GQ Magazine, 2/96

Joseph Fiennes, 25. Joe, younger brother of Ralph (Schindler's List and Quiz Show) and director Martha, shows all the signs of adding to the Fiennes family heritage. His first professional job on leaving London's Guildhall was "a baptism by fire": six months, eight shows a week in The Woman in Black, the long-running spooky West End hit. "The first thing you learn is economy," says Fiennes. "When to turn it down and when to turn up the power." Since then he has appeared in stage roles such as A Month in the Country opposite Helen Mirren, and Dennis Potter's controversial play about Jesus, Son of Man, for the RSC (hence the beard). "It's a comment on mankind, hypocrisy and politics," he says. Fiennes recently spent six weeks in Sienna filming with Bernardo Bertolucci on Stealing Beauty. Co-stars included Sinead Cusack, Jeremy Irons, Liv Tyler and Jean Cocteau's protégé, Jean Marais (who featured in Beauty and the Beast and Orpheus), whom Fiennes describes as "an enlightened man".