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BN: Well, to start off with, Ralph, I have to tell you - I think the moustache, is a mistake.
It doesn't do anything for you.
RF: Well, Barry, that.. it's not for me, it's for Ivanov ('Ah') It does a lot for Ivanov (grins).
BN: The English Patient, which I imagine must have been a very difficult novel to film, because I
mean there is so much in the novel, and I think Anthony Minghella did an excellent job both as
writer and director. But I'm wondering.. what was he like to work with as opposed to such starry
characters as Spielberg and Robert Redford?
RF: Well, all, I mean they're all.. obviously different men with different approaches and ehm, the
fact that Spielberg and Redford are stars didn't, didn't get in the way of their, their directing
approach Anthony is an extremely collaborative director, he really wants, and takes on board,
the opinions of his actors and what they can give to the screenplay, their, their responses to
his writing. At the same time he can be very.. quietly .. very, very very firm. He.. I think he had
a very strong idea of the kind of film he wanted to make, the journey towards making it was one where
he involved everyone's abilities and everyone's talents and, ehhm, he's a very quietly spoken man, with a
searing, ehm, perception about people, and about circumstances of the film and, the nuances of any given
scene. Ehm, his ear, his ear is extraordinary for dialogue, and .. he's a music lover in fact, and that, that
helps in the way he copes with the dialogue I think.
(TEP dancing scene)
BN: The central character, the most difficult part to play, because he's not an easy guy to get a hold on, is he
- I mean there is a dryness and aloofness, (Yeah, ), there was a coldness (Yeah)
about hime, but at the same time you have to emphathize - I mean, did that present problems for you?
RF: I don't really ehhm...I think you to have to sort of, sort of, you know, .. straight down the line with
someone like that, I mean, if he is cold and aloof, then that's what he is. I mean, he is someone who holds
himself, doesn't really want Kristin Scott Thomas's character and her husband in.. getting in the way I think
that the expedition hasn't got time for that, and the interference then he, that, that's in his nature and
ehhm, I think, sometimes, I think people were concerned that he would be a bit hard to like, but I think
sometimes people are hard to like, that sort of thing. I don't know that I I'm a bit wary of feeding things
into the performance to make the character likeable. If that's. let's just play who they are.
BN: Well he's not particularly likeable at the beginning, but he becomes more so during the film.
RF: Yeah.. I think I will, I hope what comes out is that, that in meeting, ehm the relationship between him and
Kristin Scott Thomas's character, Katharine, that there's.. she starts to open up this part of him that he
doesn't even know exists himself, which is of this, this passionate heart that .
(TEP 'Szerelem' scene
BTW they left out KST saying 'You bastard!')
BN: In most of the films you've done, in fact ALL the films you've done, you've played very serious characters,
essentially, haven't you?
RF: Ehm, yeah, yeah.
BN: Pretty serious characters. (Yeah) I was just wondering, isn't it time you showed us a warmer,
more humorous, even downright sexier (RF chuckling) side of Ralph Fiennes?
RF: (Laughs) If that exists (Laughs)
BN: One of your fellow actors in Quiz Show said you were a chick magnet, so you've obviously got a
big sex appeal... he blushes modestly
RF: No, I just think I respond to these scripts and directors.. wanting to work...
being lucky, and get lucky enough to work with directors that one respects and feel you go on a
journey which is going to be engaging and challenging, and I suppose that people have
tried to tell me that they see a similarity, well, you call it serious, I don't, ehm... in the past
BN: Yes, I wasn't suggesting for one moment that you were playing the same part all the time, but
(RF laughing) , but they have been serious. I mean, I was wondering really - what about the
Avengers, which is I gather is an upcoming adventure of yours, now, is that going to become a
James Bond, or, or what?
RF: Well, as it reads at the moment, it reads like an extended episode of one of the Avengers.
BN: So that would be much.. lighter,
RF: Yeah, I hope so, I hope so.
BN: I often get the impression that you're not entirely comfortable with film stardom, that, if
given the choice, you prefer the theatre, and, I mean not anonymity, 'cause there's not anonymity
there either, but there is less hype about the theatre then there is about the movies. Do you
find all the things that go along with movie stardom difficult to cope with?
RF: I don't find it difficult to cope with as such, I'm just a bit, I suppose probably, ehm, yeah
I'm a bit uncomfortable, I don't know why I'm uncomfortable, ehm.. not all the time, but I -
I started off as, as an actor working in the theatre, for five or six years before I ever did a
film, and I think that, I feel that's a base camp in a way. I mean, I love the process of
film-making, I love the actual day-by-day process of it, that's when you do the work. I think
it's the stuff afterwards that you get asked to do, the.. the promotion of the film, and that's
after the event, and that's something I wasn't, and still maybe I'm not very prepared for, with
that presentation as yourself , talking about your work. And I think, really, I think the work
should speak for itself.
BN: And then the kind of intrusive publicity, which everybody in this world hates, (Yeah - Ralph
looking hurt) that you have been subjected to (Yeah), for reasons which you won't go into,
I mean: How do you cope with that? Do you simply have to say to yourself: This goes with the
territory, so I've got to accept it?
RF: Yeah I think, no, I think ehm.. of course you go through phases of enormous anger, and resentment,
that.. the privacy of your life is being opened up for everyone else, and
BN: It's nobody's business, is it?
RF: No, it's no-one's business, whatsoever, ehm, but this country particularly has a tabloid press
which, ehm, has decided that that's its right, that one should ehm.. and the people buy the
newspapers. That's very very depressing.
BN: However - let's go back to the hectic. In the very brief, really, film career, you've had loads
of nominations - Oscars, Golden Globes, won several awards - how important are these things?
RF: Well I think, yeah, I mean, to be given an award for your work is a great feeling - to be nominated
for one is a great feeling too. So, if one comes your way, my way, whatever, then it's great.
BN: Have the awards and nominations that you've had already, have they had any real, obvious effects
upon your career?
RF: Oh, of course! No, I think any, any actor that's nominated for a Globe, or an Academy Award -
it immediately helps, the way, you know, their work.
BN: So on the whole, you'd rather be nominated than not.
RF: Yeah, no, I, it's grea.. no, 'cause I say, I'd great if you are. I would love to see Anthony and
Saul get it, you know. And I think that, they're two remarkable men, in a remarkable partnership
in that film, I think, I'm very very proud having been part of the English Patient and they're
Saul Zaentz is an extraordinary I mean, I feel so, I mean. you. ( )
I feel very lucky to have met him and work with him and specially with he and Anthony together,
the way that they guided that film into happening, when a lot of people let them down actually
just before they were about to start off I think they deserve that Oscar, I really, unashamedly
think that they should get it.
BN: You'd rather they got it even than that you ..
RF: Well I feel if they get it, we all get it, you know. Of course, if it came my way, I'd be
I'd be thrilled.
BN: Ralph, thank you very much indeed.
RF: Thank you.
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© EL STEPHO
Added to the RF Reading Room on July 8, 1997
EL STEPHO