now it's not yet December but the Christmas decorations are up in many of the shops already and one of the big holiday films has just been released a new version of a Christmas carol the Dickens classic has been adapted for the screen many times but never quite like this in 3d with real actors turned into animated hits thanks to cutting-edge motion capture technology the film stars Jim Carrey as Scrooge and a favorite British actor Colin Firth as his benign

nephew Fred I met Colin Firth recently to talk about this latest I began by asking him how the film technicians went about creating his animated alter-ego they made me stand in my underwear well they go through different positions well they basically scanned me with an inch of my life you know sensors went up and down the body I then changed positions and sensors went over the back in the front and the cameras sort of going around you and then you sit and you're you go through a extraordinary array of

facial expressions which I don't think occur in human nature that all goes into a database and they it makes what they call a virtual puppet horse no no on us yes and no what's it like as an actor to do though I mean must it's acting as you've never done it before presumably well it isn't a way but not in the direction people imagined once you've gone through all that very odd stuff I've just described and you are wearing clothes and you know

you're in a spandex suit covered in darts and you're wearing a helmet with little cameras pointing at you once you vote over that you're just acting actually you could get to a point where you don't need actors because you all look so lifelike really they're just gonna they're gonna digitally create you well paradoxically this is more dependent on actors than any of the other animation forms you can think of because you can't do it without them they feel safe you're right well yes I mean I even if this took over I mean I it won't take over I mean any more than animation took over from from

live-action you play again the lovely English gentleman mr. Darcy that is what you are so very well known for do you still feel now all these years later that that is something that is very much is it a burden or is it something you're very proud of I'm very indifferent to its great frankly I mean you know I say I'm gonna go and talk to Colin Firth mr. Darcy oh they all say yeah I mean but that's you and that's them and I don't you know I I just done I mean it's 15 years ago or something and I've done so much offense but you played on that role as well didn't you no and it's a great

comic effect of in Bridget Jones used it your to your best advantage yes I did and it was say it was fun and I think it was very helpful you know a little from all sorts of points of view to do that I'd like to I'd quite like to have another look at it actually because I haven't seen it since 1995 really and and even then I didn't think I watched all of it and it would be quiet I'd be quite curious to to actually see what the fuss was dying [Music]

do you still not guess it all these years later I get it in that it's it's a very powerful story I mean like Christmas Carol it's that there are certain that the power of storytelling by quite a lot of these were extraordinary 19th century writers are they India because they they become something of a ritual that we all indulge you know I mean Christmas Carol coats with every Christmas really I mean it's one of those stories that could be retold whether it's by the Muppets or mr. Magoo or you know it's something

that bears retelling because some reason we want to go through that you've had all kinds of huge range of different roles as well I mean the the mummy I think that was wonderful you'd that must been a fantastic film to make no I mean I don't think could have worked had we not enjoyed ourselves I mean fun it's contagious and fake fun isms and so I think we had to make a bit of a decision we're gonna have to have a good time if it kills us you know and it's we're not really - karaoke night we're not his party when it's not a stagnant we're not drunk it's 8:00 in the morning the

instruction is have fun but it was work but it was a you know it was a lovely group of people and it was a the whole thing was I just think so delightfully silly really [Music] you have the another film coming out you've obviously been extremely busy but it's very different role for you isn't it I mean you're paired you're playing and a gay as an Sanok a university lecturer who is grieving for his his partner who's been killed in a car crash

yeah I mean it's a very different role . when I read the script I thought I didn't quite know what genre I'd put in you know whatever else it was ever going to be it wasn't gonna be an ordinary experience not least because of who was directing it Tom Ford who is the designer turned film director exactly and you've obviously done an extremely good job people are talking about you now already as a sort of Oscar hopeful is that an important thing for you do you wanna come in do you feel you know what this is my time right I'm at about time too which is what some critics say you can't think about time to I mean I mean my life is a bit random I go from

assignment to assignment and I've you know I still can't quite believe that I'm still being employed I mean you leave drama school and pray you're gonna get a job you know and you pray get an agent and their Equity card and to still be at it really getting on for 50 you are I suppose a campaigning actor as well aren't you and you've done awful lot of work for their make trade fair campaign for years now but actually you don't caught the publicity that a lot of people do a lot of people in your position could do and you you're very

much behind the scenes aren't you you do you go off and Lobby Peter Mandelson when he was in Brussels and you go to Downing Street in the lobby Gordon Brown but you're not making a big song and dance in the press about it well you've got to be rather careful I mean you know the campaigning Act is a dangerous epithet really I mean I nobody really wants to hear the all the information about the words of the world from an actor I'm a voter I'm a citizen I'm a commute I'm a I'm a consumer that makes me complicit in all the things that radiates out from that you know everything I buy is a political act as

far as I'm concerned I mean you your your your purchasing habits of like votes you have choices I think you know to censor myself because I'm an actor because somebody out there is going to say stick to anything isn't you know doesn't work for me it's patronizing you've obviously had an impact I mean you've won awards for this I think that one of the things in which I've found myself more helpful than anything else is that the people who really do it people who have it as a day job and who sort of work at the sharp end of it all

like having somebody who's got a bit of a profile you can get to a journalist on their side but you stop trying to measure it in terms of impact and help it's just a it's an endless kind of you know it's like Sisyphus pushing the ball up the hill really have to leave it there thank you very much thank you