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| Colin Firth King George VI |
Helena Bonham Carter Elizabeth |
Georfrey Rush Dr Lionel Logue |
Jennifer Ehle Myrtle Logue |
Guy Pearce Edward VIII |
| Michael
Gambon |
.... |
King
George V |
| Timothy
Spall |
.... |
Winston
Churchill |
| Derek
Jacobi |
.... |
Archbishop
of Canterbury |
(chiswickw4.com, Jan 21, 2010)
Although Firth's new film gives therapist credit there was another man who helped George VI with his speech
Chiswick actor Colin Firth has begun filming The King's Speech in which he plays Queen Elizabeth's father, King George VI. The film tells the poignant and uplifting true story of the unorthodox relationship between England's reluctant King George VI, plagued by a nervous stammer, and the irreverent Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue who cures him.
Although Logue is given the credit, there was another man who was instrumental in helping King George VI with his speech.
"My father, David Martin, worked for the BBC all his life, ending his career at the BBC film studios in Ealing," explains Chiswick resident Jane Martin. "Back in 1941 he was working in radio, and that year to the King (George VI) to speak to the country, then in a state of despair, in his annual Christmas Day broadcast."
In a letter to his grandchildren, David wrote "Unfortunately, the King had a very bad stutter, and his nervousness on 25th December 1941 was only too apparent. We recorded the speech because it was due to be broadcast at intervals throughout the world, and it was my job to look after the broadcasts over the next 18 hours or so. If we had broadcast the speech just as the King had delivered it, it would have given a very bad impression of what things were like in the Mother Country, as it was called.
"Soon after the live broadcast from Sandringham on Christmas Day, an instruction was passed down the line that the speech was to be ‘doctored’ to make it sound good. The instruction eventually landed in my lap, and I was told later on that the message had come direct from the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
"We didn’t have tape in those days and all recordings were made on metal discs which made the whole exercise rather tricky. It all went well and the final result sounded pretty good, and no one would have known that the King had a stutter, for I was able to cut all the stuttering out, and to close up all the pauses that came at the wrong places.
"I didn’t go to bed for 24 hours. I was 19 years old at the time. I also learned later that the Queen was at the King’s side trying to encourage him, and to help him get over his stutters when he made the live broadcast at 3.00p.m. It is difficult to explain how the job was done, but perhaps it helps if I say that I had six turntables and two recordings of the speech, and went from one to the other to close up the gaps. The speech was on four discs, so I had eight discs altogether.
David ended the letter by saying, "I don’t think that this story has even been written about since then, so in a way I am giving you privileged information. How wise of the Prime Minister to have given his instruction at that time in our history!"
As the second son of George V, Prince Albert "Bertie" was not expected to ascend to the throne, but when his brother Edward chose to abdicate to marry Wallis Simpson, Bertie was his successor and in 1936 he became King George VI. Thrust into the international spotlight, he engaged Lionel Logue who helped him find a voice to lead the nation.
Colin Firth plays Prince Albert alongside fellow Chiswickian Michael Gambon as King George V.
The film's producer Iain Canning came across The King's Speech when it was an unproduced stage play by David Seider.
It is set to be released later this year.
(Kansas City Star, Jan 14, 2010, by Robert W. Butler)
Firth’s next, “The King’s Speech,” finds him going back even further in time. He plays another George—King George VI—“the father of our present queen. He’s kind of a shadowy figure, and not even many Englishmen know much about him.”
George ascended to the throne with the abdication of his older brother, Edward, who retreated to private life to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
“You always hear about Prince Charming who gave up the crown for love, but you don’t hear about the uncharismatic guy who had to step up in his place. And poor George had his work cut out for him—he’s crowned during a massive constitutional crisis when monarchs all over Europe are being assassinated or going into exile.
“Worse, he was horribly shy and had a terrible stutter. These were the years when radio was coming in, and the king was expected to make public radio addresses live. There was no recording and editing.”
The film, expected in theaters later this year, centers on the monarch’s sessions with an Australian speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush.
“He was never really cured,” Firth said, “but he was helped.”
A heavy smoker, George died of lung cancer in the early 1950s, and his daughter Elizabeth ascended to the throne. His widow, who lived until 2002, became Britain’s beloved “Queen Mum.”
