Patrick Stoner Interview

WHYY Radio, 1997

Patrick Stoner: Did you ever expect so many awards and nominations for THE ENGLISH PATIENT?
Ralph Fiennes: I knew it was a wonderful film -- a work of art -- but I didn't know it would be so universally loved. It's a difficult film. You have to invest a great deal of yourself in it. It's not the kind of film you can just sit back and let happen to you. So, I suppose I thought it deserved awards -- at one level -- but didn't quite believe it would get so many. I'm delighted to be rather surprised.

Stoner: You had a unique acting challenge. Your character is horribly burned and you spend much of the film in a bed under mask-like makeup. I'm going to guess that, as an actor, you liked that challenge.
Fiennes: Indeed. Yet, you know, what appears to be an acting problem actually ended up being an aid to finding and portraying the character.

Stoner: How so?
Fiennes: Well, as you say, I would go under hours of makeup for those scenes and then, during the filming, I couldn't move much or use the full range of expressions. What this did was focus all of my -- and, eventually, the audience's -- attention on my eyes and the words. That forced me to FEEL what it is like to be in that situation AND it concentrated my attention on what mattered -- not a lot of extraneous and outside details. Oddly enough, I felt MORE in touch with the character BECAUSE of the physical confinements.

Stoner: And less can be more. . .
Fiennes: And less is OFTEN more, at least when it is focused. You can't get distracted by having to hit your mark or find your light when you're in a bed inside of a mask of makeup.

Stoner: Anthony Minghella [winner of the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay] says that he owes much to you for your contribution to the film,not just as an actor, but also as a collaborator. Why?
Fiennes: He is one of the most generous people in the world. He really saw our film as a collaboration, and he SOUGHT our thoughts -- my thoughts -- about how to go about the creative process. We had long talks about all of the scenes, and he was always open to suggestions. After all, Michael [Ondaatje, the novelist who wrote the book upon which the script is based] covers far more ground and could include many more images in his book than any film, of any length, could do. So, there were many choices to be made, and Anthony not only included me and others in the process -- we really WERE part of the creative team that made the film. When you talk about Anthony Minghella, there is one word that captures him better than any other: "generosity."