Colin Firth attends the premiere of his new film 'Railway Man'

[Music] com ready all right go yet okay [Music] [Music] some I'll find out name is Tom mck from Birmingham of course as you see I'm Scottish not have you seen no I haven't seen this film I'll be you know 50/50 cuz I've been out back out there after the war my wife's well the story was my wife and sister she says I'm fed up of being it because years I'm going to go there never thought anything off it she said it two days after that she says I booked the holiday I say where you booked the holiday to say you're going to [Music] Thailand so is you going and my darling and to be caught on a she R she went up the rough way not we went on our own Steam and fortunate enough i b b had a CER and a driver to ourselves and whatever we fantastic and she suffered it said I know all I know every step of that raway cuz I started at non product and I finished up at concret joining I was what you call the hammer gun laying at the track and my job was hammering the spikes into the sleepers not one sleeper but every other sleeper who that TR I know that track from top to bottom are you going to watch film yes oh yeah do you think it's going to stir up some I think we go over a lot of has good over it you know we'll pick flies on it because I know for a fact I've been been with films and there always a [Music] bit I think since I lost my wife I've been helping to do research for the regiment I was in in Malia we've I mean fortunate enough the regiment that was in we fought in Mal we didn't rrive like all the poor soldiers of Eng 18 Dev into Singapore we started at Thailand and fought our way down Mala so I know what it is like I I always say I deserve to be a prisoner of war but not those came from was CH he knew it before the war happened that Singapore would fall it never hold it so wrong a good expence well we we'll see what happens anyway thank you very much [Music] probably dead you know ask yes that's right he said he had to sh [Music] [Music] [Applause] hey guys how we doing R nice to me how you doing not too cold yeah that's right so um this story that you know um no not really and you know I I kind of I don't know kind of nerdily um have a bit of an interest in that period of history and I didn't really know much about the fall of Singapore and you know the terrible atrocities that happened on death Railway you know I think it's uh we all seem quite familiar with the with the war crimes that committed in Europe the and um here's something on you know a huge scale that actually seems to be kind of missing from our public Consciousness in Australia they have a day dedicated to it and we we don't really seem to know a lot about it so um that's why I think it's so important that we get the story out yeah very yeah yeah um I uh you know I I was very well kind of acutely aware that we were doing a story that was um that was a real person you know this wasn't a character that was just being created by a writer in his bedroom so um you know I did a lot of things I wouldn't normally do and I I lost lost a lot of weight um I lost just over 30 pounds before filming and then I don't know how much I lost in total but um you know it yeah there was a lot of you know it was a very physically challenging role I guess um because you know I in reality I'm never going to get anywhere near um to appreciating or being able to imagine what Eric must have been through in reality so he kind of have to do everything you possibly can to uh yeah to try and get there I guess yeah very absolutely I mean you know I I can't say that you know I this is this is what's remarkable to me I I don't know if I would have been able to forgive someone off that long it's incredible that Eric did you know he spent 50 years imagining how he's going to murder this man and then met him and right up to the second was going to meet him um you know was was fully ready to murder him so um yeah yeah it's incredible yeah I think so I think so but you know it's difficult when when you read their story it's difficult to imagine uh you know what they've been through and imagine for yeah it's kind of Beyond thank you very much thank you cool good stuff good stuff um you just talked about the physical uh challenges iag emotional challenges as much yeah I mean absolutely I mean you know I'll be careful of standing pretentious here because of course you know I I can't get close to imagin what went know you spend a year of your life trying to know someone better than as well as you possibly could and uh you know you really you know you try and put yourself in that position and you know I I kind of uh spend huge amounts of time on my own and got that kind of solitude and you know it's been weeks and weeks and weeks you know just kind of knocking myself away and you know not eating very much and of losing the weight and getting into that head space which was uh you know I means I was kind of left with a huge emotional connection and the fact that you know when Eric had Eric passed away just before really the film was able to be shown to us um it was a very emotional time but his wife's here and paty who I'm in regular contact with and is a truly remarkable person you know I think just's wearing a uh wearing a dress with bits of Eric kill you know so yeah I think this is going to stay with