The Oscar winner speaks of a "Conspicuous Decoupling."
Actors leaving a film is not common, so when it happens it attracts a bit of attention. Such was the situation this week when we learned that Colin Firth had decided to leave the CGI/live-action Paddington. The actor who recently appeared in The Railway Man was supposed to voice the loveable British bear who's rather polite but terribly clumsy.
However, in a statement released last week, Firth said the following:
"After a period of denial, we’ve (the studio and Firth) chosen ‘conscious uncoupling,’”
Again, it's not common to see actors leave roles after they've been announced - last year, Scarlett Johansson famously replaced Samantha Morton as the voice of the AI program in Spike Jonze’s Oscar-winning Her. More recently, Robert Downey Jr. was supposed to voice the genius dog in the animated Mr. Peabody & Sherman, but was replaced by Muppets Most Wanted's Ty Burrell.
Firth went on to state that the decision to leave was a mutual one:
“It’s been bittersweet to see this delightful creature take shape and come to the sad realization that he simply doesn’t have my voice. “I’ve had the joy of seeing most of the film and it’s going to be quite wonderful. I still feel rather protective of this bear and I’m pestering them all with suggestions for finding a voice worthy of him.”
Perhaps Mr. Burrell is free to do another famous voice? Hopefully we'll hear soon from the studio as to the direction they plan to take.
Paddington arrives in U.S. theaters on Christmas Day, 2014.
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