Daily Mail, Weekend Magazine
7 July, 2001
By Lisa Sewards

Prince's Trust ambassador Joseph Fiennes knows how the charity can encourage youngsters to achieve their goals. Here the actor talks to Lisa Sewards.

Joseph Fiennes is wearing a tight black t-shirt with some rather snazzy pale blue Sanskrit symbols emblazoned across it. Apparently they mean: 'for the power of your destiny within.' For an actor who guards his privacy very closely, the words give a telling glimpse into the fiennes psyche.

He grew up the youngest of 7 children in an eclectic family who were all encouraged by their photographer father, Mark and painter and writer mother, Jini, to have the confidence to follow their instincts and passions whatever they were. "Get your guts in to it was what my mother used to say" explains Joseph. "she used to ask me: "Where do you belong?" It wasn't about choosing my destiny for me, but she invited me to think and feel which route in life was right for me. This was a dynamic she used for all our family, and when you consider what all of us have achieved, it shows how it worked for all of us."

It certainly did because they produced an extraordinarily talented family with Ralph the actor of Schindler's List and the English Patient fame, a director, a musician and composer, a producer, a gamekeeper and a archaeologist. And there's Joseph himself, also an actor, who became a superstar after Shakespeare in Love.

Statistically you might have expected one of the Fiennes Family to have gone off the rails or underachieved, but this has not been the case.

Joseph puts this down to the encouragement and stability he recieved from his home life, which is why he can understand the value of the work being done by the Prince's Trust. "I was struck by how the trust is vital in offering young people an infrastructure in which they can realise their potential. It offers them mentors to guide and advise them. I was extremely lucky to have my parents as mentors and I understand how vital it is to have a guide." As part of his work as an ambassador to the Prince's Trust Joseph went on a "seeing is believing" day, which shows first hand work being done. He met people on the volunteers' programme, which enables 16-25 year olds to develope their confidence and job skills, and others who are on the business start up programme, which helps 18-30 year olds start up their own businesses if they are unemployed, under employment or have been turned down by a bank.

The Prince's Trust philosophy is based on the belief that a lack of opportunity stifles success robbing young people of the chance to realise their own potential and talent. "I could see how the work being done in the volunteers group was helping to repair broken and worn down spirits, it was inspiring to see them flourish in their roles and gain confidence by communicating with others" says Joseph, 31. "There was one boy who really struck me - he had a great physical presence and charisma. He had made a bird table and was so proud of what he was doing for the primary school which will recieve it. I really felt he was blossoming."

Joseph doubts that without the strong influence of his parents, his own life could have taken such a positive course. He had an unconventional nomadic childhood changing homes 14 times - his parents would often 'do up' houses, sell them for a profit and then move on - and going to nearly as many different schools as his family moved around the West Country, London and Ireland. "I can certainly understand the difficulty of moving schools lots of times and not having that academic infrasturcture, like many of the young people being helped by the trust. Moving house gave me an instinct to survive and to fit in. I was lucky that I had my twin Jake - I gained strength by having that extra member.

"The need to survive was more important that the academic side, as was the challenge to reinvent myself from school to school. It felt odd because we were always moving and I never knew what the syllabus was. I know a lot of people who were unhappy at school and they'd probably only been to 2 schools in their whole life. But I relished our life and it was probably good preparation, I'm sure for acting which has a gypsy element to it."

At his various schools, Joseph's perchant for drama wasn't altogether evident, "I was a terror" he says, "although I'd been in a few school plays, I was a very sporty outdoor type and was brought up in type in the country, I was always making campfires in the forests, had lots of energy and was pretty formidable. My interests in the theatre and in reading came later in my life - it was never forced on me at home, so it came more naturally than learning texts at school just because they're on the syllabus".

Joseph's home life was very important to him as he grew up. "Having security is vital. Although I never had that from school, thankfully I had it from my home life which, although it was bohemian than unusual, was a stable strong environment. We were surrounded by constant stimulus from my parents, with lots of creative support from them and their friends, who included actors, musicians, sculptors. When I met the Prince's Trust volunteers, I recognised that this infrastructure which I was fortunate to have was missing from their lives. It is the trust which is creating that for them now."

Joseph admits that despite a supportive family, he still suffered a crisis of confidence when he left school. He went to study art at college in Suffolk for a year but privately harboured thoughts about an acting career. "Not having or being denied an outlet for expression creates a lack of confidence. I left school at the age of 16 not knowing exatly what i wanted to do. I needed to clear my head and find my feet, but the more I gathered knowledge and experience about what I wanted to do, the more self confidence I gained."

It must have weighed heavily on him that he was thinking of following his brother's footsteps at a time when Ralph was beginning to receive plaudits on stage. "It wasn't something I took lightly and it was a time in my life when I had to summon great confidence to do it. I went to work for the national youth theatre, which was a life changing time where I learnt so much and it was reminiscent of the community work which the volunteers do."

Joseph would help backstage while Ralph was on stage as the national theatre. He did 3 years at the Guildhall School of Drama and Music, then played Troilus in Troilus and Cressida and Silvius in As You Like It in the Royal Shakespeare Company productions. However his path to stardom was not without hardship. "It took a lot of sweat and tears and hard work to make the leap from youth theatre to drama school, when I had hardly any money, and then to my first job" he says. "Those were the most testing times of my life but I never thought once of quitting.

"I still listen to that inner voice, it means that I never make the obvious choice" he says. "I'm not ruled by the neurosis of the business - I'm ruled by my beliefs and passions thanks to my parents, from whom I've got this image of pillars of strength and wisdom.

They taught me to think long-term and put things into place to create a stability for life, not just for the next year. They did this by getting me to ask myself what my purpose is, my drive and my life's ambition and giving me limitless enthusiasm and encouragement. That's why I was so amazed ny the trusts work in nurturing there very talented bit vulnerable individuals whose spirits need mending and whose untapped potential needs to be realised."