me for a long time got a lot of fans right can I just ask you just to look into the camera and just tell your fans around the world what your messages for the holiday season oh uh I'm jine and I wish everyone a very happy Christmas and go to the railway thank you very much thank you [Music] in have to do everything 100% honestly it's surreal very Bittersweet but very nice to be able to sport a really good film one he would believed in and I do to oh he was very pleased that it was being made but he didn't want to see the film because he felt that it would be so good that it would set him back in uh memory um but on the other hand it does have a happy ending so maybe he would have been all right I don't know he improved enormously yes uh but it never really went away because really the problem was Battle uh stress syndrome was left untreated and that's part of the message of the film that any uh Min person have this and they need help how does it feel anybody like [Applause] very well how are you [Applause] [Music] Amy Amy Amy okay we [Music] [Music] h [Applause] okay thanks very much do you want to be hello [Music] are well it hasn't years for me real all right [Music] hello Nikki nice to meet you nice to meet you um I always imagine it's harder to play a real life person anyway but to play a real life person that's been through something like this how was that balancing AC well there is a balance because uh there are there are obviously pressures and uh obviously there a very specific on what you have to do but at the same time you you also get an unusual amount of Health you know if you're playing Hamlet you don't have a real Hamlet there to study and to to ask questions of so all the uh all all the research I needed and all the the understanding all the things I needed to get my imagination going uh came came straight from Eric and uh he was extremely trusting and very very lucid and his and very courageous really in Sharing what he shared so the pressure I would say was balanced off with with a very very enriching source of information and did you and Jeremy consult on how he would play the younger version of Eric and also with you yes we we we did we got together um tried to make some decisions Eric is Scottish we are not we had to make a decision on whether it was helpful for the film for us to uh make that leap and whether it one of us or both of us would you know would be good enough to to make that authentic um but I think more just more importantly I think it was having our encounter with him in common I think meeting meeting Eric together was the thing that probably United us you know most effectively and just very quickly finally it's a wonderful story of forgiveness how forgiving are you um well I I don't I don't really know how to answer that because I I think it's it depends on on individual cases I think forgiveness is one of those things that's very very easily suggested it's uh you know all the great teachings would probably recommend it how how do you achieve it I've never been tested the way this man has and I have absolutely no idea what I'd be capable of under these circumstan it's nice to meet you finally got you I missed you at the winter white skar you um how much pressure do you really feel in taking on this Ro both the outset and then obviously through the uh the actual as well well there's certainly pressure because you know we do films for all kinds of reasons they can be simple entertainment they can be there to they can be there as escapism they can be there to examine the human condition they can be there as Adventures shock all kinds of things with a story like this uh I think it was it's about a something very very very important that happened to an individual which uh has implications for thousands of people people who went through it their families and it's not I don't think told as broadly as it should be and so I think that given what it cost this man to write this book and what it cost him to resolve things the way he did we didn't want to be the ones to to disappoint at this stage of the storytelling on the other hand uh you have a real person that you can uh interact T and and so there a great deal to be gained from from the fact that it's real as well sorry we we're going to have to go and do a live I'm sorry come back hope [Music] hello how do you prepare for a role like this where you really sort of on the other side of the story yes I was um Mr nag uh is a real character but uh he start passed away a few years before we started shooting so I didn't really get to know him at all all I had was the books he wrote so my what I did was to focus more on the fact what it was like to be a young soldier in Thailand at that time so that's what I mainly focused on and other than that I read many books and researches um read books except the R because I didn't really want to get to know his point of view for the story so yeah it wasn't like a conscious choice but I didn't necessarily want to until I finished shooting then I did video why was that take I needed to be a little bit um cruel towards Mr R and it it was something about it that I just knew that if I read the book I would be more compassionate about it and I won't be able to help feeling really sorry for it which is not my character should do so I mean yes we are just acting so you