Summary
Comparisons may be odious but inevitable when an actor tackles a role closely associated with someone else. Matthew MacFadyen is the latest to come under the critics' scrutiny as he steps into Mr Darcy's breeches. STEVE PRATT reports
TWO teenage girls, laden down with popcorn and cola, spot a poster for the new film version of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice as they cross the foyer of the cinema. They eye up the picture of actor Matthew MacFadyen, who plays Mr Darcy, and one says to the other: "He won't be as good as Colin Firth".See the full content of this document
Extract
Acting Without Prejudice
These are not the words that MacFadyen, former star of BBC1's Spooks, will want to hear. Doing interviews for the movie, he skirts round the issue rather like classical actors do when quizzed about the influence of previous Hamlets or Macbeths on their interpretation of a Shakespearean role. They make out it doesn't matter, whereas clearly it does.
A...See the full content of this document
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