Ralph Fiennes

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety nine, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:31

My Castaway this week is an actor. In a range of important roles, he's demonstrated a versatility and breadth of talent which has attracted the admiration of Hollywood and the London stage alike. He calls the theatre his base camp, and in classic roles, including a much-acclaimed Hamlet, he secured it safely. Beyond this, as the psychopathic Nazi in Schindler's List, as the passionate count in the English patient, and as the fraudulent academic in Quiz Show, he's shown that he knows how to be a star as well. The eldest of six children, his decision to become an actor didn't crystallise until quite late, but that's proved no obstacle to his success. Of acting, he says, I like the hideawayness of it. I've often thought that I feel more secure in a part than I do in everyday life. He is Rafe Fiennes. It's all happened quite quickly, Rafe. The films one mentions in conjunction with your name have all been made in the 1990s. Was Schindler's list the big break, the one that made you bankable, as they say?

Ralph Fiennes1:31

Yes, I suppose it must have been. Uh I um had in fact done one television film playing T E Lawrence and a version of Wuthering Heights which didn't go down particularly well. And i I think at that time I I had thought I'd blown it. That's it. It's not I'm going to go back to the theatre and

Presenter1:48

Um

Ralph Fiennes1:50

It's not gonna work for me on film. Then I was asked to meet Stephen.

Presenter1:53

Steven Spielberg.

Ralph Fiennes1:54

Stevens Pielberg.

Ralph Fiennes1:55

And then I think at the end of the interview he said the part that that I'm interested in you for is not Oskar Schindler, it's for the commandant of the labour camp, Armand Gerd.

Presenter2:06

But why would he think of you for that? I mean, were you amazed? Why would he think of I mean, let me say a you know, an an a neat, small featured, very English Englishman for this Gross in both size and character Nazi.

Ralph Fiennes2:19

I I don't I knew when I knew that he had spook I actually I I suppose the connection I made was I knew he had seen me play this Heathcliff, which which wasn't great, but I think I played Heathcliff in a particularly violent and quite sadistic way, and that's what I believe that's that's what I what I believe Heathcliff is Heathcliff is actually.

Presenter2:38

is that darkness.

Ralph Fiennes2:38

Darkness very, very dark.

Presenter2:40

Hmm.

Ralph Fiennes2:40

animal and primitive and and and the latter part of the book

Ralph Fiennes2:44

Sadistic, actually.

Presenter2:45

You did have to become very fat, you felt in the end. How how did you put on all that weight?'Cause you had a real gut.

Ralph Fiennes2:47

Do you feel

Ralph Fiennes2:52

Lots of pasta, ice cream and Guinness.

Presenter2:56

And did it work?

Ralph Fiennes2:56

Uh no, it didn't really work. I I got some generous love handles, but well otherwise not much. Uh and then in the end I went to my local chemist and bought some f very dubious looking weight gain powders. And you mix it with milk and it's like liquid cement.

Presenter3:13

But from playing this evil German, you went on to play this this cheating American white Anglo Saxon Protestant in Quiz Show, and then the Hungarian Count in in in in the English Patient, and then the neurotic gambler in Oscar Lucinda. It's a huge range, and it does seem, watching you in all of those roles, that you do

Presenter3:31

change your your you change physically, you say physiognomy every time. It I suppose I suppose that's the job, is it? That's the talent, is it?

Ralph Fiennes3:40

I don't know, it's it it's it's funny because I think that when I wanted to to be an actor it was because of language.

Speaker 43:47

Hmm.

Ralph Fiennes3:47

We as children were always surrounded by books and recordings of poetry or plays, etcetera. My mother was a very articulate woman who would encourage us to talk and she'd read to us and we'd be encouraged to read poems and um

Ralph Fiennes4:06

And I was alwai I from an early age I was excited by by language.

Ralph Fiennes4:10

And I suppose

Ralph Fiennes4:12

That was that's what turned me on actually as an actor. But then when I started

Ralph Fiennes4:17

Bimoff would work in films.

Ralph Fiennes4:20

It wasn't language, it was it was something more physical.

Ralph Fiennes4:24

I worked with brilliant costume designer Jim Atcherson on Wuthering Heights actually, but the process of finding this wardrobe of battered old rags for Heathcliff that then turned into finer garments as he comes back to Wuthering Heights was wonderful because he

Ralph Fiennes4:39

He sort of worked the clothes around your body and now we're sitting and we're talking about it and analysing it, but I think sometimes some will say, wear this coat or put on this uniform, put on this S S uniform. Hmm.

Speaker 44:51

Good.

Ralph Fiennes4:52

And it was a very peculiar, unsettling feeling that the costume made you feel powerful and strong.

