August 27, 1999 By Dorrie Crockett

Soulful eyes, sensitive demeanor, and impeccable dramatic heritage: Joseph Fiennes has got it all in one. But this youngest brother of Ralph Fiennes isn't quite as given to the intense internal scrutiny his previous movie roles might suggest. "I know more about the characters I play. That's awful, isn't it?" he told the Times of London in 1995. "I seem to invest more time in dissecting others' thoughts and motivations than in looking at my own. But maybe, in doing that, I can reveal parts of myself."

Joseph Alberic Fiennes -- together with his fraternal twin, Jacob Mark - was born in 1970 to Mark Fiennes, a farmer and photographer, and Jini Fiennes, a novelist and writer who wrote under her maiden name, Jennifer Lash. The Fiennes were a peripatetic brood of seven children, and money was often scarce. But artistic pursuits were encouraged; in fact all but two of the Fiennes kids ended up in the arts: twin Jacob is a gamekeeper, and eldest brother Michael (Mick) Emery an archeologist. Then there's brother Ralph, of course, the Oscar-nominated actor, Magnus the musician, and sisters Sophie and Martha, a producer and director, respectively.

After leaving school at 16, Fiennes immediately immersed himself in the thespian world, working backstage as a dresser at the National Theatre and absorbing stagecraft at the Young Vic Youth Theatre. At 18 he entered London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, attending on a scholarship.

Upon his graduation in 1993, Fiennes immediately began to find work on the London stage. He received good notices for his West End roles in The Woman In Black and A Month in the Country (costarring Helen Mirren) and A View From the Bridge (with Bernard Hill). In 1995 he began a two-year stint with the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company.

An appearance in a TV movie, The Vacillations of Poppy Carew, marked Fiennes' first foray in front of the camera. His film debut came in 1996 with a small role in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty. He then embarked upon his first leading role, in the modern-day romantic fable Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence (released in the U.S. in 1999 entitled The Very Thought of You), which was a box office hit in England upon its release in 1998.

That taste of success, however, couldn't have prepared Fiennes for the reaction following his next film projects, both of which featured him clad 24/7 in tights: Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love. Both films proved to be critical darlings, garnering numerous awards and nominations. And both thrust young Joe into the media onslaught of hype and press scrutiny, a level of attention he finds somewhat uncomfortable - particularly since he had watched his brother Ralph endure the rapacious curiosity of the tabloid press.

"My only goal when I went to drama school was to do classical theatre and 'hold hands' with great writers," he told the Times of London in 1998. "Now, with film, there is this terrifying beast of publicity which launches you forwards. I wonder whether the speed of my career is being determined though people trying to suck up the new young talent, or the quality of my work."

While he waits for the release of his latest projects, Rancid Aluminium (based on the novel by James Hawes), and Paul Schrader's Forever Mine, Joe, Ralph, and Sophie Fiennes are paying tribute to their mother by performing public readings of her last novel, Blood Ties. (Jini Fiennes died of complications from breast cancer in 1993, at the age of 55.) Noting her determination to continue her work despite the rigors of raising seven children, Joseph told the Baltimore Sun in 1999, "She had a high-octane kind of need to realize her work, so of course she had a lot of frustration."

But will young Joe live up to the promise -- and hype - that his short career has provoked? Definitely, says Cate Blanchett, who has worked with both brothers (she starred opposite Ralph in Oscar and Lucinda): "Ralph is very complex and intense, but has a wicked sense of humor bubbling under the surface," Blanchett told the Times. "Joseph is open, direct, focused and a secret trickster. But both are incredibly beautiful to look at and gifted beyond belief. It is already clear to everyone who has worked with him that Joseph will become every bit as big a name as Ralph."