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Actually, it's more of an uncertain grin, as if every time the Suffolk- born actor uses it - which, during an hourlong interview is fairly regularly - he's testing the water to see if it's appropriate. Open and quietly affable though he is, Fiennes doesn't laugh and he rarely jokes. When he warms to a subject, he'll stare off like he's trying to pinpoint an object several blocks away.
Not that anyone would expect a lot of mirth or levity given the legions of grief-stricken, tortured souls Fiennes has chosen to play both on film and on stage. From Amon Goeth, the Nazi concentration camp officer in Steven Spielberg's ''Schindler's List''; to Charles van Doren, the all-American fraud in Robert Redford's ''Quiz Show''; to Maurice Bendrix, declaring an existential war on God in Neil Jordan's ''The End of the Affair.''
His most recent film, Paramount Classics' ''Sunshine,'' is no pep fest. In the Istvan Szabo-directed film, recently rereleased in hopes critics will remember it when they're marking ballots during awards season, Fiennes plays men from three generations of the same Hungarian family - with each character seemingly more miserable and conflicted than the last one.
There's Ignatz Sonnenschein, the judge who changes his Jewish name to Sors to gain power within the Hapsburg Empire; Ignatz's son Adam, an Olympic champion fencer who converts to Christianity but can't escape a horrific fate; and Adam's son, Ivan, a Holocaust survivor trying to right previous wrongs by embracing communism. Broken marriages, torture, betrayals; you name it, Fiennes' characters go through it.
With makeup and facial hair working to change his appearance, Fiennes occasionally had to shoot scenes involving all three characters during the same day. An acting challenge, certainly, but not an insurmountable one.
''It was never going to be one of these performances where you had to disguise yourself completely,'' says Fiennes. ''Istvan took me through the script a number of times, breaking it down with me. We talked about the internal differences between these three men. They're all flawed men.''
The filmmakers, who had targeted Fiennes for the roles since the outset, felt only an actor with substantial range and versatility could pull off the triple threat. Producer Robert Lantos calls Fiennes ''an actor with a capital A,'' his movie star status notwithstanding.
''It was one of the very rare times in my history of making films that the one actor who sprung to mind we went to and we never really had to think of anyone else,'' says Lantos. ''He was like a beacon for us; we had to have Ralph Fiennes.''
''I'd give him three Oscars,'' he adds, ''one for each role.''
To hear Fiennes tell it, the project was no hard sell. The actor was approached by Szabo after he saw Fiennes perform in a production of Chekhov's ''Ivanov'' at the Almeida Theatre in London. Szabo sent Fiennes the script with one request.
''He said, 'Please promise me you'll read it in one sitting,' '' recalls Fiennes, casually dressed in an open-collared red shirt and khakis as he sits in the lounge of a Beverly Hills hotel. ''I did, and it moved me to tears. I found it extraordinary, all the ideas in it about people coming through and having the courage not to be swayed by outside forces.''
This month, Fiennes made stops in New York and then Los Angeles to try to drum up some more audiences for ''Sunshine,'' which drew critical praise and decent business during a limited run last summer. Co-starring Rosemary Harris, Jennifer Ehle, Deborah Kara Unger and William Hurt, the film is currently playing at two theaters in Los Angeles (including the Pacific Northridge).
''It was put up for Cannes and Venice and didn't get into those festivals,'' says Fiennes. ''I was really shocked that that happened. Of course, I'm biased, but I don't think you get films this length of this subject matter addressing something I feel is very important.''
''This length'' is three hours. Admittedly, it's a long ride, says the actor, who - between ''Schindler's List'' and ''The English Patient'' (both of which earned him Oscar nominations) - has filmed his share of cinematic marathons.
''OK, it's Hungary and it's a Jewish film, but the central ideas run right through all the way through European history,'' Fiennes says. ''Certainly you can find parallels all over the world about communities having to be assimilated and people denying their ethnicity and their culture. ''I'm very idealistic. I think films are art. Great if they make money, but I think they should provoke and stimulate and move people to think differently or look differently or listen differently. I think films shouldn't always stroke us or comfort us or thrill us.''
''Sunshine'' doesn't stroke. It prods and jabs, depicting the compromises made by the the Sonnenschein/Sors men and by the women in their lives. According to Fiennes, writer-director Szabo (''Mephisto,'' ''Colonel Redl'') was looking to tell a story about ''the disease of wanting to be accepted and assimilated.''
That the story was filmed in Szabo's native Hungary, where many of the events depicted actually took place, makes it all the more powerful.
''I think Istvan feels that having lived in Hungary during the communist period and seeing the way that individuals' simple rights were denied, this is something terrible and intolerable,'' says Fiennes, ''and he sees it not just in the communist regime but in the previous regime.''
In 2001, Fiennes goes global again, traveling to Germany, Southeast Asia and Africa to film ''Beyond Borders'' with Angelina Jolie for director Oliver Stone. Another hard-hitting subject: a love story set against the backdrop of relief work in war-torn countries. Fiennes has already begun his research and is dismayed by what he's learning.
''Here again, it's about people trying to make a difference against the odds,'' he says. ''Again, these are communities that are suffering from being (expletive) over by different regimes and terrible things are happening. I've actually just recently been to a demonstration by CARE, a simulation of what it would be like in a crisis. That was an education.''
Fiennes, who says he has become slightly choosier about his roles as he has gotten older, expects to return to the stage in 2002 unless a looming actors' strike drives him back to the boards sooner. The past year saw him back at the Almeida, playing the title roles in Shakespeare's ''Coriolanus'' and ''Richard II'' in repertory. Originally staged at the crumbling Gainsborough Studios - former creative home to Alfred Hitchcock - the productions paid a brief visit to New York and Tokyo.
Fiennes, who turns 38 this month, expects to make regular returns to the London stage, movies or no movies, strike or no strike.
''Sometimes I've come away from a day of shooting and I've felt, 'God
I wish I could just let go of that.' The theater gives that kind of
relief,'' says Fiennes. ''I really miss it when I'm not doing stage
plays. Sometimes I feel quite contained by film. I like playing to an
audience.''
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© EL STEPHO
Added to the RF Reading Room on January 6, 2001
EL STEPHO