Production Quotes

Misan Sagay on:
The Story...
"I would describe the film as a romantic comedy about a woman who's been hurt quite badly in the past and has buried herself and her heart in order to live a quiet life with her family; and a man, a very successful science fiction writer whose life is based on the single minded pursuit of success."

"The women in the script were based very much on women I'd known and relatives of mine, women who embody the spirit of the African female, the joy, the strength and the triumph and keeping humour in difficult circumstances."

"I love stories where a lot happens but it doesn't require dramatic plane crashes to bring about the change—when it's the smallest things that can bring about seismic changes"

"This is more a film about inter-cultural relationships.  By this I mean not where you come from but rather culture in terms of what you espouse.  For instance, there are black men who have the same characteristics as Matthew—who feel that if they're tough and strong and alone, they will move forward in lives.  Conversely, there are white women like Nimi.  So culture in its broadest sense means—what it is you believe and how you therefore structure your life.  I am not at all interested in the interracial aspect of the story because that's not what the film is about.  Many women of any culture will look at Nimi's relationship with her mother and think, I've been there."

Matthew...
"Matthew is in many ways the character closest to myself but also furthest from myself.  He's a cynical writer—a very cynical man who believes in getting things right and that you get ahead by having as little emotional entanglement as possible.  This has worked very well for him and he is extremely successful.  I like to think of Matthew not as someone who is cold and hard but rather as someone who stays away from emotional attachments for fear of being either hurt or distracted from what he has to do."

"There are wonderful things about him in the script at the beginning.  The comic character he writes about, Saracen, believes in chivalry, honour and justice and Matthew is definitely a very chivalrous and honest person with a kind heart concealed beneath a very tough shell that it's hard to get past.  The first weapon that does get past his defences is Nimi's young son, Sammy— because he sees something of himself in the little boy—that spirit of daring and adventure and daring to care and love people.  He sees an echo of the person that he was before life made him as he is now."

"Matthew realises that if you have too much armour, what you think is protection soon becomes a prison.  He is imprisoned by his inability to accept vulnerability and he needs to accept that things can't be perfect and that he can't control everything, that sometimes it's just about jumping into the deep end.  If you don't take those sorts of risks, your life becomes intensely emotionally sterile."

"One point to make about Matthew is that at the beginning he has physical symptoms that have no basis in any physical ailment—his heart is crying out.  He has got to be able to accept that being in love is a deeply exposing experience in that you do give over some control of your life to someone and that sometimes what you fear most can be the most liberating thing of all.  Real freedom is not in never being exposed."

Colin Firth...
"The part of Matthew Field was always going to be difficult for any actor because he has to undergo such change and that change has to be credible.  In addition, even at his hardest we mustn't lose sympathy with Matthew.  The person who played the part of Matthew had to bring humanity to someone it might be easy to dislike at the beginning and they had to be romantic.  We had a long think about who could be funny, hard, appear to have soft centre, fall in love and convince us of the happy ending.  Colin Firth brought the necessary sensitivity to the role.  In fact he brought more than was on the page."

Nimi...
"Nimi is his polar opposite and that's exactly what attracts him to her - her devotion to her family, to community and love.  She is where Matthew would be if he didn't have his shell.  So they're not in fact that far apart from each other.  In fact I would describe Matthew as Nimi cured.  He sees in her, using a line I love from the script - 'an accident waiting to happen.'  Everything about her is wrong - she is talented and yet her career is going nowhere, she's beautiful and yet she's hidden away and she cares so much what people think about her.  The thing about Nimi is that there is an essential gentleness and goodness about her.  There is a love of community and the people around her.  That's what attracts him.  In a world where everyone around him is armed, it's her lack of artifice that is attractive."

"Nimi also learns that while it is wonderful to have a sense of community and purpose and to love, you matter too.  Paradoxically her relationship with Matthew gives her a sense of self worth and freedom from caring all the time what people think."

