Ralph Fiennes Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

It has a hook on it so I can hold my hand like that

and the end of it can hook around, I think this finger.

I remember it should feel like an extension of my hand.

Schindler's list, in Schindler's List,

I played Armon Goeth, who was the commandant

of a Nazi labor camp, in outside Krakow, in Poland.

I hadn't done, I'd done maybe

two big feature films before it.

I remember being struck by Steven's extraordinary

knowledge of the technique of filmmaking.

Which in my very limited experience

I hadn't experienced anyone being so vocal

about lenses and how they're gonna shoot.

And we'll do like this, put a dolly down here,

and it was exciting, because it felt like someone

was unashamedly vocal about their processes

as it was happening, and I remember he said to me,

I'm shooting this, I've made no storyboards,

I'm just shooting this, obviously he knew

his script inside out, but he was allowing himself

to be inventive on the day, that's what he said.

He said I've just directed Jurassic Park.

Everything's story boarded to the Nth degree,

this is the opposite, and the energy of that

oppositeness, was his aliveness, you know,

he was very vocal and demanded

a lot of the crew, but it was exciting.

I tried to do as much research as I could

based on Thomas Keneally's book Schindler's Ark,

originally, now it's called Schindler's List.

But in the Imperial War Museum here in London,

there's quite a lot of documentation

about Schindler and Goeth, and I think

what I came away with is this is a man

who drank a lot, Amon Goeth, I think, and he ate a lot.

The scene with Embeth Davidtz, playing Helen Hirsch

in the cellar, I would like so much to

reach out and touch you in your loneliness.

What would that be like I wonder?

I mean, what would be wrong with that?

I realize that you're not a person

in the strictest sense of the word but ...

That was quite a challenging ...

It was a beautifully written scene.

I just remember the challenge of a man

who's suddenly finding, someone designated

in his eyes as unacceptable, he sees,

all that prejudice starts to slightly crack.

Possibly because he's allowing an attraction

or a desire to come to the surface.

To me, it feels very human.

The Harry Potter series, I hadn't invested

the time in reading the books, I knew there was

a Harry Potter, huge thing happening,

but I hadn't seen the earlier film, so I had no sense.

It was only when my sister, who has children said,

don't you realize what they're asking you to do,

it's extraordinary, and then I sort of ...

And then I took it a bit more seriously.

I wasn't that aware of it when it was first

proposed to me, I, do I like this part?

What does it involve, you know,

is it something I'll enjoy playing?

And I did in the end, yeah.

You're a fool, Harry Potter, and you will lose.

She describes the voice in a couple of places at least.

Which was a good indicator of where to go.

The snake-like idea that J.K. Rowling gives him

is someone, that he himself has snakelike elements

to his movement, silky, smooth, silent.

With Stuart Craig, who was the production designer,

and his team, we discussed what the wand would be.

It has a hook on it, so it can hook,

I can hold my hand like that, and the end of it

can hook around I think, this finger.

So it can sort of, I can almost have a hand open.

So you would think it might fall off the hand

but it, I dunno, I just enjoyed,

it could be light in the hand, I didn't have

as much prosthetic makeup as people think I did.

They removed my nose digitally, later on.

So I was covered in colored dots,

and then I had to sit in front of cameras

and at every angle recorded, and for the digital expert

Mark Coulier is the makeup artist for me, and his team

gave me a white, pale, pale, sort of sickly complexion

but then they had these, sort of vein-like paint work

which was actually transfers, so they could have consistency

so they just sponged the transfers onto my scalp

and face to give this sort of slightly translucent

vein-like quality to my sickly pallor.

Scene at the table, when I talk about Muggles,

to her the mixture of magical and Muggle blood

is not an abomination, but something to be encouraged.

And then the snake comes up along,

I love that scene, I think it's the beginning

of the first part of Deathly Hallows.

Nagini.

Dinner.

[melancholy orchestral music]

That was a great scene, and I loved

shooting the death duel, that was cool.

With Daniel in the big courtyard.

That was epic.

[melancholy orchestral music]

You just have to hate Harry Potter with a deep loathing.

[laughs] I'll be pissed if they brought

back Voldemort and didn't ask me.

Coriolanus.

Sort of the decision to direct

came indirectly, I was close to a great producer

called Simon Channing Williams who produced

all Mike Lee films until sadly he died.

