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"I hate those Russian plays," he complains, on being offered the chance to understudy in Chekhov's The Seagull. "Always full of woman staring out of windows, whining about ducks going to Moscow."
Sitting in his West London local, on one of Hammersmith's gently distressed avenues, Ralph Fiennes attempts to dispel this Withnailian preconception. A stage veteran of Chekhov's Ivanov, he is now starring in and producing a film adaptation of Pushkin's verse novel, Eugene Onegin, entitled simply Onegin, in which there are windows and women but not a Moscow-bound duck in sight.
Stripped down to its bare bones, however, his character, Onegin, rejects the advances of the vivacious Tatyana (Liv Tyler), shoots his best friend, falls in love with Tatyana and is rejected by her. No one could describe it as a laugh riot or, indeed, an easy sell.
"No. The ending is not a barrel of laughs," he says, looking up from his espresso with a grin. "It's not a feelgood ending, but it never was, and we were never going to compromise on that."
The "we" to whom Fiennes refers is himself and his younger sister, Martha, a seasoned director of ads and pop videos who is making her feature film debut directing big brother. Fiennes, who famously has five siblings as well as a brother by adoption, further risked accusations of nepotism by bringing in brother Magnus to compose the score. Had he considered going for the full house and finding a part for Joseph?
"It came up at the same time as he was offered Shakespeare in Love," reasoned Fiennes. "Even the fact that it was Martha and me was getting a lot of focus and then when we fought for Magnus to do the music that was in the teeth of a lot of opposition..."
Fiennes has proven himself a reluctant interviewee, refusing to discuss his private life (former wife Alex Kingston or "older" partner Francesca Annis) and offering up insights into his own character with the regularity of a panda procreating. But with this personal project he's firmly on the promotional front foot. He premiered the film in St Petersburg (where Pushkin purists were a little sniffy), then took it to Moscow, Montreal and San Sebastian. Today he'll be schlepping down the M4 to talk to the "regional press" in Swindon.
It could just be that he's enjoying the novelty of having something to talk about of which he feels proud, after the critical and commercial mauling which befell his last outing, The Avengers. When did he last see it?
"It was just a coincidence. I was flicking through the pay TV channels in a hotel room in Hungary and I thought "All right, let's have a look, see what it's REALLY like." " And? "I enjoyed making the film and I had a great time," he replies, his grey-green eyes twinkling and his lips breaking into a rueful smile. "In hindsight, I think it was a mistake to try to be too faithful to the original. We should have completely reinvented it. I think the hard time it got was unwarranted..."
Compared to Batman and Robin, it's a masterpiece of storytelling, rich insights and insightful characterisation. But then again, so are most people's home movies. Fiennes concedes that the distributors made a mistake by failing to show it to the press, an admission of defeat before it had even opened. He remains sanguine about the experience, however. "One review that I enjoyed said that I should have played Emma Peel," he smiles. "I wrote to the producer Jerry and said "I've been told that I should play Emma Peel. How about doing Avengers 2: Crossed-Dressed to Kill?" "
Often criticised for being over earnest, Fiennes seems by contrast relaxed, and talks engagingly about how the premature death of his mother from breast cancer brought his already close-knit family even closer. But when the subject strays close to himself, his words dry up. Perhaps his 15 year-long interest in playing Onegin reflects a little oddly on himself?
"I don't want to go into an analysis of myself in relation to playing Onegin," he counters. "I think his detatchment is quite intelligent - he doesn't like the bullshit of life and although he can be aloof and arrogant, well, I'm interested in people who are cut off and haven't gone along with it all."
With that, he is ushered away to a car and the long journey west...
In Brief:
Born: December 22, 1962, Suffolk
A bit like: Leonard Rossiter crossed with a young Peter O'Toole
Highpoint: Schindler's List or The English Patient
Last three films: The Avengers, Oscar and Lucinda, The English Patient
What next: The End of the Affair with Neil Jordan
True but strange: The full Fiennes family surname is the rather long-winded
Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, which just happens to be the same name as a
character in the novels of P G Wodehouse.
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© EL STEPHO
Added to the RF Reading Room on October 31, 1999
EL STEPHO