Ralph Fiennes4:59

And that was very disturbing.

Presenter5:01

Tell me about your first record.

Ralph Fiennes5:03

Well, when we were young my father had been in Australia and he had a whole string of

Ralph Fiennes5:09

Of ballads that he sang, obviously included things like Waltzing Matilda.

Ralph Fiennes5:13

And though I haven't got a recording of him singing any of those.

Ralph Fiennes5:17

He always used to speak about Kathleen Ferrier, and how how moved he was by her singing, and how how tragic it was that she died of throat cancer.

Ralph Fiennes5:30

And so my first record is Kathleen Ferrier.

Ralph Fiennes5:34

Singing Blow the Wind Southerly

Speaker 45:40

Southerly, southerly Blow the wind south, O'er the bony blue sea.

Speaker 45:52

Oh the wind southerly, southerly, southerly

Speaker 46:00

Lovely breeze, my love.

Presenter6:08

Kathleen Ferrier singing Blow the Wind Southerly, and that was recorded in 1949. I Wonder Why It Makes You Cry?

Ralph Fiennes6:16

I suppose

Ralph Fiennes6:19

something about maybe it's uh inevitable nostalgia about about hearing it when I was young, and also something about s a voice of that purity being cut off so so tragically.

Presenter6:34

Your mother, who died of cancer six years ago, was obviously a formidable influence in your life. What was she like?

Ralph Fiennes6:42

Well, as a mother primarily ex ex extraordinarily.

Ralph Fiennes6:46

Loving and giving and able to encourage.

Ralph Fiennes6:52

Her children all as individuals.

Presenter6:54

Because there were six of you.

Ralph Fiennes6:54

Well, there were seven, in fact, because when I was about one and a half or two she adopted

Ralph Fiennes7:00

Uh mm I consider him my elder brother Mick.

Ralph Fiennes7:04

who was eleven actually when he came to our house.

Presenter7:07

You didn't resent him, you didn't mind.

Ralph Fiennes7:09

No, because they were such a

Ralph Fiennes7:11

Quite a big as ten year age cat.

Ralph Fiennes7:13

I think the f my first competitor was my sister Martha, and the the store apparently I don't remember I stole her teddy bear.

Presenter7:20

So it's a huge house full of children. I mean there were well, six of you were under seven at one point, and then there was Mick, as you say, uh older. Uh life must have been pretty crowded, lots of queuing for the bathroom.

Speaker 47:27

Uh Yeah.

Ralph Fiennes7:31

There was, yes, when yes, there was, and and some of the houses we lived in, we moved my parents moved around quite a bit in the early seventies.

Ralph Fiennes7:41

And some of the houses were quite small, often they were intermediary houses, while my father would work on doing up the house that we were going to live in.

Presenter7:48

That's how he made his money, isn't it?

Ralph Fiennes7:49

I think so, yes. My father is is is a photographer.

Ralph Fiennes7:53

and he s started being a photographer quite l quite late.

Ralph Fiennes7:57

And so those early, early years of establishing himself were quite difficult.

Presenter8:02

But your mother taught you herself at one point, all of you, didn't she?

Ralph Fiennes8:05

It was only for a short time, I think maybe just under a year, that she did it. It was all very arts biased, arithmetic and maths. Somehow, even though she tried not to, they they definitely became s second string. And she got in a local retired army intelligence officer to come teach us Latin. But my brother Magnus and I were more interested in asking him about his

Ralph Fiennes8:31

Experiences during World War Two.

Presenter8:33

But it all obviously worked. She obviously stimulated you all because I mean, well, we know that your brother Joseph is an actor, memorably a Shakespeare in love, and then your sister Martha is a director, and so you've all ended up really being rather artistic and very successful. So the whole thing worked.

Ralph Fiennes8:49

It worked, but it often there were moments of.

Ralph Fiennes8:53

She was often exhausted, she wanted to find time to write, and always the concerns about schooling and money.

Ralph Fiennes9:02

Well quite difficult, so I have

Ralph Fiennes9:04

I have memories of great freedom and being inspired and encouraged, but there were times when it was it was ver you know, I also remember times of great stress and anxiety.

Presenter9:14

Record number two.

Ralph Fiennes9:17

Well record number two is Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie, and I remember buying it in WH Smith in Salisbury after school. I felt like I had bought something slightly illicit.

Speaker 49:29

So where were the spiders?

Speaker 49:35

While the fly tried to break her bow

Speaker 49:40

Or just a very light to guide us

Speaker 49:45

So we bitched around his pants and shoved with crutches with him.

Presenter9:55

David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust. What were the theatrical influences in your childhood, Rafe? Did you listen to radio drama or television drama or something?

