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"I'm actually a rather upbeat chap," insists Fiennes, whose performances in Schindler's List, The English Patient, Quiz Show and Oscar and Lucinda define tortured, obsessive behaviour.
His newest role as the love struck novelist in Neil Jordon's romantic drama The End of the Affair helps cement Fiennes' screen image as the doomed English romantic.
The End of the Affair is based on Graham Greene's semi-autobiographical account of a novelist's adulterous affair that ends as quickly and mysteriously as it began.
Jordan insists there was never any question that Fiennes should play Greene's alter ego Maurice Bendrix, the bitter writer who cannot fathom why his mistress Sarah Miles (Julianne Moore) ended their wartime affair so abruptly.
"No one of his generation plays the obsessive Englishman better than Ralph. He's right up there with actors like David Niven, Leslie Howard, Jeremy Irons and Peter O'Toole," says Jordan, whose films include The Crying Game, Mona Lisa, Michael Collins and Interview With A Vampire.
"Greene's The End of the Affair is a candid and powerful exploration of jealousy.
It's not a complimentary portrait, but neither were the men Ralph played in Schindler's List or The English Patient.
"Ralph has no compunction about showing the dark underside of his characters. He's not the least bit vain."
Fiennes says he was intrigued when Jordan sent him his screenplay for The End of the Affair.
"I had bought the book years several ago, but never got around to reading it," recalls Fiennes.
"Two of my friends suggested I could be good for the role if it were ever made into a movie."
The End of the Affair was made into a film in 1955 with Van Johnson and Deborah Kerr playing the ill-fated lovers.
It is a passionate adult romance that required Fiennes and Moore to simulate steamy sex.
"Every actor is cautious about the nudity required for certain scenes in films. It all boils down to what part of our anatomy will be up on the screen for just how long.
"It's not like doing a nude scene for a play. Once the camera snaps you, you're up there on the screen for posterity."
Fiennes says it helped with The End of the Affair that he trusted both Jordan and Moore.
"I felt completely comfortable working with Neil and Julianne. I wasn't the least bit self-conscious and I could have been. I'm not really a big gym rat. I don't pump iron, so I don't have a sculptured body."
The End of the Affair opened in limited release in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles over the holidays and opens in Calgary on Friday.
Audiences and critics alike have commented on the screen chemistry Fiennes has with Moore.
"Julianne and I had immediate chemistry.
"You can't tell actors to have more chemistry. It's like having a brilliant tennis partner. It's either there or it isn't and with us it was there."
Fiennes is pleased audiences are reacting positively to Affair, but he knows the consequences of such approval.
The English Patient made him an international sex symbol and, much to his dismay, it could happen all over again.
"I only ever wanted to be an actor. For the first six years of my career I did just theatre. It was the press who decided with Schindler's List and The English Patient that I was a movie star.
"I hate being accessible. I was burned badly that first time and I want so much to escape the same kind of attention this time."
Fiennes has a plan.
"If I work really hard at being boring maybe the press will leave me alone."
That could prove to be difficult.
Fiennes' life is the stuff great screen romances are made of.
He originally wanted to be an artist, so he studied scenic design for theatre. His teachers suggested he had a natural intensity that warranted developing, so he studied acting as well.
In his acting classes he met Alex Kingston. They lived together for 10 years and married in 1993.
A few months later, Fiennes starred opposite British stage star Francesca Annis in a production of Hamlet.
He played the troubled Dane and Annis, who is 17 years older, played his mother.
They fell in love and Fiennes ended his 18-month marriage to Kingston, who now stars as surgeon Elizabeth Corday on ER.
Fiennes adamantly refuses to discuss either woman or either relationship.
"No actor wants a film of his to be a disaster, but that's what happened for me with The Avengers.
"It was a bit of a blessing in disguise. It was such an unmitigated disaster that the press swirled right away from me.
"Recently I've felt them swirling toward me again and that is such an uncomfortable situation for me. I don't want anyone to be interested in my private life.
"I want to remain an enigma. It's what actors should be. It's their characters that audiences should connect with and be interested in."
Fiennes is also the star of Sunshine, which opened at Christmas. He plays the father, son and grandson of a Hungarian dynasty as it tries to cope with changing political and philosophic ideals.
His performance netted him the best actor prize at the European Film Awards last fall in Berlin.
"In Sunshine, I play three generations of tortured men. It's not just the
British who can be obsessive.
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© EL STEPHO
Added to the RF Reading Room on January 28, 2000
EL STEPHO