At 56, "Kingsman" Star Colin Firth Says He's a "Geri-action Hero"

Che Rosales/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — At 56 years old as of last week, Colin Firth knows he’s an “improbable” choice to be an action movie star — but thanks to the blockbuster success of Kingsman: The Secret Service, the Oscar winner can add that qualification to his resume. 

The slick spy film featured Firth as a gentlemanly — but tough as nails — secret agent. One of the film’s action setpieces was a madcap, bloody fight scene in a small church, pitting Firth’s character against an entire congregation of brainwashed believers.

“You were a bada** in that movie!” Kelly Ripa’s Live with Kelly guest co-star Neil Patrick Harris gushed. 

“I mean I thought I established my action credentials when I fought Hugh Grant in the first [Bridget Jones] film,” Firth joked, “…with all the biting and scratching and all.” 

“No, it’s an improbable time of life, you know, over the age of fifty, to start — you know, I have no athletic ability at all…Trying to achieve a squat was the first stage,” Firth stammered, to laughs. “Sixths months [of training] later, I found myself not wanting to do anything else. And so now I hope in the time I have remaining in my career, I have a future as a geriaction hero…”

Although his character [spoiler alert] dies in the film, reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. “Are you gonna be in the in the sequel? Is that possible?” Ripa asked. “It is possible,” Firth said coyly. “I’ve been reading the rumors.” 

One person who certainly is in the follow-up is a music legend. “A friend of mine, Sir Elton John, is in the movie,” Harris name-dropped about Kingsman: The Golden Circle. “He’s very excited about the movie…And he loves you,” he said of Firth.

“And I’m saying nothing,” Firth smiled.

Firth did express he’s “never been invited” to play James Bond, something Ripa screamed — in a British accent — was “an outrage.”

“No this, [Kingsman] is my James Bond.”

Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which also features returning star Taron Egerton as well as series newcomers Julianne Moore, Halle Berry and Channing Tatum, opens June 16, 2017.

Copyright © 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.

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