Daily News (New York) Onegin Article

January 6, 2000

'ONEGIN': IT'S MIGHTY FIENNES But the project's not a sibs story, Ralph insists
By ROBERT DOMINGUEZ

Ralph Fiennes doesn't like it when his latest film, "Onegin," is referred to as a family affair, even though he's both the star and executive producer, one of his sisters directed and a brother composed the score.

"People are writing it up as a 'Fiennes family project' as if no one else is involved, but we couldn't have made it without really experienced people who guided us," says Fiennes about "Onegin," which opened Christmas week and marked the English actor's first stab at producing.

He may not want to call attention to it, but the fact remains that almost half of the Fiennes siblings - there are seven altogether, including Joseph, star of 1998's "Shakespeare in Love" - worked on the film. Based on "Eugene Onegin," a novel in verse by the 19th-century Russian author Alexander Pushkin, "Onegin" (pronounced own-YAY-gin) stars Fiennes as a jaded St. Petersburg aristocrat who tosses away his one chance at true love.

The sweeping period piece also marked the directorial debut of Fiennes' younger sister Martha, a veteran director of TV commercials and music videos. Kid brother Magnus, an accomplished music producer for acts like the Spice Girls and Boyzone, was the film's composer - a further bit of nepotism Fiennes admits he initially opposed.

"I was reluctant to have Magnus work on the film. Not because I didn't like his music, but because I didn't want another sibling involved," says Fiennes. "But Martha and Magnus had worked together on many commercials, and they have a partnership."

As executive producer, Fiennes didn't think twice about tabbing Martha as director, despite her inexperience in feature films. "Martha works from her emotions a lot, and her emotions and her visual awareness are very interconnected," says Fiennes, who spent nearly eight years bringing "Onegin" to the screen. "I just thought she would position the camera in ways that would be quite unusual, but not too clever by half."

At 37, Fiennes is only a year older than Martha. But with a pair of Academy Award nominations on his resume - a Best Supporting Actor nod for his layered portrayal of a Nazi officer in 1993's "Schindler's List" and a Best Actor nomination for "The English Patient" three years later - he's an established Hollywood presence. He currently stars opposite Julianne Moore in "The End of the Affair."

Yet Fiennes says he never took advantage of that clout to bully his kid sister on the "Onegin" set.

"I never wanted to be imposing on Martha because I knew that would screw it up for her," he says. "I just wanted to be able to give her ideas, but not to be demanding. I didn't want to insist, or get in her way. I felt it would have been really wrong to have waded in and tried to control [the film], and I never felt the need to wade in."

"He never overrode my decisions, but he certainly made his feelings clear," says Martha Fiennes from London. "We have a mutual respect. We disagreed at times, but he was very respectful of the process, and I never felt compromised in any way."

Fiennes says his overall role as producer was limited to making creative decisions over administrative ones so that he could focus on his character. "In terms of things like screenplay and costumes, I felt I had quite a decent input," says Fiennes. "In terms of scheduling, budget and locations, I had no clue how to handle that."

Unlike many actors, Fiennes says he has no desire to direct, preferring to leave the behind-the-camera stuff to people like his kid sister.

"I saw the way the whole film was made, and [the process] doesn't make me want to direct," says Fiennes. "It made me realize the sort of commitment and obsession you have to have. As a director, you have to be a perfectionist who is prepared to compromise, and the tension in that is very demanding. Strong directors can rise to that tension, but I think it takes a lot out of you."