To celebrate the release of the awesome KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE on Blu-ray and DVD this week, we’ve got an exclusive interview to share with you!
Let’s get straight down to it as director Matthew Vaughn talks spy movies and Mr Colin Firth…
Q: How long have you harboured ambitions to make a spy movie?
M. Vaughn: All my life. Love spy films. Thought they needed to be reinvented, and to have a sense of humor again, and take you on a ride, which I used to go on when I watched movies in the seventies and eighties of spy films. And then they suddenly got very, very serious. Austin Powers was probably the beginning of the Rubicon and Bourne is on the other side of it, and I thought there’s somewhere smack in the middle.
Q: May I ask what spies from the past maybe fed into the character of Harry?
MV: The challenge is to find a spy that is not referenced. That would be my point. Its’ got everything. Everyone. There’s a little piece of them in the film.
Q: Why did you choose Colin particularly?
MV: Ian Fleming wanted to cast David Niven as Bond, and I’ve always been obsessed with David Niven. And I wanted a modern day David Niven and I really think Colin’s the only one. Actually, Benedict Cumberbatch probably could get in there as well, thinking about it, but he’s too young.
Q: Did it take much persuading on your part to get Colin involved?
MV: One phone call.
Q: And how you managed to sell it to him?
MV: I sent him the comic. So he read the comic. And I said I want to make the movie with you in the role. He just said I’m in. It was pretty easy. I’m sure he’ll have another version of the story, but it was very easy.
Q: Were the action scenes difficult to pull off?
MV: No. When I hired him I said you’re going to spend sixth month learning the action, and he did it so the guy deserves huge respect. He really worked hard and pulled it off.
KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE is out on Digital HD on now and on Blu-ray and DVD on June 8th from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