We had a project which he tried to make with me

but it didn't work, that initial process

of script conversations and location scouts

and starting to put on the hat of a director,

that gave me a kind of confidence

to reach into an idea in my back pocket

which I had had, if I ever would direct

it would be this Shakespeare play, Coriolanus

which is not often done, not, I would say

one of his most popular plays, a very antagonistic,

confrontational, elitist central protagonist.

But a fascinating play about politics and power and people.

[Man] Your noble consul, Coriolanus.

[clapping]

With Coriolanus, I definitely definitely referenced

Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet as a very bold

and exciting modernization using Shakespeare's text

but committing to a modern world.

I want, desperately want audiences to feel that

whatever the language might be doing

that the emotions and the actions

and the motivations are ones we carry in us today.

[Man] I will fight against my country.

And then men die.

But it was a tricky sell, my first film

obviously easily labeled as vanity project for this actor

and all that stuff, and it was scary,

directing myself, the challenge was

I mustn't spend too much time indulging myself.

I had a bit of a clock in my head

when I was doing coverage on myself.

I feel the responsibility to nurture

the other actors in their performances.

That's one of the pleasures actually.

Grand Budapest Hotel.

I'd met Wes a couple of times.

He'd been extremely friendly to me, and supportive.

I'd shown him an early mood reel,

or what they call a sizzle reel

of Coriolanus when I was trying to make it

and get funding, he had been very supportive

and encouraging about it as an idea.

But that was in a social situation,

so some years later now, three or four years later,

he's sending me this script,

and he had am eccentric approach

which he said, please read this script

and tell me which character you would like to play.

Well I think this one maybe. [laughs]

That was a very happy experience

with the way Wes works with his ensemble of actors.

Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, and I think

everyone is there because they love the spirit of his films.

[Man] Many of the hotel's most

valued and distinguished guests came for him.

I love you.

I love you.

She was dynamite in the sack, by the way.

She was 84.

I've had older.

I remember we were definitely thinking

of who do I know that Monsieur Gustave like.

And then there is actually, it's supposedly based on

a mutual acquaintance that I know and Wes knows.

Who came to the set, and I knew,

I don't mimic him but I suppose I'm aware of

this person's energy and demeanor

that I've taken it on board.

Sunshine, Sunshine is directed by a great Hungarian

director, Istvan Szabo, and Istvan asked me to be

in this film, which is a story of a Jewish family's

assimilation in the 20th century in Budapest, in Hungary.

Istvan Szabo said to me, this film is about

the disease of wanting to be accepted.

[Woman] Who are you trying to please?

Well I have to please our family,

and the memory of our rabbi grandfather.

I have to please the government and its opposition.

I have to please our brother who wants to turn

the world upside down, and our father

who wants to keep the world exactly as it is.

[Interviewer] You play multiple characters.

I do, I play three, and there was differences

in facial hair and hair cut I think.

But I thought no that shouldn't be,

if the film is storytelling, and the filmmaking

is clear enough, the audience will know.

It didn't seem at all the sort of film where

the actor completely changes,

and oh my god is it really him, her whatever.

It was no, no, you're meant to know it's me.

You're meant to understand that it's the same family.

The fact that I'm playing all three was the linking element.

The White Crow, The White Crow is about the

defection of Rudolf Nureyev for the events

leading up to his defection, so this great

Russian ballet dancer who was arguably like

a sort of equivalent to pop star

in the world of ballet, and I grew up with,

I never saw him dance, but I grew up

with his name being mentioned as the god of ballet,

of male ballet dancers, I was given the early chapters

of a new biography about Nureyev and I read about him

and it wasn't because I had a love of ballet,

it was because of his spirit, and that's what drew me

to him, a very confrontational spirit.

Often very difficult and abrasive,

and arguably abusive to people, and I found it

a very moving story, and I talked to the screenwriter

David Hare, who you will know from films like The Hours

and the Reader that I did, and David responded

to the idea of writing, so we worked together on that.

I learned from the first one, Coriolanus

to not be afraid of getting a lot of coverage,

to take time to go for a few more takes if I needed to.

Even if it meant pushing the overtime button a bit.

There's a Japanese director called Ozu

who has this very simple, classic frames,

he's probably very unfashionable.

I mean I love films where the camera moves.

But the principle of the frame that can hold the characters

or closeup, on White Crow, we have three time frames.

So that principle of that sort of classic frame

of the camera that either moved on a track

or was locked off, it was applicable to the Leningrad

timeframes where Rudolf Nureyev is a student.

