Elle (U.S.)
In two new films, Joseph Fiennes (yes, Ralph's
brother)
is Bard to the bone.
"I'm secretly a square - actually, it's not a very
well kept secret,"
confesses twenty-eight-year-old Joseph Fiennes. Truth
be told, he
does seem to belong to a more restrained era, given
his well-honed
manners, slightly self-conscious carriage, and
classical tastes that,
say, Austin or Wharton would have instantly warmed to.
The lobby of L.A.'s Chateau Marmont (a hotel revered
for its
old-world charm), where we meet, seems the ideal spot
for
a bookish type like Fiennes, who spends much of his
time
(and a heavy chunk of change) at a favorite bookshop
off the
King's Road in London. What does he read? Poetry of
the John
Milton and John Donne variety. He also loves Raymond
Carver
and Derek Walcott, so he's not totally unattuned to
the twentieth
century. Fiennes himself, however, is not one for
revelations -
literary or otherwise. His entire demeanor, while
friendly,
discourages the asking of personal questions.
Dressed in jeans and an oversized button-down shirt,
Fiennes
sports a ring on his wedding finger, though he's not
married
to his longtime girlfriend, Sara. The ring, he admits,
is an
easy ploy to fend off overzealous admirers. Given his
good
looks and his imminent debut as the romantic lead in
both
Elizabeth and Shakespeare In Love, it may take more
than
a band of gold to deflect attention.
As the younger brother of Ralph, star of The English
Patient
and The Avengers, Fiennes has a pretty clear idea of
what his
impending fame could lead to. "The prospect of
becoming a
public figure makes me anxious; the loss of privacy I
saw my
brother experience over the last few years isn't
something I
relish," he says. "But I'm firmly rooted to the
ground; I know
what I'm there for in terms of the work."
Cast opposite Cate Blanchett in Shekar Kapur's lavish
historical
epic, Elizabeth, Fiennes positively smolders as Lord
Robert Dudley,
Elizabeth's n'er-do-well lover. Portraying a
duplicitous man who is
further corrupted by he power of the queen's court,
Fiennes uses his
intensely expressive face to maximum effect.
"It's rather a dark film, but the making of it was
wonderful," says
Fiennes. "Cate is an extraordinary actress, and she's
absolutely
luminous as Elizabeth."
On the heels of Elizabeth comes Shakespeare In Love, a
romantic
comedy co-written by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman that
stars
Fiennes as the great Bard himself. The central conceit
is that
Shakespeare's genius isn't unleashed until he falls
for Viola de
Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow). The film demands a lot from
Fiennes,
who must finesse physical comedy, light verse, torrid
love scenes,
and loads of brooding - all of which he handles with
ease.
Fiennes, who was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in a
close-knit
family of eight, says of his childhood, "We moved
about twelve
times when I was growing up, mostly out of financial
necessity,
and although the displacement was good preparation for
the
gypsy life of an actor, it was abysmal for my
schooling."
But that peripatetic education hasn't slowed down
Fiennes's
ascent. Presently in London shooting his fourth movie,
he heads
to Miami next month to play a contemporary character
with an
American accent in the film Forever Mine. And in the
Spring
he stars in the British comedy Martha - Meet Frank,
Daniel
and Laurence. Clearly being square is back in fashion.
December 1998
By Kristine McKenna
