Matthew Macfadyen Has the Most Mr. Darcy Feelings About Playing Mr. Darcy

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | July 24, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | July 24, 2024 |

Finally, dear reader, I have an excuse to write about my favorite corner of popular culture: Pride and Prejudice adaptations. My feelings about the superior version of my favorite Jane Austen novel are as strong as my feelings about martinis: if you like your martinis with vodka, you’re wrong, and if you prefer the 2005 film version over the 1995 BBC miniseries, you’re also wrong.

However, I will watch the former in a pinch if I need something comforting and quick, even if I stop paying attention when Keira Knightley is onscreen (nothing against Keira, she just doesn’t do Lizzy Bennet justice for me). And while Colin Firth is the man I see when I close my eyes at night and picture my future, Matthew Macfadyen makes a fine Mr. Darcy.

Darcy is still held up as an ideal of manhood because he’s the literal tall, dark, and handsome trope, and he’s kind of ornery, which can be sexy in the right context but, when it comes down to it, he’s just a bumbling, insecure mess. He needs the guiding hand of a controlling, stubborn woman like Elizabeth Bennet to bring him out of his shell, and, speaking on behalf of controlling and stubborn women, we love that. If reading that offends you, congratulations! You didn’t internalize the misogyny rampant in our culture. If reading that offends you and also makes sense to you, my condolences, and welcome to the club. Here’s your pillow for screaming into.

Macfadyen apparently understood the essence of Darcy perfectly, because when asked recently about the experience of playing the part, he said “I didn’t really [enjoy it].”

“I feel bad saying that. There were moments I had a good time, but I wish I enjoyed it more. I wish I was less worried about it.” A typecast if there ever was one.

Part of the reason he worried so much was because he felt he wasn’t attractive enough for the part.

“I felt a bit miscast, like, ‘I’m not dishy enough,’” he said. “Probably the most flattering thing that happens to me now is people say, ‘Were you Mr. Darcy?’ It’s a good 20 years later. So I think, ‘I can’t be aging that badly.’”

He’s plenty dishy, but I understand the anxiety when you’re following in the footsteps of the four-course meal that is Colin Firth, with whom he compared notes of their experiences “exhaustively” and “extensively.” (New fantasy unlocked.) Darcy would be embarrassed by all this talk, though, so let’s quit while we’re ahead.