“It’s been quite nice to get to know George,” Firth said. “He was thrown into a terrible situation for which he was ill-suited and yet led his country through World War II. There was a sincerity and vulnerability to the man. I quite like him.”
(Daily Mail, Jan 15, 2010, by Baz Bamigboye)
Once upon a time, movies about British royals used to be unctuous, forelock-tugging affairs. Not any more.
Stephen Frears's The Queen, with Helen Mirren, broke the mould and now Tom Hooper's film The King's Speech, which has been shooting in and around London—snowstorms be damned—offers a fascinating snapshot of how our present Queen's parents went through one of the most extraordinary periods of the nation's history.
George VI ascended to the throne after
his brother Edward VIII abdicated, after less than a year, to marry
twice-divorced Wallis Simpson. Hooper's 'subversive view' looks at the
abdication crisis through the prism of how George VI, or 'Bertie' as he
was known before he became King, coped with a crippling speech
impediment. Colin Firth portrays Bertie, Helena Bonham Carter is his forceful wife Elizabeth (better known to us, of course, as the Queen Mother), and Geoffrey Rush plays Lionel Logue, the Australian-born speech therapist who helped Bertie and insisted he and his royal patient treat each other as equals. Guy Pearce portrays the vain and selfish Edward VIII.
Even one of the film's main locations is somewhat subversive. The central London mansion, close to Broadcasting House, being used for various purposes—from Logue's consultation room to Bertie and Elizabeth's suite of rooms—has other, less regal, uses in real life.
During one visit to the set, Firth gave me a mini-tour of some basement rooms. 'This is where they give pole dancing lessons,' the actor told me, as he indicated a series of ceiling-to-floor steel poles. 'Of course, the daytime activities of this house are very different.'
Producer Iain Canning came across The King's Speech when it was an unproduced stage play by David Seider. Canning saw its potential as a feature film and, like director Hooper, was keen to make a movie featuring royals that wouldn't come across as deferential. Indeed, some very unregal words are emitted from Bertie's mouth as he fights with Logue over his treatment.
'Most people don't have to speak publicly, and some who are called up to do it have a terror of it,' Firth told me. 'It's an irrational fear, like claustrophobia. It never occurred to me the enormity of what he was up against. Not only was he not groomed for it (the throne); he came from a family which can only be described as dysfunctional. He had harsh schooling, he was very lonely, his parents were distant and remote. He was beaten for being lefthanded. And he stammered. His brother was famously very charming and Bertie was considered the dull-witted one with little charisma.'
But Firth was won over by Bertie's inner steel. 'It must have been utterly overwhelming. Whatever one feels about the monarchy, I found there to be something very much to be admired about this man as an individual. There's something heroic about the fact that he took on his worst fear.
'He saw a little bit of action in World War I, so he didn't lack physical courage. In fact, he would rather have been seeing action as a naval officer than standing in front of a microphone.'
Firth shoots his last scene today, and tomorrow flies to Los Angeles for Sunday's Golden Globe Awards ceremony, where he's in the running for a best actor honour for his role in Tom Ford's film A Single Man. The part won him the best actor prize at the Venice Film Festival and he's strongly tipped to garner an Oscar nomination. The same could happen again next year for The King's Speech—for Firth and the movie.
(Yorkshire Post, Dec 24, 2009, by Tony Earnshaw)
The rolling fog is fake but the biting cold is very, very real.
Among the multitude filming The King's Speech on the concrete terraces of Leeds United's Elland Road ground is a lonely policeman. Muffled in uniform, cape, helmet and gloves, he stamps his feet in a futile attempt to fend off the winter chill.
That policeman is me, and he is fighting a losing battle against the cruel blast of an icy December. Emoting madly ten feet away is Colin Firth, he of TV legend as the hunky Mr Darcy in a soaking wet shirt.
Alas, the reflected glory of
a close proximity movie star can do nothing to stoke my fading embers
and, after four hours on location, I'm barely mobile.I rarely see Firth's face. He emerges from a spectators' tunnel, stands at a microphone and delivers a halting speech that, as history tells us, was a pivotal moment in the life of the young Bertie, Duke of York—later King George VI—in 1925.
