By Nick Steele
Date and source of article unknown

With smouldering good looks allied to the poise of a classically-trained actor, Joseph Fiennes has all the makings of an elegant clothes horse, but it is not a role that exercises his imagination. So the suggestion that he dresses with classic style is greeted with a roar of laughter. "That's very kind of you to say," he avers, polite as always. "But I don't know. Scruffy classic, perhaps..."

He is, he explains, a practical sort of bloke, someone who wants to throw on something comfortable in the morning - jeans, T-shirt, trainers. Anyway, he'd much prefer to talk of thermal vests or padded mountaineering pants. "I'm more clued up on climbing gear - how to look good at 2,000 feet and stay warm."

This enthusiasm for climbing evolved from his latest film role, in Kaige Chen's Killing Me Softly. In the film, based on the bestseller by British authors Sean French and Nicci Gerrard (under the name Nicci French), Fiennes plays a mountaineer who becomes entwined with a naive young American woman.

"It's a thriller set in London, with no climbing whatsoever, so why I felt I had to do it I can't tell you," he says, somewhat amused at his own admission. "But a few weeks into filming I found myself out climbing to see what it was like - much to the horror of the producers, who don't want their stars participating in extreme sports. I just wanted to get into the mind of this guy and I got totally addicted. It was terrifying because you're in danger and yet it's extremely exciting. After my first climb, I actually ran all the way back down the mountain. It was amazing. I loved it. I was filled with this feeling of sheer joy."

Fiennes traces his desire to explore new territory and push his limits physically back to his childhood; perhaps there is something of his explorer cousin, Ranulph, in his make-up, or his twin brother, Jake, a gamekeeper in Norfolk. "I was always very outdoorsy, very into the physical life," Joseph recalls. "It's a very, very strong desire and I like challenge... physical challenge."

The film, which co-stars Heather Graham, best known for her roles in From Hell, Boggie Nights and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, was physically challenging for the principal actors, but in a very different way.

"It is very passionate and very physical," Fiennes explains. "Our characters meet as strangers and go home together, as people sometimes do. They make love with a passion neither has experienced before. And the relationship becomes excessive to the point of being dangerous."

Indeed, the exploration of this on-screen sexual obsession proved somewhat threatening to the actors as well. "There were days when we'd just look at each other as if to ask what we had got ourselves into," Graham confides. "Of course, that's often the case in real-life relationships, too." Things heat up even more when Graham's character begins to unravel her new lover's mysterious past. "He has just come back from a failed climbing trip and she begins to discover some disturbing things about him," Fiennes explains. "But I don't want to give it away too much."

What Fiennes will say is that he is consciously shifting directions in terms of the kinds of roles he chooses. While he's said in the past that he does not have a masterplan for his career, he now admits to be steering it a bit more. "It's not random," he confesses. "There is a method in it. I very much wanted to get out of being thought of in one way."

The "way" he is referring to, of course, is the association with classical characters he is known for. The tremendous success of Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love brought with it the real threat of typecasting. That is something Fiennes is now looking to change. "When I choose roles now, I look for something different and challenging," he says. But he's quick to puncture any pretension this might suggest: "I'm not that choosy after I haven't worked for a while," he adds. "Give me a couple of months and I'll be contradicting myself all over the place."

The contradictions are a large part of his charm. While he loves performing he chafes against the press attention that accompanies success, and though he is surely more at home in the theatre, he continues to explore film roles. He credits his run in Edward II last year at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield as one of the most exciting things he's been involved with to date. "One must go back to theatre to flex all the muscles you have," he enthuses. "And I just love this piece."

The role appeared to be a return to the kind of classical part Fiennes claims to be trying to avoid. "It's not really, because it has such strong modern resonance. I think anything classical survives only because it has that modern dynamic."

Next, Fiennes is to travel to the US to join a star-studded cast, including Sam Shepard and Elizabeth Shue, to begin work on Leopold Bloom. It's not the glittery cast or brilliant script which will prove challenging, but the fact that Fiennes is to portray an American from the Deep South. The role, which requires work with a dialogue coach, has Fiennes' mind spinning. "The script is incredible. I was thrilled to get involved with this film. The character I play is in jail for murder and he gets a letter from a young boy who has a very difficult situation at home. He writes to this man and explains his situation, which provides an escape for the boy. And then my character comes out and... well, there's this wonderful twist." The role promises to show a side of Fiennes we haven't yet seen and may finally put some distance between him and those Elizabethan tights.

His image has been born out of a handful of indelible film roles, his family's artful legacy and those oft-discussed smouldering looks. In person, he is exceedingly well-mannered, naturally confident and speaks with great precision. Even the name, Joseph Fiennes, suggests a commanding presence, roguish character and a passionate soul, not unlike some of his film characters. But things are not always what they appear to be. For one thing, this cautious, classically-trained actor likes to be called Joe by those who know him. And although he can occasionally be seen snaking his way across some red carpet in a chic black suit, Fiennes has very little use for the pomp and circumstance of celebrity.

What Fiennes is serious about, though, is his art. He is a rare species of performer. The 31-year-old is a thinking man's actor. Like his many distinguished co-stars, Cate Blanchett, Dame Judi Dench and Jude Law to name a few, he is devoted to his craft and disenchanted by the celebrity that accompanies it. His initial experiences with the swarming US press left him battered by the probing interest in all things Joe Fiennes. Today, as we sit in the trendy hotel he's picked out in his Notting Hill neighbourhood, he seems to be struggling to accommodate my every question. This is not the Joseph Fiennes of a year or so ago who seemed difficult to pin down when I interviewed him in New York. This is a man who, not unlike his acting, is evolving and taking risks in the process.

"I have had a difficult relationship with it in the past," he explains of his feelings about being interviewed. "I'm more relaxed about it now. I'm sure we're going to be meeting again over the years and there has to be a trust between you and I."

There is no doubting his sincerity as he searches my eyes for some confirmation of the faith he is placing in me. At times his looks seem quite ordinary, but there are moments when he gets passionate about something and those seemingly-endless eyelashes flutter around his striking hazel-brown eyes like an elevated heartbeat.

What is so remarkable is that he has had as much, if not more, coverage of his looks as his talents as an actor. It's something Fiennes laughs off as he relaxes a bit, stretching out a little more on the sofa where he's settled. In fact, his stylish image is something he's quick to dismantle.

"A lot has been made of it, but I am, well, practical. My day-to-day life is quite boring really," he confides. "I would love to say that I have some wacky sense of dress, but I don't like to waste much time on it."

That's hardly surprising, though. Despite all the success and the famous family name he is, by his own admission, just a regular Joe.