Los Angeles: British actor Colin Firth won his first Oscar on Sunday for playing a stammering monarch in The King's Speech, making a clean sweep through the film awards season.
The victory was expected for the 50-year-old after his critically-acclaimed portrayal of King George VI, struggling to overcome a crippling speech impediment.
"I have a feeling my career has just peaked," Firth deadpanned as he accepted his Academy Award. The actor also won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a Screen Actors Guild trophy for the role.
"I am experiencing stirrings somewhere in the upper abdominals which are threatening to form themselves into dance moves, which joyous as they may be for me, would be extremely problematic if they make it to my legs before I get off stage," he added.
Firth was nominated at the Oscars last year for his role as a closeted gay professor in the drama A Single Man. Today's win makes Firth the sixth actor in the last 10 years to win the Best Actor Oscar for playing a non-fictional character.
Before the The King's Speech and A Single Man, Firth has portrayed the role of a handsome English man in romantic films like been best known for playing handsome but buttoned-up English men in romantic comedies such as Love Actually and Bridget Jones's Diary.
Speaking backstage, Firth said the royal movie, set in the 1930s, had resonated with audiences on a personal level. "What has struck me is the emotional response to the film, which seems to have been very, very personal and quite diverse," Firth told reporters.
The actor however expressed dislike towards the cleaned up PG-13 US release of the film, without the scene in which the shy king curses in frustration.
"I don't support it, because I think the film has an integrity where it stands. I think that scene belongs where it is, " Firth said.
"In the context of this film, it could not be more edifying, more appropriate," he added. "It's a film about a man trying to free himself through the use of forbidden words. So, I think the film should stand as it is."
On Sunday he thanked his Italian wife Livia for putting up with his "fleeting delusions of royalty" while filming. Firth also said he was planning to cook a lot after months of red carpets and award shows. "I don't think I'm particularly good at cooking, but I do think that is a good way to decompress."
