NBC News Today with Katie Couric and Matt Lauer "Colin playing Santa Claus" 2003

Transcript by Pam E.

Katie Couric

Matt Lauer

Colin Firth

Wayne Charness Hasbro Toys

Scene:  Today Show, NY street outside Studio 1A

Colin in background with Santa Claus hat accepting toys from the audience.

K: Christmas is all around...is really funny in this movie Colin and Billy Mack.  So, Colin's gonna talk with us a little bit more in a few minutes. He's been very very busy these days.

M: He really has.  That's right. You loved that movie, by the way, "Love Actually."

K: You know what? I did. I have to say, I did love that movie. 

M: Good.  One thumb up from Katie Couric. A lot of very generous people helping out with the toy drive this year. First of all, I'm Matt Lauer along with Katie Couric. Outside Studio 1A.  Let's shuffle over this way.

K: Hi

M: Hi, nice to meet you (shakes hands with Katie who laughs)

M: Wayne Charness is here with Hasbro. Hey, Wayne, how are you?

W: Good, Matt, how are you?

Jump to Katie with Colin:  Kisses him on both cheeks (lucky girl!).

K: Little Euro for Colin

C: Hello there.

C: Thank you.

K: Nice to see you!

K: Sorry, I have peanut butter breath!

Colin shakes hands with Matt who kisses his hand on both sides...everyone laughs.

K: Anyway, how's everything going?

C: It's going very well, thanks.

K: You have been a busy guy.

C: I have.

K: You had Love Actually come out and I know...

C: That's right.

K: and have you finished work on Bridget Jones 2 yet?

C: No, that goes on into..em...February of next year.

K: But you do have a new movie coming out very soon "The Girl With the Pearl Earring"

C: That's right.

K: ...about Vermeer and tell us a little bit about that movie because I cannot wait to see it.

C: Em..it's a very.em..it's one of the most beautiful films to look at that you'll ever see. It all is...em..shot like a Dutch painting from the 1700s and it's em a kind of story of em a compressed internal passion and jealousy and, and wild emotions concealed in the household.

K: Tell us a little bit about Vermeer and why it was a particularly challenging role.

C: Well, nobody knows anything about him. Everybody knows everything around his life but he's a mystery.  We know what everyone else looked like, what they said and what they did and he's this kind of shadow in the middle of it all. So, everyone I think who has encountered his story has been fascinated to discover something and uh...in fact our story preserves that mystery in a way.  He's this kind of skulking figure in the shadows of the studio.

K: It's a wonderful book.  A lot of people looking forward to the movie and Scarlett Johansson looks so eerily like the girl with the pearl earring, like the painting.  It is freaky, isn't it?

C: It's quite a feat. You know they went through lots of experiments where they, they tried to...because we knew we have a famous painting and we have an actress who actually physically doesn't ordinarily look like that painting we thought well, are we maybe going to never be able to show the painting? So they tried all this computer morphing stuff where they, they made it look half like, like the painting and half like Scarlett and it ended up looking a little bit like Margaret Thatcher and so...

K & M laugh

C: ...what they ended up with, in fact, was just Scarlett and then the painting and we buy it.  I think it's a...

K: Well she really captured, or they really captured, the whole..the true essence of the painting and her face. It's beautiful.

C:  Very much so, yeah. It's a feat of acting and filming rather than an accident that she happens to look like that.  I think it was achieved.

K:  Well, good luck with the movie. It's great to see you, Colin.

M: Good luck it.

K: It's great to see you, Colin.

C: Good to see you.

M: We've got to get you some gloves.

C: I'm in...

K: I've been talking up "Love Actually," by the way.

C: ...oh that's very kind of you, thanks. Oh well, talk up "Pearl Earring" for us

K: Oh well, OK.  I think I just did for like, 4 minutes, Colin. 

M:  You did.

C:  You did, that's a wonderful job you did there. I'm in season shock here, actually. I got off the plane in a different season than this.

K: Where were you coming from?

C: Well, London's good old...what I thought fall was supposed to feel like.  This is winter.

K: Yeah, well welcome to New York. Anyway...

M: This is the dead of winter.

K:  ...you need to get busy and fill that up, honey?

C: I know...I thought I did and now they've given me...I've got to...

He looks around and mumbles...crowd goes wild...

K: Have a great holiday.

C: Thank you. Very nice to see you.

M: Thanks, Colin. Nice to see you.

C: Is this (sorry..) enough for live TV?

K: But first this is Today, on NBC.

C: Thank you, so much.  Thank you.  Wow, head first!  Down you go!

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