Melbourne, May 9 : British actor Colin Firth is planning to take a hiatus from acting.

The actor, who burned himself into millions of female memories as Jane Austen's moody hero Fitzwilliam Darcy in the BBC series 'Pride and Prejudice' has a clutch of new films that will be released soon.

And, he admits that he's looking forward to taking a year long break.

"I just think I would like to do other things for a while," The Australian quoted him, as telling Weekend Australian Magazine.

"I would like to not act for a little while and it would be very, very nice to take a long breather.

A year off would be great but it probably won't last that long. It's precautionary, really - it's trying to know when it is time to let things go fallow for a bit before you carry on.

"I spoke to Christopher Walken about it once and he said the more you act the better you get. I said, 'Sometimes I want a year off' and he said, 'That is nonsense - someone is going to give you a year off when you're not looking for it, man.'

"So maybe I am being a bit precious but I think it is important to just stop and sort of sit back and get that spark back. I don't want to have a year just sitting around on my arse," he said.

The actor will now be seen as a less-than-ideal romantic interest for Helen Hunt in 'Then She Found Me', a movie in which the Oscar winning actress makes her directorial debut.