Max, April 2002
By Liana Messina
Photos by Lorenzo Agius
Translation by Luciana Piazza

It hasn't been very hard for him to outshine his brother Ralph: this fascinating young man has conquered everyone and the powers-that-be wanted to make him the sex symbol of the new millennium. But they didn't win the boy. Or Shakespeare.

He wore tights with ease, and they made him stand out... But even now that he's wearing trousers again, better if jeans, he can't go unnoticed. For Joseph Fiennes, also called Joe, it wasn't hard to make us forget that he was the younger brother, or to outshine Ralph with his unique bewitching way. If he has chosen two period pieces from the same time as a beginning (first Elizabeth and then Shakespeare in Love), now, to avoid the risk of becoming a male version of Helena Bonham Carter (surname "Lady Corset"), he chose to stay away from the genre as much as possible. At least for a while.

And so there he is, ready to play with pistols in no less than the wild West, although the film is a particular kind of western, with a cowboy transplant to Macedonia, in the strange epic invented by Milcho Manchevski, director of Before the Rain. Dust is the story of two rival brothers, Luke (Australian David Wenham) and Elijah (Joe). They live in Arizona at the beginning of last century and fall in love with the same woman, an enigmatic prostitute. When she chooses Elijah/Joe, the elder leaves and becomes a mercenary in Europe. And it is there, in the middle of the Macedonian war of independence, that old accounts will be settled, both final and familiar.

Fiennes recalls: "They meet again an ocean away, but in a human and geographic landscape that is very similar to the West. A wild land, with disagreements and violent wars... stories of redemption and vendetta, without heroes. I think this idea about a western in the East is very beautiful and original: an 'ottoman eastern', as Manchevski calls it... I also think it is fascinating to narrate the events between these two brothers, like Cain and Abel, fighting for gold and a woman's love. Their hatred is born in a brothel in Arizona, and it crosses the ocean and time itself... Who am I? Maybe Abel: maybe... Besides, I like Manchevski's vision and conception of cinema very much."

About to turn 32 years old, with an impressive theatre career in his CV, Joseph hasn't got his inspiration to be an actor from his elder brother. Or at least not just from him: in a family with 7 children (one of them being adopted) [he is fostered], five of them are involved with artistic activities. Other than Ralph, the eldest and the first to become famous, there is the director Martha, followed by the musician Magnus and the producer Sophie. Only two of them have been "spared": Michael, the archaeologist, and Jacob (Joseph's twin), who has chosen a completely different life in contact with nature (he's a gamekeeper in Norfolk).

"I confess: we are a small mafia. I don't know what made us choose this kind of career; perhaps it's normal, since our parents were very creative, each one in their own way. There was never a lack of stimulus in terms of literature or painting and drawing. We grew up in a definitely eccentric environment. A very interesting one as well".

Around Ireland - The mother, Jini, used to paint and write poetry and novels. When she passed away in 1993 due to an incurable disease, the family chose an electric blue coffin, the favourite colour of one of the main characters in her last book. The father, Mark, is a famous photographer of landscapes and architecture. Joe owns his nomad childhood and teenage years to Mark: while Mr. Fiennes Sr. worked with photography for the guides from British Tourism, the family travelled to follow him, moving around every year. "We lived in Ireland from the time I was 4 to 8 years old. I have very strong memories from the Southwestern coast: so wild and mythic. My childhood was an adventure; we were always in movement and that was chaotic. But we were a great group: family, friends and neighbours... we were always together. There was no television, for a long time. And there was also the hard part: attending 14 different schools, for example. In a way, that was very good to prepare me for my work as an actor: when you find yourself jumping from a school to another almost every year, you invariably learn new tricks to adapt. I was always busy reinventing myself. It seems I didn't have a true adolescence: it is as if I had been through it without living it. I can say I had the acne, but not the anguish that is so typical in that period. Now I regret that a bit."

Stealing Beauty - In the beginning, Joseph had chosen the art school. He thought his future would be the paintings (even now he always carries a sketchbook and takes it to the set, along with a book by Tolstoy: "For when I have time to kill", he says). But at the age of 18 he changed his mind, leaving it all in order to join the Young Vic Theatre, and then to attend the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In that school, he could develop his strong passion for the classics, which has led him to work in the Royal Shakespeare Company. But his début in the movies was with Bernardo Bertolucci, who cast him for Stealing Beauty, in the role of the young man who made Liv Tyler fall in love [that wasn't him]. At that time, Bertolucci said: "He has an extraordinary lightness, almost zen, a kind of very strong presence even if it is not very visible."

After Shakespeare in Love, Hollywood opened the doors to him, in the hopes of making him a new sex symbol. He preferred to keep his distance though: even now, between sets, he often goes back to the theatre. Or chooses particular projects like the one by Manchevski. Or like Killing Me Softly, a thriller produced in the USA, shot in London and directed by the Chinese Chen Kaige: Joseph plays a mysterious mountaineer who begins a relationship with the scientist Heather Graham. To prepare for this role, he followed a basic climbing course at the London Climbing Centre. A film which made people gossip a lot about the erotic content of some scenes between the two main characters.

"With Heather, there was quickly a very strong understanding, I would dare to define it as a natural chemistry. It was easy with her sharp sense of humour. We laughed a lot, even in the most morbid scenes: the perfect way to break the tension... Not to mention the story: 2 people who meet in the street, an attraction that becomes passion. A love story that becomes a thriller: it's the kind of story that pleases someone like me, who remember only the great self-destructive passions - those that people once used to call the tragedies of lost love".