[violin music]

And then when he's in Paris, it's more immediate.

So then with Mike Healy, the brilliant cinematographer

who shot that, we, a lot of it's in the hand

so it sort of caught moments or found

and the camera has permission to be a bit messy

as it looks for the best way

to discover a scene between characters.

My name is Rudolf Nureyev, I want political asylum.

No.

Shooting ballet, which was way out of my comfort zone,

wanted an unknown to play Nureyev, and I wanted

a dancer to play Nureyev, but it was principally

an acting part, so persuading people to cast

a total unknown who's not even an actor by training

in the lead, that was really difficult.

This was never a film about his dance career.

It was always about what it is in the person.

I suppose in an artist or performer that makes him,

to turn him to go there and often necessarily ruthless

in their pursuit of excellence.

A Bigger Splash, Harry Hawkes is the character

of a great script by David Kajganich, Luca Guadagnino

directed myself, Tilda Swinton, who plays

a rockstar with whom I have been in love.

She's with her current boyfriend, Matthias,

played by Matthias Schoenaerts, and set on an island

called Pantelleria, and we shot on the real Pantelleria

which is an island between Sicily and Tunisia.

But I love this part, this sort of,

he's a music producer of a certain type.

Quite mouthy, and in your face.

[Interviewer] Was there anyone from your life

that you used as inspiration for Harry?

[laughs] A little bit, my brother Magnus

who is a [laughs] music producer and composer.

But a little bit of Magnus, but also just,

it leaped off the page about who Harry was.

And I just love Luca's approach, and when I

first met Luca and he talked about it

and the part was great on the page.

And I just like Luca's filmmaking intelligence

and his inquiry and he's properly creative

on a set and he thinks very beautifully filmically.

He respects the journey of the characters whilst,

I mean there's some filmmakers the direction

sort of smothers the life of characters

with fancy camera work or funny editing choices, or ...

The English Patient, on the English Patient

we all, meaning the actors, with Antony and the crew,

we all believed in the emotional breadth

and scope of it, it all felt like a drama

that had visual scope and emotional scope

but at the time it was hard to finance.

Because none of the protagonists were,

in the eyes of the Hollywood establishment,

none of us were insurance stars,

we were all up and comers, so it didn't jump out

at the people with the purses, it was in fact

Harvey Weinstein who saved it, through Miramax.

He came in and saved it because it was going down

just before we were due to start.

I have a happy memory of being in great locations

and being in Rome for a while, then going to Tuscany

then going to Venice for a short time,

then going to Tunisia, going to the Sahara.

So it's suddenly in this desert landscape.

[Man] Clifton offered to fly down from Cairo

and collect me, he flew like a madman always.

I took no notice.

I don't think now, with the way independent films

or that sort of adult drama character led films,

the sort of budget would be hard now.

You'd probably have to shoot it in half the time.

We shot from September to January, 1995 to January 1996.

The Constant Gardener.

John le Carre story produced by Simon Channing Williams

who I talked about earlier who came to me with the project.

Simon brought in Fernando Meirelles who's very,

he was being talked about for the City of God.

And I thought that was an inspired choice

because there's a kind of Englishness that sits

with John le Carre's work which is great.

I could see how an English director

would confirm certain stereotypes.

I mean the whole thing has a looseness

and a documentary-like feel which

I think shook it away from the pages of a book.

Which is what, you need that.

[Woman] How are you, how are you?

We can't involve ourselves in their lives, Tess.

There are millions of people that all need help.

Justin Quail, his name, he's a certain type

of self effacing Englishman of a certain sort of

middle class-ness I suppose, well mannered, charming,

possibly thought of as ineffectual.

And you know, not someone to shoulder their way

to the front of a queue, not someone who

pushes forward their ambition, but is decent

and reveals himself to have a core of steel

and determination in trying to avenge

or get at least to the secret of his wife's murder.

The appeal to me was, here was a guy

that everyone thinks is a bit soft,

actually has an extraordinary courage.

And I love that, it moved me, you know this is someone

who no one thinks, but he pursues and pursues and pursues.

I'm not conscious that I have the same approach

to every part because often the director

you're working with informs the approach you might take.

A lot of the time I feel things intuitively.

I think about who they are, I think about their inner life.

Where are they from, who are their parents,

you can give yourself imagination exercises.

People ask about research, there is research,

but actually a lot of it I think

is just intuition and imagination.

[violin music]