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"I'm here because I'm actually out of work right now," Fiennes says, smiling shyly. As Oscar, Fiennes plays an innocent; a quirky, red-haired man of God who is obsessed with gambling. Cate Blanchett is Lucinda, a wealthy young woman whose passions are making glass and, yes, gambling. Alike, yet unalike, they find their way into star-crossed Victorian era romance set in England and Australia.
Oscar is a complex character. Raised in rural England by a strict and unyielding preacher father, he dares to believe there's more to life. He asks God for a sign that the should run away from his father. And, it comes. At college, he is introduced to horse racing, and betting on it becomes both the bane and thrill of his life. Because he is a man of the cloth, he gives his winnings to the poor.
But that does not absolve him. At the same time, Lucinda is going through her own torments. And when the two meet aboard ship, they discover each other.
Oscar was a role Fiennes loved on the page. "It wasn't the 'odd bod' aspect that made me feel close to him," he says. "it was the consternation of trying to work out what's right and wrong in life; feeling guilty about things you've done, and then again, feeling completely exuberant about the possibilities of life and what you can do."
He says the film, based on Peter Carey's 1988 Booker Prize-winning novel, is also about the morality of life.
"It's the moral dilemma that Oscar's in that I found I make a connection with. And, yes, I feel he is probably closer to me than any other character I've played. But," he says, holding his face in his hands, "I don't want to start analyzing myself here."
It took years for Fiennes' performance to make it to the screen. When Armstrong began thinking of who could play Oscar, she hadn't heard of the British actor. Not many had. But producer Robin Dalton knew of his work at the National Theater in London, and thought he'd be good for the part.
Armstrong recalls the first series of exchanges. "I said maybe he'll be great. But how are we going to raise the money on an unknown English actor at the National?" A bit later, Armstrong was told Steven Spielberg had cast Fiennes in 'Schindler's List.' "Great," she said. "Who's he playing? A Nazi? Well, that's hardly going to do anyone's career any good." So much for predicting the future.
Fiennes and Armstrong finally met when he was in New York filming 'Quiz Show' before 'Schindler's List' was released.
She remembers meeting this sweet little Englishman at breakfast. He said he loved the project. She said he'd be good as Oscar. The she quipped, "Could you please go off and get famous so we can raise the money? I was only partly joking," she says. "And six months later, he was nominated for an Oscar."
Armstrong went on to make her very successful version of "Little Women," and the two kept in touch. Fiennes still wanted to do the film, but was off to do "Hamlet" followed by what he called "a little English film."
The little English film was "The English Patient," and "Hamlet" went from being a six week engagement in England to a major production on Broadway which brought Fiennes the Tony Award for best actor. Since he'd be unavailable for 18 months, he told Armstrong perhaps she'd best look for someone else. That's what she did, testing all the usual (American and British) suspects.
Two weeks after "The English Patient" opened, Fiennes rang up Armstrong and asked if she still wanted him. "That was fantastic to me," she says. "That he retained his loyalty and passion and agreed to do the film for very little money."
Returning the compliment, Fiennes says what he loves about Armstrong is her forthrightness.
"It's great when you both share a shorthand to the character you're playing. She'd say, 'A bit less stuff with hands, Ralph.' Or 'It's a bit too much.' Or 'That's and Oscarish moment when you just moved your head like that.' And as you talk about the way you both see it, the characters begin to emerge. Then, after a couple weeks, you have a sense of who this person is, and you both know when it's on the money."
Although he plays a gambler, Fiennes says he had little interest in games of chance prior to making this film. But after the film, he found wagering on horses, not cards, the most fun. And like Oscar, his first experience was Derby (pronounced Darby) Day in London. "When you have a winning post, you lose all control and everyone sort of loses any sense of social composure. They all rush forward and the voice of the crowd rises," he smiles widely.
"That was my baptism, July a year ago," says Fiennes. "I won 160 pounds on an outsider." So, buoyed by beginner's luck, he went to a subsequent race where he says he made really stupid bets, again on longshots. "Thinking I understood, I looked at my racing card and said 'Hmm. Won the last two races. Likes soft turf. Nice hind quarters.' But I didn't know what they were talking about." So he bet the outsiders and lost.
But losing is not something that's happened often in Fiennes' career. He admits that after 'Schindler's List,' everything changed.
"I was being offered all kinds of stuff. They all come and seduce you and tell you how wonderful you are and that you've got to listen carefully to what is going to be the right choice. A lot of bullshit comes your way."
He says it's a wonderful time, to be sure, the kind of time a lot of actors dream about. But it's scary as well.
"Before, you'd be waiting for the phone to ring, for someone to say please do this. And you'd say 'Great. I'll do it.' Then, suddenly it's all different and you can say, 'No. No. I don't think so.' It's a whole different shift."
Even though Fiennes is a classically trained actor, everyone always told him he'd never work. "As an actor, you spend 75 percent of your life out of work," he says. "Only a few people ever make it. And then you get a break like 'Schindler's List,' and your whole life goes into upheaval."
Then he found himself in 'Quiz Show,' which had a respectable showing, followed by 'Strange Days' which didn't do well at the box office. So he felt lucky that he'd already committed to 'The English Patient ' before 'Strange Days' was released or perhaps he wouldn't have nabbed that role.
Now, Fiennes, 34, is certifiably big time. In October, his divorce from actress Alex Kingston became final. He left her two years ago for actress Francesca Annis, who is 18 years his senior and who played his mother in 'Hamlet.' Although Fiennes wears a gold ring on the fourth finger of his left hand, he says he hasn't remarried.
Having people not only aware of, but so interested in, details like that makes fame a double-edged sword.
"It's a great feeling to be successful, to have people say they like your work. But the way it can distort your approach to living every day is a very dangerous game," he says. But it's a game he hasn't had to commit to completely yet.
"The downside is that people want you to become public property. I even experience it myself going to see actors, wanting to know about them. Who is that? What are they like? I'm intrigued."
But meeting Sean Connery -- villain August De Wynter in Fiennes' next project, the film version of the 1960's television series, 'The Avengers' -- taught him a lot.
"For his whole lifetime, he's had this sort of intrusion
of really being famous," says Fiennes. "And he just
shrugs it off like a rubber duck's back. So I think I
saw from that how it's not going to kill you."
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© EL STEPHO
Added to the RF Reading Room on January 5, 1998
EL STEPHO