The Daily Telegraph
February 1, 2003
By Jasper Rees

Joseph Fiennes is making his National Theatre debut in Shakespeare - demanding stuff after some of his recent films. He tells Jasper Rees about the challenges of a classical role

At a certain point in any interview with Joseph Fiennes, you have to talk about the elephant in the room. The elephant in the room, as I understand the phrase, is an overwhelmingly obvious topic of conversation that you politely contrive to ignore. In Joseph Fiennes's case, the elephant is the oldest of his six siblings.

Joseph Fiennes: comfortable around comedy

It is the fate of Fiennes J to ply his trade in the shadow of Fiennes R. Most avenues Joe explores, Ralph has already been there, done that, had his face printed on the T-shirt.

Blockbuster film that swept the Oscars? The English Patient was before Shakespeare in Love. Tabloid interest in his romantic life? Ditto. Triumphant return to stage after all the celluloid fuss? Ralph had Ivanov at the Almeida. Two years ago Joe did Edward II in Sheffield. So what happens when Joe finds himself making his debut at the National Theatre in Love's Labour's Lost? Ralph is already there, playing Jung.

Joe is giving us his Berowne. Ralph, needless to say, got there first. It is a paradox that only when they play the same role - they've both been Troilus, too - can Joe really put some distance between himself and his brother.

I don't remember much of the RSC's 1991 production, beyond an amount of well-spoken verse. Nor does Fiennes J. "I kind of vaguely remember it," he says, loyally adding of his brother, "I thought he was fantastic." Berowne is the precursor of Benedick; he is "the merry mad-cap lord; / Not a word with him but a jest."

In the intervening years it has become apparent that there is nothing merry or mad-cap about Ralph. Joe, on the other hand, is a much more comfortable around comedy. As he says, "Whether you love it or hate it, if you want to know about me, look at the work."

That said, he's keen to play up Berowne's dark side. "He's tricky because he is not out-and-out comedy. He's a bit twisted, he's a wrecker and he whips and scorns anyone for being in love. I can't go out there expecting laughs. It's one of the most difficult texts I've come across in terms of having some audience connection. It's way over 500 years old [actually slightly over 400]. These jokes just don't translate."

Another way in which Fiennes J has chosen to vary the family routine is in interviews. The first time I sat before him it was a Sunday off from filming Shakespeare in Love. He had that little beard and he was deep into his milksop phase, as also seen in Elizabeth and Martha Meets Frank, Daniel and Lawrence, in which Martha chooses Fiennes's Lawrence on the grounds that he may be considerably drippier than the Frank and Daniel but in other ways nothing like as ghastly.

Fiennes was a bit of a drippy interview too. He is rather more robust now. At one point he leans into my tape recorder after one ill-researched question and scowls: "Sloppy journalism." At another he admits that once when an interviewer nipped out to the loo, he pressed stop and rewound the tape to the beginning. "I just felt we had gone into a territory we didn't need to." Women, presumably.

Today he is sporting his traditional five o'clock shadow after a day in rehearsal with Trevor Nunn, who is directing Love's Labour's Lost as his farewell production in charge of the National. Also starring is Olivia Williams.

One senses that this is a production in which actors used to the thin gruel of film gorge themselves on richer fare. "If you're going to compare it I'd say this is like the Olympics for the actor. It's hard work, physically, mentally." What does that make film? "I don't want to reduce it to a three-legged race but..."

There are three films starring Fiennes awaiting release: The Great Raid (action), Luther (John Osborne's play about the Reformation), and Leo (Deep South drama with Fiennes as writer-waiter just out of prison).

He seems most proud of Leo. He's actually seen it, for starters, which is more than he can say for half his films. "Because you are on to the next new piece. What can I do? I'll either love it or... but also one is vulnerable as an actor to the ego eye and you just have to let that go and not pat yourself on the back too much or cry over spilt milk. That's the game. Unless I become a director I can't have control. I just have to trust." And might he? "No, I think it's ghastly. Playing God and parent to everyone. I couldn't bear it."

One final cut that Fiennes never saw was Killing Me Softly. Coincidentally, neither did anyone else, or not without giggling. An epic turkey, the adaptation of Nicci French's "erotic thriller" found Fiennes and Heather Graham in an obsessive tryst. Did its reception dismay him?

"I was more sad that Chen Kaige, who is a unique director, produced something that didn't... I never felt that he was truly liberated. This is a very interesting area where foreign directors move into an international, mostly American, exposure and they are treated almost like first-time directors. The lack of trust is appalling."

Is he sufficiently unashamed of the film to keep it on his CV in the Love's Labour's Lost programme? "I leave that to the people who make up my CV. I'm not a control freak. And I'm happy to stand up for anything that other people might ridicule. Why am I going to try and hide? I learnt. Was it a great film? No. I didn't see it. I did my bit. I'm up here and it's easy when you're up there for someone to say, aren't you a little bit embarrassed? Of course things are not going to work and I have to take it. Fail? So? Move on."

In the light of which, it seems fair to ask Fiennes how he really felt when Shakespeare in Love was nominated for, and won, a ton of Oscars while he was overlooked in the Best Actor category. "I felt thrilled."

Come on, Joe, really? "Let's put it into perspective. I'd just come from zero, nowhere, out of the woodwork. I'm not going to stomp my feet and say: 'Why aren't I?' "

Afterwards there was tremendous pressure on him to carry on being a milksop in big Hollywood films. "I just put the brakes on it. I just wanted to be more in control. I didn't want to be in someone's pocket. That's what it boils down to. To reclaim a bit of reality maybe. I'm not in a rush for anything."

This concept of being a hot young thing doesn't bother him? "There is a corridor of 50,000 of them. And it's great to have that heat as long as you know that it's seasonal and it might come back and it might not."

If the heat does come back, it will be newer, more grown-up Fiennes than the pretty young colt gambolling in tights. "I'm 33 in May. Those days are long gone."

'Love's Labour's Lost' previews at the National Theatre from Feb 15. Tickets: 020 7452 3000