--- title: Colin Firth Says the Wet Pride and Prejudice Shirt is a Fake description: The once-and-always Mr. Darcy never went for a dip in that lake. canonical: https://time.com/62689/colin-firth-says-the-wet-pride-and-prejudice-shirt-is-a-fake/ author: Belinda Luscombe article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-17T22:23:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:27.000Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Colin Firth Says the Wet Pride and Prejudice Shirt is a Fake og:description: The once-and-always Mr. Darcy never went for a dip in that lake. og:url: https://time.com/62689/colin-firth-says-the-wet-pride-and-prejudice-shirt-is-a-fake/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17ccd365a7cd22d6/69868aef06f2c1543632e6bd/colin_firth_prideprejudice_new1280.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1280 og:image:height: 720 og:image:alt: Colin Firth og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colin Firth Says the Wet Pride and Prejudice Shirt is a Fake twitter:description: The once-and-always Mr. Darcy never went for a dip in that lake. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17ccd365a7cd22d6/69868aef06f2c1543632e6bd/colin_firth_prideprejudice_new1280.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Colin Firth Says the Wet Pride and Prejudice Shirt is a Fake > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: 10 Questions with Colin Firth [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Questions with Colin Firth](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/awsk8TvB.m3u8) (6:54)  _Published 2014-04-16. Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth talks to TIME's Belinda Luscombe about his new movie,_  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Apr 17, 2014 10:23 PM UTC  TIME  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Apr 17, 2014 10:23 PM UTC Colin Firth is kind of puzzled about why his wet Darcy shirt is such a big deal. The scene in which he emerges from the lake in the BBC’s 1995 version of _Pride and Prejudice_ was voted by British viewers as one of the 100 Greatest TV Moments of all time. He and Darcy were so conjoined in people’s minds that several of his subsequent roles made fun of his Austenesque heart-throbbiness. But as close watchers of the old series know, he never actually did emerge from the lake. And now he says the shirt, one of seven made for the series, was never really that wet. Is there no end to the media’s deceit? Firth, who visited TIME to talk about his new historically based movie _The Railway Man_, a sort of love-story-that-becomes-a-war-story, also addressed his reputation as an ideal romantic leading man. According to him, it’s all about context: if someone creates a story about a dreamy person and you are cast in that role, you become dreamy. He claims anyone could be dreamy. Even [Marty Feldman](http://greatentertainersarchives.blogspot.com/2012/07/born-on-this-day-marty-feldman.html). “Although,” adds Firth, “he doesn’t particularly do it for me.” And in a development that could well make _Pride and Prejudice_ fans rethink their veneration of him, Firth revealed in a fuller interview with TIME that subscribers can read [here](http://time.com/66281/colin-firth-10-questions/), that, until he was cast as Darcy, he had never read a word of Austen. Watch the full interview below. ## Transcript Colin Firth is an Academy Award winning actor. His new movie is Railway Man, and I'm honestly excited to say that he's here with me now. Mr. Firth, welcome. Good to be here. So, Railway Man is based on the story of, of a former POW who, who goes back to Thailand to kind of hunt down one of his torturers, more or less. Are veterans particularly interesting characters to you, or is it just the, is it just that's two great stories? One of the most interesting areas of my job is when I get asked to have a brush with someone else's extraordinary experience whether it's beautiful or horrific or inspiring or, or otherwise. It's nevertheless an exploration beyond anything that has has happened to me. And and it becomes my job, a very difficult job at the to to understand it as best I can. And then to hopefully relay something of it you know, through this particular medium. When I saw the movie I thought, oh, this is going to be a nice little romance between Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. He's a wonderful man. I've seen it, but he's a mess. You couldn't possibly imagine what he's been through. And then suddenly, you're in a war movie. And I was like, oh, he's tricked me with his romanticness. Well I think that's what Patti Lomax felt when she met her Terry Lomax. I think, wherewith, we're walking a mile in her shoes. Because she didn't really have a clue when she met him. I love him and I want him back. As you see in the film, it wasn't really until they got married, that it very suddenly and abruptly became