11 December 2011 (released)
03 January 2012
The prestigious Bafta invited to an evening with one of the most sought-after and respected thespians in the business, Ralph Fiennes.
Hosted by radio- and TV presenter Francine Stock, the actor talked about his early life and his influences as well as his later career in front of a live audience. Selected clips from his various movies highlighted his most acclaimed roles.
Charming yet intense (as you would expect it), Fiennes began with his childhood. He revealed that as a little boy, he didn’t have any aspirations whatsoever to become an actor, although later on his Mum did introduce him to the works of Shakespeare. Eventually he acted a bit while in school but was not actively encouraged. However, later on he enrolled on a drama course but somehow that shifted things for him: instead of continuing with drama he then went on to study stage design. Once again this caused another shift, because finally he realised he wanted to be on stage as opposed to design for stage!
His first part was in an amateur production of ‘Cabaret’ and he also was with an amateur theatre group in Fulham, performing the lead in ‘Romeo and Juliet’. This gave him the confidence to opt for RADA, as it was an ambition of his to perform Shakespeare in Stratford (which he did three decades later).
After the Stratford season, he scored his first TV-part, playing T.E. Lawrence in ‘A Dangerous Man: Lawrence Of Arabia’. This was followed by his first movie role, as Heathcliff in ‘Wuthering Heights’. Fiennes laughingly told that the part as such didn’t cause him any worry, but the hair extension he needed for the role of Heathcliff did!
Good fortune followed, for none other then the almighty Steven Spielberg saw him in ‘Wuthering Heights’ and wanted to meet him (in Acton, of all places!) to chat about his next project ‘Schindler’s List’. Fiennes was offered the part of Nazi officer Amon Göth, a role that catapulted him to mega-stardom and award-nominations. Recalls Fiennes: “I went to the Imperial War Museum to find out more about the Holocaust and of course Amon Göth. I realised that simply seeing him as the monster he was wouldn’t help trying to get inside his head and play Göth realistically.”
After a particularly chilling clip from ‘Schindler’s List’ was shown, Francine Stock proceeded to talk about Fiennes next roles in ‘The English Patient’ and ‘The End Of The Affair’, asking the actor whether he feels attracted to difficult parts. Fiennes replied that as an actor, challenging roles are of course attractive and also mentioned that his role in David Cronenberg’s ‘Spider’ was particularly challenging, because “we don’t know who the main character is, his perception of reality is completely diffracted.” Clips from the three movies are also shown.
After the realistic drama ‘The Constant Gardener’, Stock discussed Fiennes’ role of Voldemort in the ‘Harry Potter’ movies. The audience burst into laughter when Fiennes performed his ‘killing curse’ routine on Stock, but almost immediately went back into serious mode when he mentioned the sad passing of Mary Selway, the casting director of the Potter movies. Most surprisingly, Fiennes confessed that he was utterly unaware of ‘Harry Potter’ when he was approached for the part of Voldemort. “I was completely ignorant of Potter! Not read the books, not heard the name! My sister Martha and Mary Selway pushed me into it!”
However, there’s also a light-hearted and comical side to Ralph Fiennes, as demonstrated in the thriller comedy ‘In Bruges’, in which he plays grumpy gangster boss Harry Waters. The clip shown was side-splittingly funny.
Last clip of the evening was of ‘Coriolanus’ – a re-working of the Shakespearean drama and also Fiennes’ directorial debut (he had planned to direct it for several years). Not only directing it but also playing the title role proved of course another huge challenge plus lots of pressure, something that Fiennes is used to by now. ”As an actor, I can’t pick up on one particular challenge. All my parts always are challenging!”
Finally, he seemed proud and delighted to announce that next he’s going to play Magwitch in Mike Newell’s upcoming version of ‘Great Expectations’, especially the graveyard scene excites him. “Playing Magwitch is an iconic role I couldn’t resist”, remarked Fiennes, before attending to some Q&A from the audience.
