"Joe's quality is his seriousness - his lack of knowingness. He's easy to work with because of his intelligence. He has innate good taste and all the best attributes that come with being an ambitious young actor without any of the negative bits. He's incredibly popular with the cast. During the rehearsal period for Son of Man, when we finally got round to doing his big speech when he delivers the Sermon on the Mount, the entire cast stood up and applauded him. That's rare."
- Bill Bryden, director of Son of Man

"He is the Theatre's first modern sex symbol and a model student from the new intelligentsia."
- Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard, 30 March, 1994

"It's a family joke because he was a member of a horrible gang at school called the Rough Gang, who were very naughty, and our mother was really worried. He snapped out of it by the time he was seven and never went through the normal teenage rebellion. He just turned overnight into this incredibly sensitive, mature little boy and then grew into a mature sensitive man."
- Martha Fiennes, commenting on Joe's rebellious stage when he was six

"One look into his huge liquid brown eyes, surrounded by extraordinarily long eyelashes - and, ladies, you'd forgive this personable young man anything."
- Juliette Kemp, The Journal, May 16, 1996

"Joe's contemporaries, such as Ian Glen, Rufus Sewell and Toby Stephens, are very clean-cut without being boring. I don't think we're going to catch these guys out because they're proper actors - to them the quality of the work they do is everything. Of course, they want room service and limousines like everyone else, but the text has got to be worthy of it before they'll accept the job. They're not interested in being the next Hugh Grant."
- Bill Bryden, director of Son of Man

"It's this streak of vulnerability that has made Fiennes so devastatingly effective in his brief stint with the RSC. There's an element of danger in his performances. You know it's art, but it seems real. You'd swear that there was no safety net. He does torment exquisitely, as if he were really on the rack. His performance as the hippyish self-doubting Jesus Christ - the most galvanising RSC debut in years - in Dennis Potter's Son Of Man at the Pit last autumn, had grown men weeping and grown agnostics contemplating a swift conversion to revolutionary Christianity. When he crawled out of the desert after 40 days and nights of temptation, you thought he might actually have flipped and would have to be carried away in a straitjacket."
- Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, July 24, 1996

"I don't think he even begins to be fazed by his brother, because he's all animal. Ralph is about the cool, intellectual probing of passion. But with Joe, cynicism has passed him by. His acting personality is more that of a theatre animal."
- Ian Judge, director of Troilus and Cressida

"There can be no doubt that Joseph Fiennes and Victoria Hamilton are two of the most exciting, charismatic and sensual young actors of their generation."
- Jack Tinker, The Mail, July 25, 1996

"Joe has a really extraordinary lightness. His brother wants to be there, while Joe has with a kind of almost Zen absence, this kind of invisible strong presence."
- Bernardo Bertoluccci, director of Stealing Beatuy

"I was in a rehearsal room with Adrian Noble, and after Joe had done his piece, I turned to Adrian and said, "I know you've worked with the brother, but this one's the star."
- Ian Judge, director of Troilus and Cressida

"There may come a day when the table will turn and Ralph will be known as Joseph's brother."
- Dad Mark Fiennes

"Fiennes, with his long, sensual face and resonantly expressive voice, once again proves that he's a much sexier actor than his brother Ralph, who too often gives an impression of emotionally constipated prissiness."
- Charles Spencer, The Telegraph, 15 March, 2001

"He is going to become one of our great movie actors. He just doesn't know it yet. Joe has a gentility of spirit, a warmth and openness and looks great in repose. He's the kind of guy you'd pay to watch at the cinema even if he was just reading a book."
- Nick Hamm, director of Martha, Meet Frank Daniel and Laurence

"Joe's impact and sexuality is fantastic to watch, even in an editing room. This is the only man Elizabeth loved - and even historians agree on that one. Such a person has to have exceptional qualities, both as an actor and as a man."
- Shekhar Kapur, director of Elizabeth

"Ralph is very complex and intense, but has a wicked sense of humour bubbling under the surface. Joseph is open, direct, focused and a secret trickster. But both are incredibly beautiful to look at and gifted beyond belief. It is already clear to everyone who has worked with him that Joseph will become every bit as big a name as Ralph."
- Cate Blanchett, actress

"He is simply one of the most exciting faces and forces that I'd seen in front of the camera."
- Nick Hamm, director of Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence

