Joy Mag (Germany) Interview

April 2000

Nobody kisses better

Joy: Are you really a good kisser?

RF: I beg your pardon?

Joy: Your co-stars like KST, Julianne Moore and Liv Tyler claim unanimously that you kiss sensationally well.

RF: (embarrassed) If they say so... But that refers only to kisses on screen.

Joy: Odd, if I remember correctly, there is no kissing scene with Liv Tyler in your new film "Onegin".

RF: (laughs) Oh, then it must have been cut out. I will complain to my sister about that.

Joy: Your sister Martha was been directing "Onegin", your brother Magnus wrote the music to the film...

RF: ... yes, we must be a very creative family then... Joy: ... and your brother Joseph is an actor as well and has caused a sensation since "Shakespeare in Love".

RF: Yes, Joseph should have deserved an Oscar for his portray of Shakespeare.

Joy: Two such famous actors like Joseph and you - aren't you a bit jealous of one another?

RF: Not at all. Each grudges the other his success. In contrary: We support each other in both word and deed.

Joy: Didn't you fall in love with your female co-stars?

RF: I am more of the reserved type. But I happened to got to know and fall in love with my current girl friend Francesca Annis during the rehearsals for "Hamlet".

Joy: ... and got divorced straight away.

RF: I don't want to talk about this.

Joy: Okay, can you tell us a little bit more who this Ralph Fiennes really is?

RF: I don't feel comfortable talking about myself. But I can give you some biographical dates: I was born the eldest son of six siblings on December 22, 1962 in Suffolk, England. My father was as acclaimed photographer and my mother a painter and writer, who published some of her novels under the pseudonym Jennifer Lash.

Joy: Who was the greatest influence in your life?

RF: Certainly my mother. She has always inspired me and my brothers and sisters to be creative. And above all, she has always encouraged us to do what we wanted to do. I remember very well, that at the age of 14 I was convinced that I wanted to become a soldier. She said: "Okay, go and see the barracks then." When I came back, I was cured of this idea. My mother has brought us up as Christians and then slowly turned to buddhism. She radiated such a sense of calm and confidence before her death, I will never forget that.

Joy: Are you religious too?

Ralph: Not very religious, more spiritual. Anyway there is more between sky and earth...(Hamlet quotation)...To comprehend the secrets of life - perhaps I became an actor because of that.

Joy: Sounds very mystically. But you became a sex-symbol first.

Ralph: I don´t know what to do with that. That´s more Johnny Depp´s or Leonardo di Caprio´s division. (he laughs). If at all, I am more the romantic type.

Joy: so, loveletters, ardent love poems...?

Ralph: Yes, all of it and something more...

Joy: Do you really believe in great love?

Ralph (smiles pensively): everytime

Joy: But mostly great love ends tragically?

Ralph: It´s a strange coincidence that in my last three films I came to play a man who fails with his love. In Sunshine I am seduced twice and I am the seducer once. In TEOTA I am the offender and the victim at the same time and in Onegin I am suffering from the most gruesome way of love - the unfulfilled love. It´s a wonderful privilege to live (play) so many facets of a lover. But somehow I am also glad that it takes place only in films and not in real life.

Joy: In TEOTA you are madly in love with a married woman. Could that happen to you in real life?

Ralph: who knows. With me it lasts long till I fall in love - I am not easily inflammable (be aroused?). But when I love I do it with all my heart and soul.

Joy: How far would you go for a woman´s love. (would you fight for it?)

Ralph: in my opinion a woman should love me of her own accord, so I shouldn´t need to fight for her love. I cannot understand that men, who want to seduce women, very often tell the wildest lies. That´s nonsense. It comes out anyway and how stupid one must feel.

Joy: Did you ever tell a lie to get a role?

Ralph: I don´t believe that it is even possible.If you have an audition you can only give what is in yourself. Either they like it or not. One must be believable, that´s most important.

Joy; What are your most important tools as an actor?

Ralph: My eyes. I believe that one can express oneself best with the eyes. A look often tells more than 1000 words. My eyes are very precious to me and I have to take the utmost care of them.

Joy: How do you do that?

Ralph (laughing): I am wearing sunglasses.