Hope was a nude nightmare for Firth 

It's been tipped as one of this year's sweetest romcoms, but Hope Springs turned into a nightmare for director Mark Herman and star Colin Firth. The shoot was dogged by protests from residents of the chosen location, a Vancouver town called Fort Langley, which posed as the fictional New England town Hope.

Cast and crew also had to deal with abominable weather conditions and studio demands for re-shoots. "The stories about the objections to filming have been blown out of proportion," says Herman. "Some people didn't want a bunch of actors and crew there because of past experiences."

Eventually shooting went ahead, albeit for a shorter time than planned. "We shot for 45 days, out of which for four days there was no rain. We had to create rain then for continuity. It was soul-destroying."

Heather Graham's nude scene in the film threw up its own problems. "Heather Graham appeared on set with plasters on her nipples," says Herman. "After appearing naked in her past two or three films."

The camera had to dodge the plasters. "The scene had no sexual activity," he says, "it was cleaner than a Kylie Minogue promo." But still the studio demanded a re-shoot. "Colin spent an afternoon with a naked body-double in his lap."

In the movie, Colin Firth's lovelorn Colin is set up with the local beauty by bored hotel manager Mandy. The Bridget Jones's Diary star is no stranger to the ways of matchmaking himself: "There was a heartbroken friend and a girl I introduced who I thought would get on very well," he admits. "It worked and they fell in love. But it turned out to be the most disastrous relationship. That taught me a lesson."

Firth seemed destined to play the dejected artist who falls for Heather Graham. "I was recommended the book by a couple of friends. And the coincidence was that, while I was thinking, 'I must find out who owns the rights to this', I happened to be working with the very person who did — Barnaby Thompson. I was in a good position to lobby for the job, but I was kept dangling with the idea there was a long list of names — of which I was 125th."

He dismisses the accusation that he always plays the same role. "Most actors are pretty same-ish in what they do, be it representing a particular class, whatever," he says. "Hope Springs is about a confused, bewildered, middle-class Englishman and I've certainly been that. The most amusing comment I've had from a journalist recently was: 'You're always playing men who are attracted to women!'"
 

@ Red Magazine (UK) 2003
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