Leicester Mercury (UK) Article

November 19, 1999

Acting has become a Fiennes art

I NEVER seem to have much luck with Ralph Fiennes. I have been in press conferences, and indeed small groups interviewing the man, but always there is a barrier, some deep underlying defence mechanism that makes talking to him akin to pulling teeth.

That intensity is reflected in the majority of roles he plays in films - Wuthering Heights, The English Patient, Oscar and Lucinda, and now the title role in Onegin, the adaptation of Pushkin's tragic 19th century Russian novel Evgeny Onegin. I wondered aloud why is it he always seemed to accept those roles, and all in period costume!

"I get asked that all the time. But I take parts because I respond to the script, the director, the story, the other actors in the cast. Not because they're period films. They just happen to have been.

"And I can't explain why, other than to say it's coincidence. I'm open to anything contemporary."

Being executive producer on the film, it must have been hard to be objective in casting and playing the roles - a big sprawling epic must get its money back at least.

Fiennes had always wanted to play the role of Onegin, a jaded member of the St Petersburg social elite, whose cynicism sees him spurn a declaration of love by rural beauty Tatyana, only to realise his mistake too late.

He admitted the casting of Tatyana was the key. So was the casting of Liv Tyler a calculated risk?

"Liv has a quite extraordinary naturalness in front of the camera. When she auditioned for the part, there was this inner sense of poise that others just tried to act. And you can't. She has this inner serenity." Commenting on his film roles he said: "Well, I am drawn to parts that go on a journey - characters who, through a catalyst in the story or their lives, are changed.

"I'm not always trying to do something different. If an idea interests me, then just because I've done it before, I see no reason not to explore it again in a different way."