--- description: The once-and-always Mr. Darcy never went for a dip in that lake. title: Colin Firth Says the Wet Pride and Prejudice Shirt is a Fake image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17ccd365a7cd22d6/69868aef06f2c1543632e6bd/colin_firth_prideprejudice_new1280.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Colin Firth Says the Wet Pride and Prejudice Shirt is a Fake ## 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](/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Apr 17, 2014 10:23 PM CUT  TIME  by [Belinda Luscombe](/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Apr 17, 2014 10:23 PM CUT 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 "undefined"). “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/ "undefined"), that, until he was cast as Darcy, he had never read a word of Austen. 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