the Battle of Hastings.

The area's memory has been kept alive by history enthusiasts and, most notably, by Thomas Hardy. His novels, such as the Mayor of Casterbridge, Return of the Native, Tess of the D'Urbevilles and Far From the Madding Crowd provide evocative descriptions of the idyllic rural landscape which still brings tourists flocking to Dorset.

When the British prince Edward recently was given the title Earl of Wessex it took royal observers by surprise, despite [as one London paper put it] the presence of a fictional Earl of Wessex, played by Colin Firth, in the film Shakespeare in Love.
[Source: the Independent. June 20, 1999]

From the Sunday Times: Shakespeare in Love gave prince his title

In the film, Wessex is insufferable, but Prince Edward had the idea for his new title, the Earl of Wessex, after seeing the fictional character during a private screening of Shakespeare in Love with Sophie Rhys-Jones, it can now be revealed. He proposed the title, which has lain dormant since the death of King Harold in 1066, to the Queen after courtiers had prevaricated for months.

The Oscar-winning film, which has grossed £175m worldwide, is a fictional account of attempts by the Elizabethan playwright - played by Joseph Fiennes - to woo Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is to be married to the charmless Lord Wessex (played by Colin Firth).

Anybody who has seen the film might be forgiven for thinking that Wessex, one of the most memorable screen villains for years, is a less than appropriate role model for the Queen's youngest son. When discussing marriage and Viola, he asks her father: "Is she fertile? Is she obedient?" Shortly afterwards, having been kept waiting by Viola, he is told she is praying. "Piety is for Sunday," he retorts. "It would be better if she got off her knees and showed some servility to her lord and master." After coldly telling her that her father has agreed to their marriage, he tells her to "be submissive, modest and grateful" when she meets the Queen, who has approved the marriage. Kept waiting again by Viola, he orders her maid "to produce her, with or without her undergarments". Seeing Shakespeare dance with Viola, he puts a knife to the playwright's throat and accuses him of "coveting his property". He subsequently vows to kill Christopher Marlowe, whom he is led to believe is his bride-to-be's lover.

Firth, best-known as the dashing Darcy in the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, has pointed out that his Wessex was "not a particularly lovable creature".

Edward, whose television production company Ardent has made several historical documentaries, such as Crown and Country, "thoroughly enjoyed the film". According to a source close to the prince, however, "it was the title - not the totally fictitious character portrayed in the film - that impressed him. He was aware that, by calling himself Wessex, he was forging a direct link between the House of Windsor and the country's first Anglo-Saxon kings". In about 1018 Godwine, chief adviser to King Canute, was created Earl of Wessex. On his death the earldom passed to his son Harold, who was killed at the Battle of Hastings. The film, which is to be released on video in August, focuses on two of the themes closest to Edward's heart: British history and the theatre. After gaining A-levels in history and English literature, Edward taught both subjects at Collegiate School in Wanganui, New Zealand. After initially opting to read archeology and anthropology at Cambridge, he switched to history, but is best remembered at university for his keen interest in drama. He went on to join Andrew Lloyd Webber's Really Useful Company.

"The Queen was initially somewhat taken aback by Edward's suggestion," said a Buckingham Palace source. "But Edward made an effective case for taking the title." Harvey Weinstein, who bankrolled Shakespeare In Love, was unavailable for comment this weekend, but a source at Miramax said: "He will be thrilled to learn he may have influenced the course of British history." [Source: The Sunday Times, June 27 1999]