Some viewers will tune into Operation Mincemeat, the World War II–set film now streaming on Netflix, for its historical spy-caper components. The movie—named for the British deception operation it depicts—features Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen as the real-life men who pulled off a preposterous-sounding ruse. Hatched by British intelligence officer (and future James Bond creator) Ian Fleming (Johnny Flynn), the operation to deceive Hitler involved planting forged documents on a corpse in Allies uniform.

There are others, however, who might tune into the historical drama for another reason entirely: It features two dashing English actors beloved for portraying Jane Austen’s everlasting romantic hero Mr. Darcy. Firth, of course, assumed the honors in 1995’s six-part BBC classic Pride and Prejudice. (He also played a modernized version of Darcy in the Bridget Jones’s Diary films.) Macfadyen, meanwhile, assumed the role in 2005’s Joe Wright–directed adaptation opposite Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennett.

The Darcys unite in Operation Mincemeat, directed by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) and based on Ben Macintyre’s eponymous book. They also play two points of a love triangle that also involves a typist played by Kelly Macdonald. During press rounds, however, Macdonald pointed out that the “the real romance” of the production was happening platonically offscreen between her male costars. Firth himself confirmed that at the London premiere, when he dryly told a reporter, “Yes, we did sort of fall in love, bromantically.”

So what was it that kindled the fire of their friendship?

“Shallow chitchat, really,” Firth tells Vanity Fair in a Zoom reuniting him, in Los Angeles, with Macfadyen in London. “Wasn’t it, mostly? A tendency to wear the same clothes.”

“Yeah, turning up in the same clothes,” agrees Macfadyen, deadpanning. “I would come dressed as Colin, and vice versa.”

Firth laughs at the image.

“And inevitably,” Macfadyen continues, “if you spend years and years in the business, you accumulate lots of shared acquaintances and colleagues, and therefore that leads to an awful lot of gossip.”

“Well, we made each other laugh, I think,” offers Firth.

“That’s true,” confirms Macfadyen.

“It’s quite thrilling when you find yourself giggling, and you can make a joke, which isn’t a very good one, and you’re getting [a good response],” says Firth. “Matthew’s quite an easy crowd.”

“Maybe your jokes are better,” admits Macfadyen.

“Also, we look back on the movie in a slightly misty-eyed nostalgia, because there was no COVID yet,” says Firth, explaining that the Darcys formed a happy, mask-less gang with Macdonald, Flynn, and costar Penelope Wilton while filming. “This was the last thing we did before all that kicked off.”

Getting back to the subject at hand, he says, “Sometimes it’s just an instinctive ease. This wasn’t a blind date. We had a project to do. So I think a lot can spin off from just having this common endeavor.”

Did they compare notes on playing Darcy, though?

“I don’t think we did that,” says Macfadyen. “I remember saying there is this sort of weird pressure that comes with playing stuff like that. I think we touched on that briefly, but we didn’t talk about it.”

At this point, Firth interjects to point out that theirs isn’t some massively unique shared experience. “Maybe we both played Mercutio at some point at drama school or something. It’s not as if we’re the only two people who played it.”

That being said, Firth takes a moment to commend his colleague for managing to encapsulate Darcy’s entire story arc in a two-hour movie.

“It’s much more challenging to do it as a feature film. Because if you do a six-parter, you’ve got six hours to put it all in and let it unfold at a pace which is closer to that of a book. I think what was masterful about Matthew’s interpretation was that he did manage to tell that whole story in a more condensed form. And I think that’s very difficult because it’s so dependent on a slow reveal. You think he’s one thing, and gradually, we’ve lived with the doubt about that, and the perceptions gradually and slowly change.”

Firth also gets a little misty-eyed thinking about TV programming in 1995.

“That was back in pre-streaming days, when you really did have to wait for next Sunday to see the next part,” he points out. “So it unfolded very slowly. I think it was a huge achievement that that story was told [in that short time], and that Matthew managed to span the arc of that character.”

Macfadyen, who has confessed that Firth was an inspiration for him becoming an actor, looks down, uncomfortable with the praise.

“I played him like a sort of grumpy adolescent, probably because I felt quite grumpy because I was scared,” says Macfadyen.

Firth looks surprised to hear this. “I think I did too, actually.”

Says Macfadyen, “He is, isn’t he?”

“He’s scared,” agrees Firth. “‘This place isn’t good enough. I’m not dancing in a place like this.’ It’s because he’s afraid to dance.”

“Exactly,” says Macfadyen. “It’s all fear. It’s all based on fear.”

With Operation Mincemeat, the actors veer into scarier territory—but with a caper twist. Their characters—with Macdonald’s and Wilton’s—invent an entire persona and life for the fictional soldier they’re trying to pass off as real to enemies. Everyone involved with the operation gets so swept up in the ruse, and the personas they play in it, says Firth, that “it was a bit like making a film for these people. Trying on the costume, going to the theater, because that’s what this guy would do.”

“The romance—I don’t think it’s there because a film needs a bit of romance. It’s there because they’re in this imaginative world and they’re building the figure of this man and investing something of themselves in it and wishing he were true. And actually, two people fall in love”—Firth stops to correct himself—“or three people fall in love—because of it.”

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