Firth: 'Mamma Mia! was 'great fun'

NEW YORK, July 18 (UPI) -- British film star Colin Firth jokes that people shouldn't expect too much from his vocal performance in the new movie musical, "Mamma Mia!"

Asked if he sings in the frothy flick, Firth told UPI, "Define 'sing.'"

"I made sounds," he said. "I did my version of what would pass for dancing. But they asked me and they auditioned me, and they didn't cast John Travolta or Kevin Bacon, they cast me, so ... It was great fun. That says something about the liberating elements that come with complete and utter humiliation. You can't cling on to your dignity any more. It's over. So, you might as well just go for it. ... Everyone's going to laugh at me, but what the hell?"

While promoting his recent big-screen drama, "And When Did You Last See Your Father," Firth said he tries to stagger the types of roles and films he does.

"I have sort of alternated a little between light, commercial and smaller, darker (films,) and that's probably more because instinctively I feel more like doing (it that way,)" he told UPI. "Peter O'Toole used to say to me, 'One for show, one for dough.' But, even though I didn't quite plan life like that, I think if it can happen n... (Films like 'Father') don't come with a big paycheck and ... the commercial prospects are not in the same field as 'Mamma Mia!' It can help if the bigger, mainstream stuff can be at your disposal, as well."