The Independent (London)
Februrary 25, 2001
By Martyn Palmer

LEADING ROLES IN 'SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE' AND 'ELIZABETH' BROUGHT JOSEPH FIENNES INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION. BUT HIS LATEST PROJECT, A POUNDS 60 MILLION HISTORICAL DRAMA SET IN RUSSIA, IS ABOUT TO TURN HIM INTO A HOLLYWOOD STAR

It might be hard for the youngest child of a family of six to face up to adulthood, but Joseph Fiennes wasn't the least bit fazed when he turned 30 last year. He was, however, troubled by the attendant celebrations. "I hosted a huge party for 200, it was nerve-wracking, I was worried that my friends wouldn't get on, I didn't drink a thing all night."

And perhaps even more daunting is the fact that, thanks to his roles playing Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth and the Bard himself in the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love, Fiennes has entered this new decade very much in demand in Hollywood. He has refused to move there, preferring to stay in London, and often choosing stage roles over more lucrative film offers. Next month, however, he will be seen in a Hollywood blockbuster, the pounds 60m historical spectacular Enemy at the Gates.

Today, Fiennes is accommodating, faultlessly polite and really quite shy. When I first met him he was still shellshocked by the fuss over Shakespeare in Love. This time, in a New York hotel room, clad in a smart charcoal suit, he appears more at ease, laughing at least three times during the interview. He didn't do that the last time.

"Shakespeare in Love was wonderful, it was a huge turning point, a lesson, I learnt a lot from that period. Not just about acting, but how the whole machine works."

But when the offers came tumbling down on his agent's desk, Fiennes promptly turned tail and headed back to the theatre, to appear in the Royal Court's production of Real Classy Affair. "I'm not being disrespectful, but what you find is an influx of scripts that are not always good - the number of impressive scripts stays the same. I shrank away from all that. I wanted to find my voice within all of the hype."

During that time, he also broke up with his girlfriend of seven years, the actress Sara Griffiths. They met at an audition when he was still a student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In the past, he has talked about how they supported each other through the lean times (of which there were many), both financially and emotionally. "I do prefer an actress girlfriend. It is wonderful for me to be with someone who understands what we suffer. I know every job has its problems, but acting seems to be about constant rejection. To have someone to share the insecurities is great."

Since then there has been a perplexing tabloid rumour of a fling with Naomi Campbell, and more substantial reports of an affair with the actress Catherine McCormack - they were photographed together on holiday - although neither, predictably, would confirm or deny it. Questions about the current state of his love life are met with mumbling evasiveness: "Er, yes, I am happily ensconced at the moment, thank you..." And who might that be with? "Er, I'd rather not say, actually..."

He seems happier now than he did two years ago. Following the alleged affair with McCormack, Fiennes felt the need to escape London and went off travelling, alone. "I love exploring new places, getting away from the world I work in, stumbling across different environments. I've been to India twice, Central America, most of Europe, obviously the UK and Ireland. I love Europe and the Balkans. I'm not looking for anything concrete. I'm just seeking to experience a life beyond my own. It's instinctive, ours is a small world, we are not here for very long."

Perhaps that wanderlust comes from his childhood. Along with his twin brother Jake, a gamekeeper and the only member of the family not involved in the arts, Joseph is the youngest in the family. Ralph, seven years his senior, is the eldest - in between are Martha, a director, Magnus, a musician and composer, and Sophie, an actress. His father, Mark, is a photographer and his mother Jini (Jennifer Lash), who died eight years ago, was a novelist and painter.

The family moved 14 times (Fiennes once said that his parents would buy a property, "do it up" and move on) and lived in Suffolk, the West Country and Ireland. "I think I had a privileged yet strange upbringing," he says. "It was bohemian but it was also functional. We were surrounded by constant stimulus, from my parents and from their friends. The people around us ran the entire creative gamut - actors, musicians, sculptors. I relished our life. I guess it was good preparation for acting, too. There's a gypsy element to living an actor's life and I definitely had that."

At 16, Fiennes left school for art college in Suffolk, which lasted just a year before he went to London to work with the National Youth Theatre, "mostly as a dogsbody", and from there on to the Guildhall. By which time, Ralph was already making a huge name for himself. Did the burden of following big brother sit heavily on him? "No, I feel we are from slightly different generations. If he had been my twin it might have been different."

He spent three seasons with the RSC (Troilus and Cressida, As You Like It and more) and had a very small part in Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty ("a lot of hanging around but as we were filming in Tuscany, it was very nice"). He then starred in the British comedy Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence. Then came the "tights period", followed by more theatre work. But after his prolonged sojourn away from the limelight, this year he's finally back. There's the contemporary thriller, Killing Me Softly, with Heather Graham due out later in the year, preceded by Enemy at the Gates. The film is set during the battle for Stalingrad and is loosely based on the true story of a Russian sniper Vassily Zaitsev (Jude Law) and his duel with a crack German marksman, Major Koenig (Ed Harris).

Fiennes plays Danilov, a Soviet political officer who uses Zaitsev's deadly exploits as propaganda to give the Russian forces much needed hope. In amidst all of this the beautiful Tania (Rachel Weisz) becomes an object of desire for both Zaitsev and his mentor Danilov.

It was, says Fiennes, a long, physically gruelling film, shot mostly on the outskirts of Berlin. "It was -15C most days and it gave you the tiniest idea of the conditions that they must have faced there - the cold, the lice, the sheer misery and abhorrent nature of war," he says, with an earnest solemnity that recalls his brother. "But I'm not going to pretend that it was that tough because there was a Winnebago and a hot cup of coffee 50 yards away..."