Joseph Fiennes
Joseph Fiennes
Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennesis an English film and stage actor known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, and Monsignor Timothy Howard in the second season of the TV series American Horror Story...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth27 May 1970
greater love requires theatre ways
Yes, in a way. Film is a by-product of my love of theatre. Theatre is for me the greater challenge. In many ways it requires more skill.
british-actor mad onto passion
I'd like to be a passion fruit. Not because it's passionate, but because someone I know is mad about them and has got me onto them.
bed caught disney holding miramax political
Miramax and Disney were collaborators, and then during the film's release, they jumped out of bed and it got caught up in a political holding pattern.
head love offered tights voice
When I was offered the part in ShakespeareIn Love a voice in my head said 'not another tights role!
creative directors few great remarkable simply streak today
There are a few remarkable directors who have a great creative streak and then simply go on streaking ... Today we have another remarkable director in our midst.
art beaten character childhood great guess hindsight interact learn trying weird year
Yeah, I guess that's fair, ... And in a weird way my childhood was a great precursor to where I am now. Every year I had to learn how to interact in a new schoolyard, reinventing myself if one character didn't work. In hindsight I can see that it was great actor's training. But it was just the art of survival, really. Trying not to get beaten up in the playground.
quite
So there was a sense that we were always quite interchangeable.
jobs mean thinking
So getting that balance between what is honoring scripture and the Word and also acknowledging the fact that by the virtue of putting it on film there's going to be a variation and adaptation, I mean, it's a fine dance and a balance. Our producers and directors have worked so hard to get that right and I'm really proud. I think it's a pretty good job.
kings views youth
Youth is a predominant factor. We are seeing a young King Arthur, and thereby a young-ish - as I'm into my 40s - Merlin. It was about how to tackle it, from that point view.
kings fun character
I also wanted to have fun with it. I wanted to have the scope, which I felt Merlin has, in his Machiavellian bi-polar way. He's not to be trusted, yet he is fighting for this great power and is really a master, to some degree, in orchestrating Camelot and King Arthur. He's a strange, dark devious character, and I just wanted to have fun, and get away from the cloak and long beard and pointy hat.
character icons age
I like the fact that we're stripping the icons away. They're the WikiLeaks for the age that we're revealing, with the transparency of the characters. We're unearthing the truth beyond or underneath the myth. I love that aspect.
dark political facts
Merlin is really at the forefront, in that regard. We get a glimpse into the dark, Machiavellian corridors of power. I like the fact that, although he has powers, his powers are almost in his political guile as much as what he relies on, in darker forces.
joy abhorrent despicable
I guess there's nothing I don't like about Merlin, in this presentation. I love everything, even the things I find despicable and abhorrent in Merlin. They're actually a joy to ride on the tailcoats of.
horse couple fun
There are a couple of films that I've done, where I've had to get on a horse and wear a pair of tights, so that helped. But, nothing could have prepared me for the fun of wielding magic like Merlin does, especially in the perverted mind of Chris Chibnall.