When you think of cinema’s great action heroes, Colin Firth is probably not the first name that springs to mind.
But the star of the BBC TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and the Bridget Jones films gets to prove us all wrong in director Matthew Vaughn's new movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Firth plays Harry Hart, a member of an elite British spy team known as “Kingsman”.
“I think the jury is still out on whether I’m an action hero or not,” says Firth, with typical modesty. On the evidence of the film, he could give the James Bond star Daniel Craig a real run for his money.
Kingsman is based on the 2012 comic-book series The Secret Service, which was created by the Scottish writer Mark Millar (who also wrote the comic that inspired Vaughn's superhero yarn Kick-Ass) and Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons.
An old-fashioned but slick adventure, the movie is clearly indebted to suave 1960s television and film spies such as The Avengers' John Steed, Michael Caine's bespectacled Harry Palmer and, of course, early James Bond. As a result, Firth is elegantly cast as the gentlemanly Harry. Even so, going from The King's Speech to Kingsman is quite the leap.
Physically, it’s unlike anything Firth has done on screen.
“I have no athletic history,” he says. “It never occurred to me.”
Born in Hampshire to parents who were academics and teachers, Firth was “not a sporty fellow”, particularly at drama school.
“There were two kinds of drama student,” he says. “There was the kind who came every day in their sweat gear and did workouts and backflips, and the other kind who took their recreation sitting down, in a more sedentary way. I was definitely in the latter category.”
Despite looking trim, the 55-year-old admits it “hurt” to be introduced to a rigorous training regime at his age.
“I’ve done my bit of exercise just to stave off gravity over the last 10 years, but nothing like this,” he says. “I had 10 guys [with me] every day for three hours, and it was the league of extraordinary gentleman. They were all specialists at something. The six-time world-champion Thai boxer. Another was Jackie Chan’s trainer. Two Olympic-gymnast gold medallists. Military special-forces guy for the gun stuff. And this was all complete algebra to me. I had no concept of any of it.”
After a "month of agony", the actor who won an Oscar for playing a stammering monarch in The King's Speech began to shape up.
“To my immense surprise, I actually started to love it as much as I loved anything I’ve ever done,” he says.
His exuberance pours from the screen, not only as he dispatches villains with some nifty moves, but through his performance, too. And after filming was complete, he had withdrawal symptoms.
“I missed it terribly when it was over – and I still miss it,” he says. “There’s no way you can replicate that. I still exercise. But I can’t do it to that intensity, because I don’t have 10 guys and I’m not going to do three hours a day anymore.
“But this was for a specific purpose and exercise for a specific purpose feels very different. It’s not just pumping iron or being on a treadmill and going nowhere if you’re training for something.”
Doubtless, his wife, the Italian-born Livia Giuggioli, approved of Firth's newfound fitness. But he isn't getting too excited about the prospect of a late career switch to action hero, as we have seen with Liam Neeson. When it comes to changes in genre and tone – such as his recent post-Oscar role in Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight – he says that they ebb and flow.
“I think I’d have to look back over the whole thing and spot what might’ve changed [in my career] but I can’t in the middle of it. I don’t feel that it has,” he says.
He has returned to a more typical Colin Firth role since completing Kingsman, playing Maxwell Perkins, the literary editor whose clients included F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, in the forthcoming film, Genius.
But in his newfound thirst for more physical roles, Firth has been linked to a planned project about the yachtsman Donald Crowhurst.
Firth, though, dismisses any notion that he’s any tougher in real life than he was before.
“It won’t help me fight anybody,” he says with a smile. “I wouldn’t stand a chance.”
• Kingsman: The Secret Service opens in cinemas on Thursday, February 12
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Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
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- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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The National's picks
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World Cricket League Division 2
In Windhoek, Namibia - Top two teams qualify for the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which starts on March 4.
UAE fixtures
Thursday, February 8 v Kenya; Friday, February 9 v Canada; Sunday, February 11 v Nepal; Monday, February 12 v Oman; Wednesday, February 14 v Namibia; Thursday, February 15 final
Top 10 most polluted cities
- Bhiwadi, India
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UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures:
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Thursday, 3rd 50-over match
Results
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Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
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Dubai World Cup nominations
UAE: Thunder Snow/Saeed bin Suroor (trainer), North America/Satish Seemar, Drafted/Doug Watson, New Trails/Ahmad bin Harmash, Capezzano, Gronkowski, Axelrod, all trained by Salem bin Ghadayer
USA: Seeking The Soul/Dallas Stewart, Imperial Hunt/Luis Carvajal Jr, Audible/Todd Pletcher, Roy H/Peter Miller, Yoshida/William Mott, Promises Fulfilled/Dale Romans, Gunnevera/Antonio Sano, XY Jet/Jorge Navarro, Pavel/Doug O’Neill, Switzerland/Steve Asmussen.
Japan: Matera Sky/Hideyuki Mori, KT Brace/Haruki Sugiyama. Bahrain: Nine Below Zero/Fawzi Nass. Ireland: Tato Key/David Marnane. Hong Kong: Fight Hero/Me Tsui. South Korea: Dolkong/Simon Foster.
COMPANY PROFILE
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Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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The biog
Occupation: Key marker and auto electrician
Hometown: Ghazala, Syria
Date of arrival in Abu Dhabi: May 15, 1978
Family: 11 siblings, a wife, three sons and one daughter
Favourite place in UAE: Abu Dhabi
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Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
