W Magazine Article

November 1996

The Player
By James Fallon

Ralph Fiennes claims he hates being a star.

Oh, he loves the acting, which he has been doing ever since the age of seven, when his father gave him a toy theater and he would put on productions for his long-suffering sisters and brothers.

But stardom isn't about acting, he thinks. Stardom is about hype. Stardom is about your own web site, where fans endlessly discuss your roles, detail your latest movements and argue your hunkiness rating.

Worst of all, stardom is about interviews. That's what Fiennes hates the most, because interviews inevitably lead to questions about his personal life.

Fiennes is of the old school of British thespians, who believe their work speaks for itself. Ask him about his latest film, The English Patient, his theories on acting or the current state of British theater, and he'll gladly talk for hours.

But broach the subject of his seperation from his wife, actress Alex Kingston, or his romantic relationship with British actress Francesca Annis, and he cuts off the conversation faster than a snapping turtle severing a careless finger. His body twists and turns, he looks away, sighing, and his eyes - the color of the North Sea in February - turn even icier.

"It's not enough simply to produce a piece of work with positive attributes," Fiennes says, his voice rising with vehemence. "I'm not entirely comfortable with that. I'm becoming more comfortable. BUT IT IS STILL NOT RIGHT!"

What Fiennes is wrestling with is the problem of how to be a star and be a normal, private individual as well. The pitfall is that the two are almost mutally exclusive. And no matter how much he tries to deny it, Fiennes is a star of nova-like proportions. The A-list Hollywood set is said to hang on his every performance and word, evidenced by Demi Moore jetting to London early last year especially to see Fiennes in Hamlet.

"Stardom is a real problem for him," says Jonathan Kent, who directed Hamlet and early next year will direct Fiennes again in Anton Chekhov's Ivanov at the Almeida Theater in London.

"The whole nature of interviews is to define people," Kent adds. "But what makes Ralph such a fantastic actor is that you can't define him."

Indeed, one can sense almost a terror as Fiennes enters a room of the Dorchester Hotel in London; he's like a wild animal suddenly trapped indoors. He spends the first 45 minutes of the talk avoiding eye contact, intently doodling on the pad in front of him - a series of carefully drawn boxes and a robot.

Gradually, though, he unclenches. He leans back in his chair, smiles occasionally but quickly and, by the end of two hours of conversation, seems as at ease as he's ever likely to be.

Fiennes claims he's a bit more secure now than he was after he literally burst onto the scene with Schindler's List and then Quiz Show. But he's more protective than ever about his private life, especially because all of the attention is one of the reasons his marriage faltered last year. Fiennes, 33, and Kingston met when they were studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and lived together for eight years before marrying in September 1993. But the length of time Fiennes was away from their apartment in south London - and his skyrocketing career - took its toll. Fiennes moved out last October, and they've now started divorce proceedings.

Kingston - who recently starred in a British television production of Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders - has said she felt threatened by his Hollywood success. She also says she recognizes people change and grow apart.

Fiennes is now involved with Annis, who played Gertrude to his Hamlet. Typically, he's not talking about the relationship, although Annis reportedly introduced him to such new activities as yoga to help him relax. He has also begun to swim regularly, a major achievement for someone who hated sports and competition at school.

"The more people need to know about me, the more protective I become," Fiennes says sharply, running a hand through his long hair. "To get so much attention so fast was...was...surprising. And unnerving, too, for everybody.

"Ever since then, all I've wanted to do..." - his voice drops to a theatrical whisper - "is close the door."

Fiennes reserve came in handy in his role in The English Patient as the African desert explorer Count Laszlo de Almasy. Loosely based on the novel by Michael Ondaatje, the film tells the story of a tragic Thirties romance betweeen de Almasy, who actually existed, and a woman named Katherine (Kristen Scott-Thomas). It's remembered by de Almasy as he lies, burned beyond recognition, in a ruined World War II hospital in Italy, where he's nursed by Hana, played by Juliette Binoche.

"It's hard for me to seperate de Almasy and Ralph," says the film's director Anthony Minghella. "The character is someone who is complex, very interesting, rather guarded, meticulous and compulsive. He also has an enormous but reluctant charm that's dazzling when it comes on. That's the perfect description of Ralph."

