La Repubblica (Italy)
July 23, 1999
By Antoni Triconti
Translated from Italian by Samantha

Joseph Fiennes: Worships Totò as a great like Chaplin

Joseph Fiennes, star of Shakespeare in Love, tells at the Giffoni Film Festival all about the behind the scenes intrigues of the twice decorated film by John Madden. "The homosexual organizations have accused us of lying about the sexual identity of Shakespeare, who they say preferred men to women. But this in reality is to this day a mystery; the well-known sonnets dedicated to men could be written under commission. And the film remains loyal to this mystery. The director and the writer Tom Stoppard took a lot of care with this aspect: we don’t forget that the first time Shakespeare meets Gwyneth Paltrow’s character he believes and treats her as a boy."

The timelessness of Shakespeare, continued the actor "is such that we can read the stories in contemporary life according to the characters and say, a bit romantically, that Lady Diana is a Juliet without a Romeo; as John Kennedy Jr. is a Romeo without a Juliet."

Fiennes has just finished the filming of the new Paul Schrader film Forever Mine, a tragic tale of the love between a young man and a married woman. "It’s a script that Schrader had kept in a drawer for 20 years. It is an honor for me to work with a great innovator such as him."

Among the unexpected loves of this British actor is Totò. "I lived in Italy for 5 months, and often at night I would happen to catch a film of his on TV. I remained completely fascinated, captivated by the perfection of his comical timing. If I could express an acting ambition, it would be to become great like him, but naturally I know that that is impossible. For Totò there exists potentially an immense audience not absolutely comparable to the comic masters like Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton."