Colin Firth puts is success down to dumb luck

Colin Firth says his successful Hollywood career is down to “dumb luck”. The British actor is adamant his success — and talk of Oscars for his portrayal of Britain’s stuttering King George VI in King’s Speech — is just good fortune, and he doesn’t always get the films he wants to do.

“It’s just dumb luck. That’s all, just getting a crack at it,” he said. “Sometimes you take roles to stay in the game or pay bills and hope the good ones are going to come along.

“I was never in a world of perfect choice and now I feel like I’ve had a couple of real plums landing in my hand.”

The 50-year-old actor also revealed he likes talking about The King’s Speech because it has a basis in historical fact.

“There are so many angles you can approach it from, to do with the way people are reacting to it to the surprises we’ve had along the way to nuances about the actual history itself. I think this has a lot of mileage in it,” he said.

Colin recently insisted his successes haven’t opened too many doors but he is content with the work that comes his way.

“They’re not bombarding me with offers, although that ones that have come along have been too preposterous to contemplate, so it’s not as if I spend my day resisting $20 million pay checks,” he said.

“I work with the options I have in front of me and my reasons for choosing a job can vary enormously depending on circumstances.

“Sometimes I take a job because it’s a group of people I’m dying to work with, and sometimes it can be a desire to shake things up a bit and not take myself too seriously.”

The British star — who has previously worked on comedy films including Mamma Mia! and Bridget Jones’s Diary — also claimed he needs to vary the type of movie roles he accepts in order to preserve his sanity.

“A life of very, very serious, po-faced films would drive me nuts,” he said. “I need –and I’m fortunate to have — a fairly varied menu in that respect.”