So Who Is Ralph Fiennes Anyway?

By "M"
Movie Magazine
C. 1994/95


It's hard to believe that a little over a year ago thirty-two-year-old Ralph Fiennes was a little known British actor. That is until he landed a plumb role in Schindler's List and brought the Hollywood giants running to get acquainted.

Now he's starring in Robert Redford's latest movie, Quiz Show, to rave reviews and the future couldn't look brighter.

"I just felt Ralph had something tricky and dark to him, that's what did it," says director Robert Redford about why he chose Ralph Fiennes to play a corrupt contestant in his latest movie.

In Quiz Show, Robert Redford has recreated the true story of the television quiz show scandals that shocked middle American 35 years ago.

Ralph plays Charles Van Doren, a popular quiz show participant who won fame and fortune on the top rating show Twenty One with rigged questions. He became the fall guy for a scandal about corruption by the appeal of celebrity and easy money.

After his critically accalaimed performance as the sadistic Nazi commandant, Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, the softly spoken and theatrically trained Fiennes knows personally about the pitfalls of being plucked from relative obscurity and handed the baubles of stardom.

From being just another capable British actor classically trained on the stage, Ralph Fiennes (pronounced Rafe Fines) became hot property in Hollywood.

"Van Doren is an interesting character. He's flawed but likeable in his dilemma," says Ralph. "He was seduced by the attention, the celebrity and the show's producers in a way, but he certainly was not without fault."

"I thought he was a rather tragic figure. I think he suffered more than necessary."

Playing Van Doren was a big change from being Amon Goeth. For starters, Ralph had to lose the 25 pounds he put on to play the Nazi. Slimly built, with a shy smile and distinctly English reserve, Ralph had to study newsreel footage of the real Van Doren to get close to his mannerisms and East Coast American accent -- something quite difficult for an English person to master.

"It was quite a dramatic change," says Ralph. "Van Doren was basically a man who agreed to fo along with the rigging of these quiz shows. The film kind of concentrates on his quite liking the attention and the money, but he also had a conscience and he knew he was doing wrong and misleading a lot of people."

At it height in 1959, the quiz show Twenty One had a regular audience of some 50 million people. Americans closely followed the success of this seemingly brilliant contestant who became a regular celebrity, until it was revealed that he was given the answers beforehean to keep him in the show. The scandal in some ways was a milestone in the nation's perceived loss of innocence.

It's the slightly haunted look behind Ralph's pale blue-eyed stare which appealed to the director when he was casting the role of Van Doren. The look also tells something about Ralph's own scepticism about his flavour-of-the-month appeal in Hollywood at the moment.

Meeting for the interview at the famed Beverly Wiltshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Ralph confessed he still finds being the centre of attention somewhat unreal.

"Sometimes I'm amused by this suddent attention and it doesn't seem real to me. Other times it gets on top a bit and starts to bug me," he concedes.

"It's weird how things go in movies, how this business works. People don't pick up the phone and call you until they see how the film's going to work."

"If Schindler's List hadn't been so successful, nothing would have changed much for me in films. I read for a part before Schindler's List opened, then I heard the part was being offered to someone else."

"But, the moment the word on Schindler's List came out, three weeks later, I was offered the part. It made me feel slightly cynical. Usually if you read for something, you hear in a couple of days."

Up until the Steven Spielberg hit, Ralph was best known for starring as Heathcliff in an ill-fated Paramount remake of Wuthering Heights (which was not released in Australia) and for playing Lawrence of Arablia in a British television film called A Dangerous Man.

A graduate of London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1985, Ralph was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) for two years before gradually being drawn into film work.

He gave some critically acclaimed performances at the RSC, notable as Edmund in King Lear and in Henry VI. While he professes a strong desire to return to the British stage, at the moment he's making the most of his popularity in Hollywood, a business empire notorious for its short attention span.

Next up, Ralph is due to co-star with Angela Bassett in Kathryn Bigelow's dark futuristic thrller Strange Days, which is set in Los Angeles -- a city Ralph says he doesn't have any desire to live in.

"I don't see myself ever moving out to Hollywood and just working for roles. I'm happy living in London," he maintains. "I definitely feel I don't want to lose touch with the theatre in England."

"I've been away from it for two years now and I'd like to get back to that ensemble feeling. The ideal is doing both."

"What's great about doing films is I get to these new places. Cracow in Poland for Schindler's List and New York forQuiz Show. There were both wonderful experiences."

Married to British actress Alex Kingston two years ago, Ralph was one of six children born to a Suffolk farmer and his mother, who dies that same year, was the writer and painter, Jennifer Lash.

"I discussed with Robert Redford the business of career longevity and how to achieve it, how to play things," says Ralph. "He's very aware, being able to keep his head above it, brilliantly so."

"He moves himself as much as he can from the celebrity and advises me to do the same. I think he's right."

Part of the appeal of Ralph Fiennes is an ability to grasp the philosophical implications of the characters he plays. Playing Amon Goeth had a deep impact on the actor, especially for its insight into the nature of evil we all have within us.

"I think the whole Nazi thing was quite seductive to the kind of anger we all feel in adolescence. It attracted young men, and we are seeing the same thing in the former Yugoslavia today," he says. "It's always been there."

"Because we are sitting here having an intelligent conversation, it doesn't mean that if somehow circumstances were somhow altered radically, the other side of us wouldn't come out."

"I think perhaps Europeans understand that better than Americans, because we've seen it happen so often. Here we have this evil spring gfrom a nation that has also given us great art."

Having played two psychologically intriguing roles in the past year, Ralph admits that it's not always easy letting go of a character once the film's finished. "As an actor your job is to connect with the part of you which can relate to this character. This means that sometimes a role can be tougher to unload than you think," he says. "In a funny way you're not entirely aware of, a role can get inside you and inform the way you behave -- just seem to creep into your attitrude."

-----"M"



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