Nia Long...
"Nia had spirit and fire. It was terribly important in the casting of Nimi that she never did appear a doormat.  We talk often when describing Nimi, of self sacrifice and goodness.  To play those without fire and spirit, one would be left with a rather dull, boring and sanctimonious character.  We needed someone actually able to handle Matthew.  I hate those films where you know that if you watched the film for another half an hour you'd be seeing the story of their divorce.  I wanted it to feel like something that would stick.  But the actress still needed that goodness, sweetness and purity."

"We also knew that any American actress would find it extremely hard—they would be acting in a different accent and appearing in a film that is quite European in many ways.  This isn't the kind of part that comes along very often.  It needed somebody we knew would rise to that challenge who would have the fire, the spirit, the will, because it requires an act of will not only to do a British accent but to master a British accent with a hint of Nigerian. We knew that Nia was a fighter and that she would get there."

Peter Schwabach on:
The Story...
"It is essentially an old fashioned story about a little boy who feels his mother ought to get married again and chooses a man who he thinks is right for his mum whilst her family choose someone else and the story develops as a love story between the choice of the child and the mother."

"The interesting thing about Misan's writing is that from the very first you feel an affinity towards the African characters, the home team as it were.  When the English people arrive they are far more mysterious and slightly unworldly.  So there was never any point where I felt had to go and live in the Serengeti for several years in order to understand the characters!  In addition, I've spent some time in West Africa and I have a lot of Nigerian friends so this was never a huge leap of faith or imagination as it was a world I knew already."

"The problem with a lot of films about Africa and the West Indies is that they are always the outsiders of the film.  If there's a film about South Africa it's about one white person who trying to help the South Africans.  This film is written from the other perspective and one of the great things about it is that it demythologises the people.  I hope very much that it will have the same impact movies like The Wedding Banquet and The Joy Luck Club had on the Chinese community, where one ceases looking at them as different or alien but just as fellow human beings.  This is what I would like to achieve with this film apart from entertaining and telling a love story - for people to suddenly look at West Africans and easily identify with them and what is a very familiar, interesting and fascinating culture."

"This is a story that could have been set in a Chinese, Indian or Jewish community.  That was one of the interesting things about the script, that whilst it is specifically about Nigerian people we identify with so many of the relationships - the mother/daughter, mother/child - in that it becomes merely interesting that we are dealing with West Africa rather than that it is specific to West Africa."

"The message of the film is definitely that it is not an interracial film. The dilemma of Nimi, of whether she marries the African priest or falls in love with the English writer is not one of race but individuals and culture and nowhere in the film is an issue made of colour of skin."

Colin Firth on:
Matthew...
"A lot of people have embarked on life feeling footloose and fancy-free with no ties or responsibilities.  Life seems extremely simple and makes you feel very powerful.  However life doesn't let you get away with that forever.  I have certainly felt that way and identified to a great degree with the character, that when the change comes, it doesn't come in a convenient  form and can surprise you. However I have never been as cynical or as financially ambitious as Matthew."

Nia Long on:
Nimi...
"Mastering the African accent was certainly not easy and playing an African woman with an English accent was even more daunting.  It was a probably thus-far the biggest challenge of my career."

"My agent gave me the script and I thought the story was incredibly charming and the relationship between Nimi and her son just beautiful.  Nigerian culture has never really been explored on the big screen and this film does that in a pretty realistic way.  I think it will strike a chord with a lot of black Americans.  The additional attraction was the fact that it was a love story and having recently played a romantic lead in the movie, 'Love Jones', I thought, okay I can do this."

"I would describe Nimi as being strong willed with her own beliefs but insecure and unsure of how to get to where she feels her spirit needs to go.  She's torn between what's in her heart and what her family expects of her.  I related to her in the sense that we've all been there, we've all had to make choices maybe against a judgement of our parents.  But insofar as the cultural choices she has to make, there's a very fine line between going against your family and going for what you believe in without totally neglecting your heritage."

Colin Firth...
"a sweetheart, a true professional.  He tells great stories and has a wonderful sense of humour and he really tries to give everything he can as an artist.  We bounced ideas off each other and always came to a happy medium.  It made all the scenes particularly the romantic ones all the more easier.  We had fun with them."