It's a constant, seemingly never-ending process. Bertie takes his position, closely followed by Helena Bonham Carter (as Princess Elizabeth) and Sir Derek Jacobi (as Archbishop Cosmo Lang), and begins a speech punctuated by stammer and stutter.
Watching him is a crowd of 250 extras who have a far better view of Firth's acting abilities. Me, I get the back of his head and, occasionally, the weary look he gives to the watching throng as director Tom Hooper orders yet another take.
As Hooper switches camera angles and moves around crew and crowd, I find myself sitting alongside the stars as all of us seek even the most meagre form of heat. Firth rarely gets the chance to sit and talk. Instead he's continually being asked to repeat the scene.
The few extras not needed for one take complain about the weather and worry about the snow forecast for later in the day. One wag dubs Hooper "Tommy Twelve Takes" for the amount of time he dedicates to covering every aspect of this crucial scene.
Then it's back to the terraces as the nervous young prince once again addresses the nation. By this time only a resilient few remain. Bonham Carter, Jacobi, supporting actors and 200 background artistes have been discharged.
Just 60 hardy souls, including myself as PC 752 (a last-minute change to my original role as a soldier), stay on for Firth's close-up. By now everyone is struggling. It's been a long day and energy is rapidly dissipating. Glamorous it ain't.
As we leave after the final shot of the day, Colin Firth is given a standing ovation in recognition of his tenacity in presenting a performance despite the chill, and then he is mobbed by extras, mostly adoring females.
He poses for snapshots on sundry mobile phones and, despite frozen fingers, scribbles a few autographs.
Everyone goes away delighted. After half a day spent standing in the bitter cold, sometimes a moment of kindness and a smile is all it takes to warm a tired heart.
(Orlando Sentinel, Dec 17 2009, by Roger Moore)
[T]he always charming Colin Firth took a little time off from the set of his new film, The King’s Speech, to talk about that film and the second-time- around blast of attention he’s earning for A Serious Man. [sic]
George VI, Britain’s “second choice” king during World War II, wasn’t the dapper lady’s man his older brother, Edward VIII was, the fellow who abdicated so he could marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson. Unprepared for the limelight, George was a stutterer, and Firth, famed for his plummy voice, is playing him in The King’s Speech. If you remember your movie history, that speech is what we hear George VI making on the radio as World War II begins in John Boorman’s great coming of age dramedy Hope and Glory. People, gathered round the “wireless,” hoping their stuttering king will pull it off, be inspiring.
“It’s a complex story, really. “Bertie,” he was, before he became king. He was a man with an acute problem. His role as monarch in 1937 was not a constitutional one. He couldn’t appoint a prime minister or levy a tax or declare war, anything like that. His role was symbolic. Rhetoric was important in that job. When he spoke, the nation felt he spoke to and for them. Yet he felt that he couldn’t speak.
“Live radio had just come into being, which magnified the problem infinitely. Previous kings, it didn’t matter whether they could make a speech or not. But George had to go in front of a live microphone in the days before they pre-recorded and edited things. He had to go out there and speak and be listened to all over the empire, all over the world.
“It was mortifying to him. He was a figurehead about to lead the country into war, a man whose adversaries with famous for their rhetorical skills. Hitler and Mussolini were no slouches for speeches.”
And the former Mr. Darcy, who inspired swoons, vast viewing audiences all over the world with the definitive Pride & Prejudice, and even inspired the creation of Bridget Jones’ Diary, is a bit more sober minded about all the media fuss, this time around. A Single Man Oscar buzz? He’s trying not to hear it.
“It’s different this time, I think.”
But there’s already a Golden Globe nomination, isn’t there?
“The Hollywood Foreign Press have just given me a time out from my 20 year midlife crisis. My heartfelt thanks to them.
“I’m thrilled by the way people are reacting to this film, partly because this film is small, personal and I didn’t feel like I was part of some big scene, some huge film. This was a very personal story for Tom Ford and he put it in my hands. To be given a whole day in the life of a man, playing a character who is never off-screen, and be working with such a small group of people and do it in just 21 very intense and intimate days, and then have people love it? That’s as good as it gets.
“From the moment people first saw it in Venice, it’s been extremely gratifying.
“Having said that, this is happening as I continue my day job. I’m filming another movie that’s just as intense, with just as long hours, right now.