"Joe has all the expected well-chiselled attractiveness of his elder brother, Ralph, with a face of classic proportions. But Joe's eyes are brown, with those long, thick, girlie eyelashes that separate into pretty little clumps when wet."
- Imogen Edwards-Jones, Metro Film, May 1998

"You're dealing with a man who is so sensitive, and believe me, I've been around other actors who are not this level of gentleman, and doing the love scene with him was not an issue. I really adored him, he's a very special person."
- Gwyneth Paltrow, actress

"Joseph Fiennes has an almost feline air of mystery about him. Lean and handsome, he is the most reserved of these three actors, which makes the transformation he undergoes in front of the camera all the more striking. He has an otherworldly quality, which could, admittedly, have been due to the sheer filming exhaustion caused by a rigorous filming schedule. Whatever the cause, the effect is incredibly sexy."
- Lucy Yeomans, Tatler, June 1998

"His passion is very hot, I think. I wouldn't call Joe a cuddly actor. He's not warm in that sense; he's warm in the heat of passion."
- Adrian Noble, artistic director of the RSC

"I don't think Joe has to play at turning on the charm and sensuality - he just has it. There's an openness there, a raw anguish and vulnerability. It's a very potent combination."
- John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love

"His brooding good looks and sexy, smouldering eyes have earned him the nickname "the thinking woman's heart-throb."
- Caroline Graham, The Sun, December 30, 1998

"Joe has an artist's face and build. He is not your run-of-the-mill heart-throb. He is sensitive with a very macho centre."
- Tom Stoppard, co-writer of Shakespeare in Love

"I had pangs of jealousy when I saw Gwyneth in big clinches with Joe. But he is a great guy and the two of them turned in amazing performances. Even I began to believe they were besotted with each other!"
- Ben Affleck, actor

"While he claims to have nothing to declare but his lack of style - "It's not high on my list"- the truth is, he's no ordinary Joe. Not with those box-office-smash eyes, quiet self assurance, and acclaimed performance in Shakespeare in Love."
- Polly Williams, UK InStyle, February 2002

"Joe was the unchallenged candidate from a very wide search. He just stood out head-and-shoulders above the rest. He was the only person remotely believable as the man who wrote the plays. He has the romance and the humour and the looks - and so much more. The part belongs to him. He was my choice and I made it very clear that I didn't want to make the movie unless I could find the right person. Joe was the one."
- John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love

"All it takes is one look at his chiseled jaw, hazel eyes and ruffled hair and a girl's a goner."
- Flic Everett, Company, February 1999

"Joe plays terrible tricks on you. He is a very, very naughty man."
- Cate Blanchett, actress

"If forced to define Joseph Fiennes' best asset, you'd have to say it's his eyes. They're not piercing like his brother's famous ice-blue stare, but soft and brown and doe-like, with the longest eyelashes in Christendom. Even with inky fingers and breeches which look like they've got a nappy wedged down them, Joe manages to be the ultimate fantasy: he's sensitive, dynamic, artistic and has a body that's so toned, it looks like he's got six-packs on his arms. No wonder Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't seem to be faking her near-orgasmic joy as Joe lays a few heavy sonnets on her."
- Beverly D'Silva, Minx, February 1999

"That chiseled face. Those bewitching eyes. That commanding voice."
- Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY, 3 February, 1999

"Many of the people I tried out were intimidated by this icon of icons. But not Joe. He was able to jump from comic deftness to passionate intensity, to making pure intelligence watchable on screen."
- John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love

"If Shakespeare's not your thing, go see Ralph Fiennes's bro, Joe, who's worth throwing yourself off a balcony for."
- Cosmopolitan, January 1999

"It seems that Hollywood has a terrible aversion to high cheek-bones, elegant necks, toned torsos, English understatement and (phew!) the longest eyelashes in acting since Bambi. Then again, one look at the judging panel's porky Versace-clad physiques and it's easy to see why. Jealousy is such an unattractive trait."
- The Times (London), "Cyclops" column March 6, 1999

"On film, Fiennes seems to be the perfect man: dashing, intelligent, passionate, courtly and graceful, with a sense of humor, voice like honey and eyelashes the envy of mascara users. When he looks at Blanchett or Paltrow in films, he looks like a man in love for the first time. His eyes sparkle. His smile is positively loopy. He looks 100 percent alive."
- Nadine Kam, March 30, 1999