it doesn't really matter but I doesn't I didn't necessarily want to choose to read it it's an incredibly sensitive subject obviously for British audiences but I imagine for Japanese more so for Japanese in a way because we are sort of we're not victims but we we we it's a sort of History we don't learn about um we don't learn we don't get to learn this at school in Japan um um there are many many reasons for it and we talked about it so much but um so it's a difficult subject and U I'm still looking forward to uh seeing how Japanese audience would watch this film and what they take out of it but hopefully uh the message at the end is is the reconciliation at beond so I really hope that you know that they get that message at the end and I'm sure they will yeah thank you very much T have a great time no I didn't um I knew of it uh a few years before uh I got the role um but uh this is a subject we don't get to learn at school in Japan so I didn't really know about this particular piece of history and uh when I first found out about it it was a shock um it came in uh it happened a um I've been in this country for about 11 years now and I found out only like 5 years ago and it did come as a shely yeah time in his life doing things yes yes how did you did you have any uh well it is just acting at the end of the day so doesn't really matter and uh but what what also really helped was that um me and Jeremy became really good friends and we could we could trust each other which made it possible for me to not be careful about it and just just go for it completely so that was great you have very tough quite stressy scene yes yeah when the director cut what was the atmosphere like quiet it depended on the scenes um obviously the water balling scene uh Jeremy has been going through very hard times physically as well so afterwards we were very very um respectful towards it but other than that um just in general we are very nice and friendly towards each other and you know we we were talking so much we were talking so much in between the shoes and day and night we were just chatting and discussing you know and that was a great environment to work in yes [Laughter] um it's not the matter of if I'm forgiving person but it makes me want to be able to forgive as much as possible because the message this film has is that that's a start you know you you must forgive someone to move on and uh yes yes the last scene of the film is the uh reconciliation but actually it does look beyond that and that's what we did with making the film you know we we worked really well together and we and we and we come from such different different backgrounds you know I'm from Japan it's such a mix cast cast uncr members but then we came we we came we came together to make this film which is quite full thinking film it talks about the past reconcil then what can happen after the reconciliation so I think this film does signify this for thinking way of how to work with people globally and uh that's quite important subject for the 21st century maybe thank you very much thank you thank you yeah you're just front [Music] sit [Music] together and the TR PR quick [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Journey from very very first yeah I wasn't I wasn't involved in that I I um it was it was a long journey in the sense that um um it took a long time to get the script right and what have you but I didn't come on board for until for about 4 years years ago and uh uh you know and and then then I cast Colin very soon after that and then the whole project sort of took off well you know Colin Colin was very much uh in uh in discussions with him about about who to play patty um you know he'd become very good friends with with Nicole and I'd always wanted to work with Nicole and Nicole immediately understood the emotional landscape of the film and and so you know she was absolutely the right person to cast and and and it does a wonderful job in the film [Music] a yeah the younger version yeah the War years yeah [Music] yeah well I mean you know then the I mean Jeremy does an amazing job and and those scenes you know they're actually pieced together in small parts you know you don't you don't actually live out the whole terrible thing but um and you know making the great thing about film making is it's also about everything you don't see and left to the audience's imagination which in part we tried to do and in part we show because I think it's very important that the dark elements of the film are there to jux to oppose the place that Eric uh is able to get to in his reconciliation with nagas and um you know if that was if that was lessoned um look it's about a balance and hopefully we've got the balance right but if it was in any way um um uh lacking then the place that he gets to and what he actually does um would be lessened I think because the journey that Eric took is is almost an unbelievable one St incredible story [Music] yeah um oh relatively so yeah I mean you know I mean put it this way forgiveness is something that I I I I hold very highly as a as a as a great human um attribute and I think it's one of the things that defines us as human beings is our ability to forgive and one of the things I loved about the story was was that it reminds us of what we're capable of yeah thank you nice to meet you thank you