DNA Australia's Gay Magazine
August 2001, #19
By Olivier Bjorksater-Bleylock

Intelligent and modest, Joseph Fiennes is a subtle and compelling sex symbol

Smouldering, dishevelled and sexy, Joseph Fiennes has just completed a theatre season in the title role of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II; the epic story of the homosexual English king who installed his French lover at court but who was eventually murdered by power-hungry barons. Derek Jarman adapted it for the screen several years ago.

Fiennes is perfect for the role. Handsome, lightly regal and with a rebellious streak - and, of course, we'd all love to see him getting some hot homo action with a bit of Froggy trade! Oui, oui!

Stage-trained in Shakespearian theatre, Fiennes won praise for his performance in Elizabeth as the callow aristocrat lover to the embattled Virgin Queen, played by Cate Blanchett. He won the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Breakthrough Artist Award for the film. But it was his leading role in Shakespeare in Love that elevated him to stardom. "When I was offered the part," he recalls, "I thought not another film in tights!"

In spite of his dedication to the theatre, Joseph Fiennes is beating a string of A-list Hollywood actors to some choice roles. But the 31-year-old thespian refuses to be labelled 'the next big thing'. "I don't believe in the next big deal or the new hot things," he says. "So many people are labelled and bandied around in that way. I mean, there's another guy out there who is the latest hot thing and another one has been that for a while. There's a corridor full of us!" Fiennes remains resolutely down-to-earth and seems pleasantly underwhelmed by his celebrity status. Gwyneth Paltrow may have won the Academy Award for Shakespeare in Love (inconceivably beating Blanchett's breathtaking performance in Elizabeth) but it was Fiennes who stole the show. He portrayed The Bard as lusty, robust and romantic - his sex appeal transcending the frilly collars and breeches. It's a tale of ye olde armour and writer's block with an historic backdrop. Shakespeare thinks he's found his muse and is about to burst his codpiece only to be thwarted by class distinctions, sexual politcs and censorship. Being Shakespeare, there is cross dressing galore and soon Joseph is falling in love with Gwyneth (yeah, right!) who's a girl pretending to be a boy pretending to be a girl, ultimately teaching the young playwright what true tragic love is all about.

"There's so much gender swapping in the film," says Fiennes, "and when Shakespeare is listening to Viola speak his lines dressed as a boy, he falls in love with his voice. I think it's great. Sexuality had a very different meaning then to what it does now and I love that," he says ambiguously.

Born in Salisbury, England, he was raised on all books and no television in West Cork, Ireland. His father, a professional photographer and his mother, writer and painter Jennifer Lash, moved the family fourteen times in gypsy style, revamping houses to provide for seven children. "I found the peripathetic lifestyle an adventure and when you're thrown into a new school every few years you learn tricks at adapting. Mine was reinventing myself.

His mother died in 1993 but her influence on her children was significant. Most have pursued artistic careers although a younger, adopted [my note: he was fostered] brother, Michael, is an archaeologist and Joseph's fraternal twin, Jake, is a gamekeeper. (Imagine Joseph Fiennes as lady Chatterly's Lover!)

Fiennes left school at 16 to study art but soon switched to acting. He worked with the Young Vic Yough Theatre then went on to train at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. "While I was training I spent four years being a dresser at the National Theatre", he recalls. "Picking up smelly pants and socks was a pretty good insight into the 'glamour' of acting. That was how I learned what it was really about."

His stage debut was in the West End production of The Woman In Black. He then toured with the RSC and turned in a series of critically acclaimed performances alongside Helen Mirren and John Hurt. He has appeared in Simon Callow's adaptation of Les Enfants du Paradis and Dennis Potter's Son of Man as Jesus.

Suggest that Joeseph is following in his big brother Ralph's footsteps and he is quick to shoot down the idea. "That's a very shallow way of looking at it," he ways firmly. "No one would give you a job on the strength of your name alone," he says. (Don't tell Tori or Randy Spelling!) Ralph and fame are two subjects best left alone. In a recent newspaper article Joseph said he found the infringements of fame on his personal life "grotesque".

On film he has appeared in Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty with Liv Tyler and the obscure romantic comedy Martha Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence. More recent roles include Enemy At The Gates with Jude Law and the new thriller Killing Me Softly with Natascha McElhone.

After moving constantly for the last 30 years, Joseph has found a place to call home in Notting Hill - not the Hollywood Hills. For while he enjoys the opportunities the film world offers, he says it's the theatre where he feels most at home. "Hollywood is such a machine. It's a beast which I'm very wary of because I've got nothing to say, nothing to want, nothing which is sensible or that's going to change anyone's life."

It's a pity he didn't share that wisdom with Gwyneth Paltrow.