Ralph Fiennes: Buttoned Up

By LYNN HIRSCHBERG
See the slideshow of photographs by WILLY VANDERPERRE


In the final third of "The Constant Gardener," as Justin Quayle, the character played by Ralph Fiennes, hunts frantically for clues that will explain his wife's murder, he does not change his clothes once. For days, Quayle, a British diplomat in Kenya, wears nondescript khakis and a faded, stretched-out T-shirt. "We had big debates about that T-shirt," Fiennes said in mid-December over tea at a hotel in Beverly Hills. He had a sore throat, and yet his voice seemed even richer than normal. "I take a lot of time on costumes - the cut of a suit, the color of a tie, can tell you so much about a man's character. So, as Justin Quayle is falling apart at the end of the film, I thought maybe he should wear a frayed dress shirt. Then I decided that a T-shirt is more vulnerable, more naked. And I thought it should be a faded pink T-shirt. But it had to be the right faded pink." A dozen T-shirts were dyed. According to Fiennes, only one of them was right. "I wore that one T-shirt for lots of days, and there was only the one. They'd present me with another, and I would immediately know the difference."

That sort of detailed, precise thinking has been a hallmark of Fiennes's acting career. Although he has the classic looks of a leading man - pale blue green eyes that seem to change color in different light, a big straight nose and an innate gracefulness that animates even mundane activities like pouring a cup of tea - Fiennes is not attracted to the broad strokes that often lead to movie stardom. In his first role in an American film, in 1993, he played the complicated Nazi sadist Amon Goeth in "Schindler's List" and was nominated for an Academy Award. "Goeth was a villain," Fiennes said, "and there were those who thought I should stick to playing heroes. But I'm not sure I understand what constitutes a hero." One critic said he felt that Justin Quayle, who is definitely a hero, should act more forcefully, more like Harrison Ford. But Fiennes claims not to understand the Harrison Ford approach. "The characters I play don't usually come from that world," he says. "They have an eccentric idealism, rather than a sense of their might."

Which is another way of saying that they are usually not American. Fiennes, who is 43, was born in Suffolk, England, and currently lives in London. He is one of seven children; his mother was a writer, and his father was a photographer. "Going to the movies was a big event in my youth," Fiennes said. "My father would be the initiator - he'd have me put on a jacket to see a film." He remembers going to see "Bambi" when he was 4 or 5 and being completely stricken by the death of the mother. "That's when I realized the power of cinema." Fiennes smiled. In 1982, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, followed by a long season with the Royal Shakespeare Company. "I never studied anything about film technique in school," he said. "Eventually, I realized that cinema and theater are not so different: from the gut to the heart to the head of a character is the same journey for both."

Fiennes had never done an American accent - had never been to America - when he was asked to fly to New York to meet with Robert Redford about a part in "Quiz Show." "It was during 'Schindler's List,' " Fiennes said as he poured another cup of tea. "I was in Poland, playing a Nazi with an Austrian accent and a big belly, and I was up for the sort of part that Redford himself would have played: a doomed WASP. I knew nothing about America in the 50's or the quiz-show scandals. The movie was about the American class structure, and the class structure in England is completely different. So I was lost." Fiennes paused. "But I like being lost, as long as I can dig myself out. When they called and said I had the part, I was shocked. I was still in the mind of this Nazi - it was a little confusing."

But then again, for Fiennes, acting is above all an exercise in imagination - "researching everything and then putting it all aside and imagining a person's life from the inside out. There's a part of me that likes little Mary Smith with her little hat, little winter overcoat, not particularly attractive, who feeds her cats at night, reaching into her box of tricks and playing Cleopatra, the greatest temptress of them all, brilliantly and convincingly. When you act, you bring out something that may not be apparent."

Perhaps that explains how Fiennes, who seems utterly civilized and charming, is so compelling as Lord Voldemort, the personification of sheer evil in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." He appears near the end of the film and, despite immense expectations, is completely terrifying. This may be because his nose has been removed. "At first, it wasn't scary enough," Fiennes said. "They had to fix my lack of nose. And I was helped by lots of shadows - that increased the menace. So much of movie acting is in the lighting. And in loving your characters. I try to know them, and with that intimacy comes love. And now, I love Voldemort."

When he appeared on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" back in August to promote "The Constant Gardener," Fiennes was asked to talk about his failure at a nonacting job. "I sold shirts," he recounted now. "I would take a sack of shirts into offices and pitch them to working people who didn't want shirts. I was awful. I just had no belief in it, and I only sold one." Fiennes was to go back on the show after our interview. "Maybe I should wear a very bright patterned shirt tonight on Leno," he said. "It could be a source of conversation. We can start with the shirt and all it implies. It would be a way of establishing personality without revealing a thing."

In the end, he wore a beautiful, plain shirt. After all, it's best when character is not so easily determined.