“So while I’m glowing from the fact that people are saying lovely things about this film, I’m in the middle of working on the next one and getting on with my job.
“Pretty tiring, but a good place to be when people are reacting to the last one.”
(BBC News, Dec 4, 2009)
Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Derek Jacobi have been filming scenes for a forthcoming movie, The King's Speech, at Ely Cathedral. Due for release in 2010, the film follows the reign of George VI who assumed the throne following the abdication of King Edward.
Ely Cathedral is a favourite location
for filming historical dramas. It has featured in Elizabeth: The Golden
Age and The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Scarlett Johansson.As the cream of the British and Hollywood acting fraternity descended on Ely, the star-spotters came out in force, together with the paparazzi.
Colin Firth, who takes the lead role of King George, was spotted arriving on set in a black Range Rover, on a very wet and windy December day. Also filming at the cathedral were Derek Jacobi and the legendary Geoffrey Rush - best known for playing Captain Hector Barbossa in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Rush plays the part of Lionel Logue, the unorthodox speech therapist who helped King George ('Bertie') to overcome his stammer and so lead his country through the war years.
(Cambridge News, Nov 25, 2009)
Hollywood stars are returning to Ely, the News can reveal.
Scenes for a new blockbuster starring
Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Guy Pearce are being shot in Ely
Cathedral. The stars are
set to arrive in the city tomorrow (Thursday, 26 November) when filming
for The King's Speech begins. Cathedral staff had hoped to keep the
filming quiet in a bid to keep paparazzi at bay, but information was
leaked earlier this week. It
has also been confirmed that filming will last for approximately a week.The film, to be released next year, tells the story of the relationship between England's reluctant King, George VI, plagued by a nervous stammer, and the irreverent Australian speech therapist who helped him. It is based on the true story of the present Queen's father and his friendship with speech therapist Lionel Logue.
Firth stars as George VI, with Carter playing his wife, the former Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Guy Pearce will be playing Edward VIII. The King's Speech also stars Sir Michael Gambon, Timothy Spall, Derek Jacobi and Jennifer Ehle.
It is the fifth time in four years that Ely has been used as a location for a major movie, with Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Other Boleyn Girl, The Other Man and a recent Bollywood film also shot at the city's historic cathedral. The cathedral has been nominated as the Best Film and TV location in the East of England in the past.
Lesley Ann Thompson, the cathedral's marketing manager, said: "It is always exciting when the cathedral is used in hit movies and this is no exception. This is now the fifth screening we have had recently, which really does say something about the cathedral's appeal."
It is also thought that some Ely residents may be chosen to be extras in the film.
Scenes for the movie will also be shot at Bradford Bulls Stadium and Battersea Power Station.
(Daily Mail, Nov 13, 2009, by Baz Bamigboye)
Jennifer Ehle, who captivated the nation when she starred as Elizabeth Bennet in costume drama Pride And Prejudice opposite Colin Firth, is to be reunited with her Mr Darcy. The actress has just signed to join Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter in a new movie called The King's Speech about how Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist, was retained by the then Duke of York (later King George VI) to help him to overcome his stammer in the years before, during and after the Abdication crisis.
The two will be in scenes together—but they're married to other people. Colin Firth will portray George VI, Helena his wife Elizabeth, who later became Queen and then the Queen Mother. Jennifer has been cast to play Myrtle Logue, and Oscar-winning Rush will be her screen husband.
Director Tom Hooper held a read-through of the script on Wednesday with the company, including Guy Pearce as Edward VIII, Michael Gambon as his father George V, Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill and Derek Jacobi as Dr Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, Jennifer was filming the lavish HBO drama Game Of Thrones and couldn't meet Hooper and his cast at the rehearsal.
Producer Iain Canning said although the former Jane Austen heart-throbs are not playing a couple in The King's Speech 'it's a wonderful thing to bring together two people that, in the British public's memory, are so part of a moment in time'. He explained that Hooper's film aims to explore an 'unorthodox friendship' between the royal and his therapist. Over the years they became good friends.
'Everyone knows the story of the Abdication, but this is another way of looking at it and how George had to prepare to become a public figure,' Canning explained.