apparent. Because his nightmares were harrowing. For anybody who, who is present or even in the same house, they couldn't even have guests staying with them because his his screams were so distressing. So yes, she met a charming, somewhat eccentric rather brilliant individual who proved to be profoundly complicated and, and extremely damaged. Do you believe in revenge? It's a question that comes up, and I think it's a question that probably should come up. But I don't really think. I'm not in the business of answering that question. And I don't think the film really is trying to. It's not a morality tale. It's not a, a bromide for life. It's not a, a prescription. It takes the position though, I would say, on revenge. I don't actually think it does. I think it tells a story about how a man found healing and some peace. By letting go of his need for revenge. I asked Erik himself over lunch. It's a very strange thing to find yourself asking a question about someone's plans for murder. And his wife's sitting there, and we're having Shepherd's Pie. Tea? Yes. And you don't, I wasn't quite sure what the proper vocabulary is in polite company. But I have. I said, did you? I mean, did the people around you, the counselors, your wife, were they aware of your, your plan to to like he just said, kill him? Well, yes and he said, oh yeah. And he said it didn't matter whether they knew or not. And he said, I knew I was going to do it. He'd thought about it and it was like he'd seen in the film. And he said he'd nursed himself to sleep on the screams of his, his victim, in his mind. And, he had, he sustained himself on that. You know, and I think this story is meaningless unless we are honest about that, and those years spent completely compelled by those things. I think it, it makes it much more meaningful and it, and actually it, it adds. I think it adds in -, incredible weight to the, the decision he eventually made. At one point, Nicole Kidman's character kisses you unexpectedly. And I'm thinking, well, that's gotta be happening to Colin Firth all the time, though. No. Really, strange women coming up and kissing you awkwardly. Oh, no, no. If only. No. Oh, come on. No, no. And I, I can honestly say I think it has never happened. And and no, it's that way in my dreams. [ LAUGH ] And in my dreams, that it would look like Nicole Kidman. [ SOUND ] [ LAUGH ] Questions from readers. This one is from Kirstie Cameron from New Zealand. Did you keep the waterlogged white shirt [ MUSIC ] from Pride and Prejudice? No. There were probably about seven of them. Because, yeah, they came from a, a costume house called CosProp. [ MUSIC ] In London, very good, it was the most wonderful tailor there. Who, who made it all on a tiny, tiny budget. We had to rotate very few costumes to make them look as if I had a lot. And I didn't. And it was a moment when, for the sake of continuity, we had to look like I'd been for a swim. And this, this shirt is barely soggy or clingy or any of the things that it's mythologized to be. They've even got me coming out of a lake which I never did. And that got voted as the most memorable moment in television history. The thing that never happened. LAUGH And so I think it's been auctioned off. Oh. Probably more times than is actually feasible. Is your Italian good enough for you to do an Italian movie? yes, long as, as long as I'm playing an Englishman. LAUGH I couldn't be mistaken for an Italian. You have a favorite word in Italian? I love, I mean the insults are wonderful, because they use them more sparingly than we do. But they really do use them to great effect. Stronsa is a wonderful word, it's an insult. Is it clean enough to say? It means piece of ****. But it's more specific than that, it means a floating piece of ****. And there's the whole thing of Lafigura, because we don't really have that concept. It's about the impression you create. It's very important. It's important enough to have a word, which is in very, very common currency. So bella figura is, is when, you know, I've, I've made a good impression of myself. It's not as, we have to, I'm saying it in a way that's rather labored, but it's not. A bella figura. It means like that, that came across well. Or [ FOREIGN ]. Or [ FOREIGN ] if you put [ UNKNOWN ] on the end it means the bad version of something. And that'll mean when you've, there's been a gaffe or, or when you Messed up. Yes. So you've just you know if I, if I sat here and and made some idiotic mistake about who I was talking to or where I was, that would be a [ FOREIGN ]. And we don't really have that. And But we do it. When we just. We do it but we have to sort of anatomize it and create a phrase out of it and you know, INAUDIBLE for, for them. So you, you often find that there a lot of these things have a, have a precision in that language which, which we don't. Mr. Firth. Thank you so much. 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