Colin Firth says being good-looking is a hindrance in modern society. The Oscar-winning actor - who is a sex symbol for many women - believes beautiful people are often dismissed as being vacuous and stupid by others just as much as they are celebrated for their attractiveness. Colin thinks the stereotype leads to beautiful people having to work extra hard to earn respect for their intellect.

"There was a time when a beautiful person was considered something fine and to be celebrated. Now a beautiful person is assumed to be shallow and flaky. If you are beautiful in today's society, you are presumed to have no substance. I think a lot of talented and very bright people who are also physically beautiful have to work very hard if they don't want to just lean on their looks ... I think someone that has the mind of a professor and also looks like they're in Baywatch would just p**s people off because they don't want them to have all of that."

Despite his incredible success, the 51-year-old actor also revealed his parents are not particularly impressed by his career choice. The King's Speech star's father David was a history lecturer, while his mother Shirley is a religious academic and they only seem to be proud of his work if he appears in a Shakespeare production.

Colin - who is married to Italian director Livia Giuggioli - told website The Talks, "I think they quite like it when I play a role that they consider to be rather worthy of the profession, a role where calling yourself an actor isn't an apology. It will inevitably be something Shakespearean that they consider superior. When I just prance around in Mamma Mia!, or something like that, I'm not sure how they reconcile themselves with the son they produced."