Colin Firth says stammering monarch role was a ‘physical battle’

WASHINGTON - Colin Firth has revealed that playing the role of stammering monarch King George VI in ‘The King’s Speech’ had put him in a ’semi-paralysis’.

The 50-year-old said that his character made him so tense he suffered headaches and trapped nerves.

“Some part of you goes there. I try to play it as the character would be experiencing it, which is to try not to do it. The sheer physical effort that requires had an effect on my whole body, and while shooting ‘The King’s Speech’ I suffered from headaches,” Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

“Playing the role would put my left arm to sleep. I must have been tensing, particularly if I had long speeches. I must have been locking someone, pinching a nerve, because I couldn’t use it properly. It was a semi-paralysis that would last for three or four days.

“So I found myself in a physical battle,” he said.

Colin also said that after portraying someone with a stammer, he found the vocal tic surfacing when he spoke away from filming.

“Even now I find myself stammering. Every time I talk about it, I am in danger of losing my flow,” he added. (ANI)