"He's got slightly old-fashioned, smoldering good looks. I think that's what women respond to - a harking back to that knight-on-a-white-charger kind of thing."
- Alison Owen, Elizabeth producer

"As for Joe Fiennes as Dudley, now there's a piece of casting. Ah, Joseph. With his toasted eyes overloaded by girlie lashes. He first appears here on a white horse in a summer meadow with his shirt half hanging off. The effect on the women in the audience was, let's just say, memorable."
- Antonia Quirke, Cinema (UK)

"I would say for an actor who's only 29, you have facility, skill, a strong imaginative approach, and good focus; you handle verse, you're whimsical, you've got that trademark dreamy bovine-eyed sex appeal..."
Geoffrey Rush to Joe in Interview Magazine, August 1999

"With full lips, penetrating cedar-brown eyes and dark brown hair, there is an air of Italian High Renaissance about him, like a figure in a Raphael fresco."
- Jan Stuart, Newsday, 1999

"And I'm watching him, thinking, You're eating this role alive - rolling on the floor, wielding a sword and leaping balustrades. This guy is Errol Flynn; he's Cary Grant; he's everybody!"
- Geoffrey Rush, actor

"Joseph does a great job. He's got a big future."
- Tom Wilkinson, actor

"Joseph is unbelievably charming and very funny, but his humor is less subtle than Ralph's. Most people enjoy being around Joseph, because he has an utterly sociable manner. He is also very athletic and full of energy. But one shouldn't be fooled by Joseph - in spite of his charming manner he can be hard as nails. No one can make this stubborn guy do anything."
- Martha Fiennes, sister

"I can see he is a man with temper and a strong personality, but so far, everything has worked just fine. He is an actor who wants to get to the bottom of everything."
- Chen Kaige, director of Killing Me Softly

"He's not corrupt at all. It's so nice to direct such a pleasant, articulate, intelligent actor. He's unable to do something he doesn't like. He has enormous integrity. Already, at his age, he commands huge respect. He's a very pure man."
- Jean-Jacques Annaud, director of Enemy at the Gates

"Joseph's very funny actually, he's a comedian at heart. But he's also got that incredible, brooding intensity. It's always there in those brown eyes."
- Rachel Weisz, actress

"Deep intensity, thy name is Joe Fiennes."
- Mark Ramsey, Movie Juice, March 18, 2001

"We met for a long afternoon in Toronto and I instantly adored him. I liked the fact that he was a cerebral person, yet charismatic and handsome as well. He was my very first choice for this movie and I built the cast around him."
- Jean-Jacques Annaud, director of Enemy at the Gates

"Joseph is a private man, but he's not, for want of a better word, a luvvie. His focus on the work is extraordinary, given that his profile is international, he's young, and is attractive to lots of seventeen- year-old girls... he doesn't let it go to his head... But it's about time he had a closer shave. Every night I get stubble rash and that really doesn't do it for me. Maybe if he got one of those Mach 3 blades something would blossom, I don't know."
- James D'Arcy, actor

"Yeah, we had to be naked. But I felt really trusting of Joseph. We were both nervous and felt very vulnerable, but we liked and trusted the director and each other. You wouldn't want to do those scenes with an actor thinking he might take advantage of the situation."
- Heather Graham, actress

"Joseph is excellent. He's an actor of the highest quality and has a big future. They'll love him in the States."
- Geoffrey Rush, actor

"He has a kind of privateness about him - a slightly hidden quality."
- John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love

"We were very lucky to have Joe in this role, playing a character who is ambiguous and unpredictable, while at the same time he is irresistible to Alice. Joe is very experienced and, being an English actor, is well trained, as is the tradition here. He is serious and sincere and honest, which makes him very easy to work with."
- Chen Kaige, director of Killing Me Softly

"Joseph Fiennes is a really sexy and passionate guy."
- Heather Graham, actress and co-star in Killing Me Softly "Proteus is so noble and true, he could easily have come off as flat, but Joe did an amazing job. He brought a dynamic to Proteus that conveys how he wrestles with every decision. You understand that this is not a guy who immediately and easily makes the noble choice. He is somebody who understands how much sacrifice is sometimes involved in doing the right thing."
- Tim Johnson, director of Sinbad - Legend of the Seven Seas