Standing in the dark with Colin Firth, the first thing you notice is that look. The man didn’t stop peering directly into my eyes during our entire face-to-face interview on a chilly night in downtown Durham. I’d be lying if I said the intent gaze from those chocolate brown eyes didn’t make it a bit hard to concentrate.
The second thing you notice is his hands, of all things. Impossibly baby soft. They’re perhaps exactly what you’d expect from a guy known for playing sensitive leading man roles, but not altogether in keeping with the hard-boiled Texan he plays in Main Street, the independent film based in the Bull City that brought Firth here for several weeks.
The third thing you notice is, simply, his face. Kind and stately with to-die-for dimples. Although we are almost exactly the same age, he has hardly any crow’s feet or age spots. I thought for half a second about asking to interview his make-up artist instead.
Oh, right. The interview. That’s why I’m standing here at the corner of West Main and Corcoran, the streets wet after a fake rain storm conjured by the film crew for a nighttime shoot. The film has generated quite the buzz since production began in April, in good ways and bad.
It’s been a thrill to have Firth and his co-stars – Orlando Bloom, Ellen Burstyn, Patricia Clarkson, Andrew McCarthy and Amber Tamblyn — here in Durham. We can’t help but swell with pride when we hear how much these accomplished actors have enjoyed many of our favorite restaurants and attractions. And the photo that circulated around the local blogosphere with Bloom wearing a Durham Police Department uniform was a trip.
The movie itself is a bit of a different story.
The script, penned by the late great screenwriter Horton Foote, was written after he visited downtown Durham five years ago.
That was before downtown revitalization had really taken hold. He called it Main Street because he happened to notice one day he was the only person driving along our Main Street.
The movie is about people in a down-and-out town who have to decide how much they’ll compromise to put some money back in their pockets. Some are worried it won’t portray Durham in a positive light, or even an accurate one.
The irony, of course, is that while the film seems altogether timely during the current economic crisis, it doesn’t accurately reflect the state of things in the city where it’s set. Durham’s thriving, relatively speaking, and I’d wager Mr. Foote wouldn’t recognize Main Street Durham as it is today.
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