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
I've got a vendetta to destroy the Net, to make everyone go to the library. I love the organic thing of pen and paper, ink on canvas. I love going down to the library, the feel and smell of books.
I love new writing, new blood, modern works by unknown writers.
Pretty much all films I've seen that depict the life of Christ end with the Crucifixion, almost like the filmmakers don't know what to do after.
I think academics are infuriating. For every expert on Shakespeare there is another one to cancel his theory out. It drives you up the wall. I think the greatest form of finding out the truth is through fantasy.
From the age of about five to twelve I was very bad, a hideous little terror who beat people up. I was a member of the Rough Gang - we went around and terrorized all the pupils in school.
I think everything I do is my early work. I can't wait to get on to the later stuff.
I read as much as I could, but really just spoke to Chris Chibnall and asked all the pertinent questions. That made me feel like we weren't going to do an off-the-peg Camelot, which has been touched upon in many films and TV series before. I really just picked his brain and, in doing so, I got fired up by tackling Merlin in a fresher angle.
I can only put myself in the process and try to learn through the process. Sometimes it will go well and sometimes it won't.
The great thing about films is that you have access to this whole world of experts who teach you the skills your character's supposed to have.
You know what? Joy is the only guide. I'm going to have fun regardless.
He [Merlin] is slightly from another world and place, so it's about having fun and presenting it in a new way. He's more of a politician, and slightly Machiavellian, but there's also a lovely relationship going on between Merlin and Arthur. There's so much to be had, really.
But it's a strange thing when people judge you because you're not doing some big Hollywood film. Are you suggesting I should be in 'The Dukes of Hazzard?' I mean, hello?
I fall in love with contradictions without understanding. I can't really portray them unless I do. So in a roundabout way I have to fall in love, it's my duty. If love is about understanding and understanding is compassion and compassion is love, I have to have compassion towards the world.
It all felt like a terribly long time. It would have meant that I had to make five movies in five years and if you don't like the movies, too bad. I guess I just wanted my freedom, and I think my life has been incredibly enhanced as a result.