Minneapolis Star Tribune TEOTA Interview

January 7, 2000

Fiennes relishes being an actor out of his time
By Joyce J. Persico

Why would a world-class actor like Ralph Fiennes - the tortured romantic of "The English Patient," the cruel Nazi of "Schindler's List," the miscast John Steed of "The Avengers" - seem so horrified at being interviewed?

"He's very shy," suggests Neil Jordan, director of Fiennes' new film, "The End of the Affair," "but very strong. He's slightly outside of this period, in a way."

In "The End of the Affair," Fiennes plays Maurice Bendrix, an alter ego of sorts for Greene. He is tormented by his love for a married woman (Julianne Moore) whose long-suffering husband (Stephen Rea) looks the other way.

So, there he sits, tentative with a kind of pleading look in his wide, blue eyes.

"I'm wary, not shy," he explains.

He's wearing an eggshell-colored oxford shirt over expensive corduroy slacks. His skin is as smooth-looking as a pink-cheeked baby's. He clearly looks as if he belongs to a different century.

"I always do period films," he says in a small voice. ". . . I was always interested in history, even as a child. The emotions and character and events have complexity that appeals to me. I love history and learning of the way people behave."

Educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Fiennes joined Britain's Royal National Theatre in 1987 and the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988. He first appeared on television in "Prime Suspect" (1990) and his first film was a 1992 remake of "Wuthering Heights."

Realizing there are some women who still consider him a sex symbol from "The English Patient," Fiennes refuses to make parallels between that role and the one he has in "The End of the Affair."

"I don't really think they're alike, although I guess people do because they're about an affair with a married woman and all that stuff," he says. But the spirit of the book and the inner life of Bendrix are much more articulate than the man in 'The English Patient.' "

Costar Julianne Moore calls Fiennes "incredibly generous, very hard-working and really serious about his work."

"But he's not a serious person," she adds. "He's really thorough and incredibly polite."

Not much of a nightclub person, Fiennes is rarely mentioned in gossip columns or photographed entering clubs or movie premieres.

"I like to read," he replies when asked what he does between films. "Traveling and catching up with friends. My day-to-day life is really mundane. I don't have any other hobbies or passions."

Divorced in 1997 after four years of marriage to actress Alex Kingston, Fiennes says he "needs privacy, even of the people who want to know me for the work I do."

"I accept there's a curiosity about me," he says, evenly, "but I don't think you have to discuss what's not about the work. You make a choice to discuss it or not."

The pitfalls he's hit - the disastrous "The Avengers," for example - are choices he takes in stride.

"My career is going to go up and down. I don't make choices for the script so much as for the feeling. I know it's not always going to work."

He would like to direct and would like to perform in a comedy. In the meantime, he'll return to the stage in the title roles of "Coriolanus" and "Richard II."