(Screendaily, Nov 13, 2009, by Sarah Cooper)
Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Guy Pearce, Derek Jacobi and Michael Gambon have joined the cast of Tom Hooper’s historical drama The King’s Speech, which started shooting today (November 13).
Based on the screenplay by David Seidler, the film is about the unorthodox relationship between England’s King George VI, to be played by Colin Firth, and his Australian speech therapist—Geoffrey Rush—who helped him to overcome his stammer. Firth and Rush had already been announced.
See-Saw Film’s Iain Canning and Emile Sherman and Bedlam Productions’ Gareth Unwin are producing.
The Kings Speech will shoot for seven weeks, taking in UK locations such as Lancaster House, the Bradford Bulls Stadium, Ely Cathedral, Harley Street and Battersea Power Station.
The Weinstein Company and FilmNation handling international sales and has picked up the US rights to the project as well as licensing rights in Germany, France, China, Hong Kong, Latin America, Benelux and Scandinavia. Momentum has picked up UK rights, whilst Transmission Films will distribute in Australia and New Zealand.
The project is also being supported by the UK Film Council, Aegis Film Fund, and Molinare London.
(AWFJ Women on Film, Sept 24, 2009, by Jenny Halter)
"As a director one’s greatest challenge is finding good enough material to direct. One of the myths is that there are brilliant writers sitting in attics writing great screenplays—if only the system would allow them to be made. The King’s Speech, the next film I’m about to make, is a good example. It was a stage play, and my mother who’s Australian was invited to a fringe theater reading in London because she’s part of the Australian community. The play’s about the relationship between King George the Sixth and his Australian speech therapist. She came back and said “you’ve got to read this play,” and I read it and it was brilliant, and a year later it’s a film starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush which the Weinstein Company is financing which will start shooting November 12th. That’s the first time that’s happened to me—I found a script no one knows about."
(Daily Mail, Sept 18, 2009, by Baz Bamigboye)
Helena Bonham Carter, better known as Bellatrix Lestrange to Harry Potter movie fans, is in negotiations to portray the Queen Mother in a film about how she helped her husband overcome his stammer.
The actress will star with Colin Firth—as George VI—and Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush in the film The King's Speech, which Tom Hooper will direct.
Firth told me Bonham Carter would be 'sublime as the Queen Mum'. 'The film takes place before she took on the cuddly Queen Mum mantle, when she was much younger, making Helena ideal.
'This was when her husband—then the Duke of York—was going through the Abdication crisis and had to prepare himself for public speaking.'
The King's Speech starts shooting in London this autumn....is about Lionel Logue (played by Rush), an Australian speech therapist who later became a sought-after Harley Street consultant.
In 1926 the Duchess of York, as the Queen Mother was before her husband assumed the throne in 1937, encouraged the Duke to visit Logue, and then helped him with breathing exercises and tongue-twisters. Later, Logue coached George VI for the formal language of the 1937 Coronation, telling him to 'take it quietly, Sir'—and that slow, measured speech later became a reassuring feature of the King's wartime radio broadcasts.
(collider.com, Sept 15, 2009, by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub)
So what are you getting ready to start up on?
It’s called “The Kings Speech”. It’s a beautiful story about King George the VI who had to become kind unexpectedly when his brother abdicated over the Wallace Simpson scandal. It takes place just before the second World War. The king just abdicated because he couldn’t marry a divorced woman. And the brother, who hadn’t been groomed at all, suddenly had to step up. That would be the part I would play. He was not only not groomed for it, he had a terrible speech impediment. He stuttered very badly. And this was an era when live radio was critical. There was no recorded and edited radio yet, and no previous king had to use live radio but he did. And he had to lead the nation into war etc. etc., etc. So with enemies like Hitler as your rival and the rhetoric. So it was a huge crisis—constitutionally and for him. He ended up going to a speech therapist and it’s about that relationship. It’s actually a friendship as much as anything else. Because there is a five pace rule around the royals…don’t come close. You’re not allowed to, you have to call them highness and all the rest of it. But this guy (Geoffrey Rush) is not having any of it. We have to work together and we can’t do that. So there is no possibility of friendship, really. I would say for someone like George the VI, you can’t have that exclusion zone around yourself. And this is about a relationship which ends up breaking that zone. It’s a great story. Tom Hooper is the director.
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