Fiennes is clearly still enraptured by the film, even months after completing it, and talks in detail about researching the nature of burns, the history of Cairo in the Thirties and during World War II, and de Almasy's life. He's at his most comfortable when talking about his work, his face taking on a wistful concentration as he reweaves the tapestry of the project. Minghella says one reason Fiennes may be so shy in interviews is that, in public, he actually isn't very articulate. Only through his work can Fiennes speak freely.

"He's absolutely obsessive about acting in a way that is awe-inspiring," agrees Kent. "In a way, he's more perfectly himself onstage than anywhere else. His mystery comes out and finds its role once he's acting. It's a hinterland we aren't party to, but it's what makes him a star.

Where that hinterland came from one can only guess, but it has to have something to do with Fiennes' upbringing as the son of a farmer turned photographer and a novelist/painter. Stories on Fiennes invariably play up his "bohemian" background, a word that makes him snort with digust, since his mother was said to be quite strict.

The stories also fixate on his rare pronunciation of his name as "Rafe." Fiennes has claimed it's an Olde English pronunciation; others it's a pretention, even though the classical composer Ralph Vaughn Williams always called himself "Rafe," too.

Fiennes was one of a brood of six children (five of whom now work in the arts). His father and siblings have said Fiennes' character was molded by his mother Jini, who died of cancer in 1993. Fiennes once described her as "more of a friend than a mother."

Fiennes' memories of the toy theater his father bought him still light up his face as he talks about it, holding up the pad of paper to describe its dimensions.

"I loved playing with it and performing. I loved that world. I've strived to hold onto that feeling ever since."

Yet his first choice of profession was painting, and he attended the Chelsea School of Art in London. He lasted only a few months. He struggled for a time in amateur dramatics and then at the National Theatre before enrolling in RADA, where he was known as "the voice beautiful."

In 1988, Fiennes joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, which is where the drums started to beat about his skill. After one bit part in British television, Fiennes was cast by David Puttnam as the lead in the television movie A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. Puttnam, whose past tips for American stardom were Jeremy Irons, Kenneth Branagh and Daniel Day-Lewis, said of Fiennes: "He's the coming man. I have absolutely no doubt about it."

Fiennes made some bad choices at first: Wuthering Heights with Juliette Binoche and Peter Greenaway's The Baby of Macon were failures. But Schindler's List and Quiz Show confirmed Puttnam's prediction in spades, and launched an upward spiral of Fiennes' career that even a recent bomb - Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days - couldn't damage at all.

Fiennes remains an actor the Hollywood powers want to work with.

Now all he has to do is determine which direction he wants those talents to take: Does he go down the Hugh Grant path, or stick to quality parts that might, eventually, take him along the route of Sir Anthony Hopkins?

Steven Spielberg once said that he hopes Fiennes doesn't decide to be a mega-star "because Ralph is one of those rare talents who is, in fact, a great character actor."

"He can do anything he wants," says Minghella, "because he has all the elements. His position is one of enormous luxury. He's not searching with any other compass than the quality of the work. And there are no constraints to his equipment - he's beautiful and intelligent. I hate him for it."

The actor's next choice seems to indicate he'll stick to the quality path. Fiennes will go to Australia this fall to make the film of the Peter Carey novel Oscar and Lucinda. He'll follow that with a run at the 300-seat Almeida in Ivanov.

"I could've talked myself out of Oscar and Lucinda because it's another period drama. But I loved the story," Fiennes says. "It wouldn't have been true to turn it down and take the higher-profile part. It would have been mercenary.

He's far from that. While Fiennes is well aware of his worth as an actor (several million dollars a picture), he apparently not going simply for the bucks. He even makes his decision to do The Avengers with Nicole Kidman in fall 1997 sound like a quality choice. After all, he previously turned down James Bond and The Saint.

"I grew up watching The Avengers," he says. "It was very witty and had a real style to it."

He flashes an impish smile. "Plus I get to drive a really fast car and wear nice clothes." Then Fiennes shrugs. "I just wanted to do it because I thought I'd enjoy it," he admits. "I think it's nice to go where your spirit takes you, or where your humor takes you."

Fiennes says he admires Hollywood actors like Willem Dafoe, who have carved out a strong career by simply focusing on the work. It's pointed out the concept could be commercialized - play the best roles you can get and move up, through acting, another rung to bigger stardom. Fiennes nods, then smiles.

"Yes," he says, "and the best way to win is not to play at all."