Ralph Fiennes10:02

No, I think I think my m my mother put on a record of of Laurence Olivier speaking soliloquies and speeches from Hamlet and Henry V with inter mixed in with the um William Walton score from both the films.

Ralph Fiennes10:19

And I didn't un I can't I didn't understand everything that was being said, but there was something about the effect of that voice and that music.

Presenter10:28

It hits a spot, obviously.

Ralph Fiennes10:30

Yeah, it did.

Presenter10:32

What about going to the theatre itself? Did you do that?

Ralph Fiennes10:35

Yes, but my f my first memory of going to the theatre has actually been taking to see Hamlet at the Salisbury Playhouse.

Presenter10:44

And, I mean, having done him yourself since, I mean, again,

Ralph Fiennes10:47

Well I was just I remember this production, I remember very simple spare minimal grey sets. My parents were quite sniffy about it, but I I wasn't, I was just intrigued. What always interests me is the the spirit of that person coming through whatever they're doing, if they're playing um Portia or or a Pinta character, it doesn't matter, there's still something that I remember that first theatre performance and being interested and I that's why I suppose I understand why people are interested in actors outside being actors, because the actor thinks they're projecting something. They're saying, I want to project this character, this is what I'm sending out. But they're actually there's stuff they're sending out which they don't know about.

Speaker 410:57

Hmm.

Ralph Fiennes11:31

And I think that's a good idea.

Presenter11:31

Which is of themselves.

Ralph Fiennes11:32

Yeah.

Presenter11:33

But you don't like it when people want to know more about it, do you? You prefer to be, as I said at the beginning, hiding away behind the character.

Ralph Fiennes11:35

No, I don't.

Ralph Fiennes11:41

I don't, but speaking as a punter.

Ralph Fiennes11:44

One is fascinated by the different qualities of different actors, or even if they're singers or or even musicians.

Presenter11:49

Record number three.

Ralph Fiennes11:51

Well this is a mo from the Mozart Requiem.

Ralph Fiennes11:54

I think I must have bought it once in a record shop, but I played it a lot and

Ralph Fiennes11:59

In my first and only motor car.

Ralph Fiennes12:02

Which is I still have just I bought it when I was went went to to to to start my first season with R S C at Stratford.

Speaker 412:22

With one with the forest, the forest is the same.

Presenter13:11

Part of the Benedictus from Mozart's Requiem, sung by Iliana Kotrubasch, Helen Watts, Robert Teer, and John Shirley Quirk.

Presenter13:18

Um Ray Fienes, you auditioned for the Royal Shakespeare Company, as you say, I think in the mid eighties, and Adrian Noble, the artistic director, said you gave one of the three best auditions he'd ever seen. Can you remember what you did for him?

Ralph Fiennes13:31

I actually did uh a speech f by the character Barone from Love's Labour's Lost.

Ralph Fiennes13:36

I remember it being

Ralph Fiennes13:39

A r a relaxed audition, but I I didn't know that I had.

Ralph Fiennes13:44

Apparently scored so high.

Presenter13:46

But you did go on, as as we've indicated, have a very successful time there. But it has to be said you had had a few failures before. You'd played Romeo, I think, in Regents Park in the open air theatre. Didn't go down well, did it?

Ralph Fiennes13:56

Yeah.

Ralph Fiennes13:59

Um I think Romeo is a infamously difficult part.

Ralph Fiennes14:04

And

Ralph Fiennes14:05

I remember an actor came to me afterwards and said, I don't think the balcony scene was successful, because it's such tender, delicate language of of first love and that mixture of speaking your mind, but also worrying about what the other person thinks of you, lurching into

Ralph Fiennes14:25

how much you love someone and and and then worrying that they they've misread it and

Ralph Fiennes14:30

And I think that I in that big arena I think I probably shouted it or ran I remember running around but feeling great doing it, but I think that the intensity of that

Ralph Fiennes14:40

Interaction. I think I missed it.

Presenter14:42

It it is interesting that that one would think of you as playing romantic leads, but what you've made your your name doing very much character parts. We haven't talked about Oscar Hopkins in Oscar and Lucinda because he's very

Ralph Fiennes14:53

Yeah.

Presenter14:55

Very sweet, very vulnerable, very excitable, and and he, as we know, is a bit neurotic and a and a gambler.

Presenter15:02

You have said, let me quote you to yourself again, that he is the nearest you've come to playing yourself.

Ralph Fiennes15:08

I never regret that quote, because I think I said it off the top of my head.

Ralph Fiennes15:12

I read the screenplay of Oscar and Lucinda before I read Peter Carey's book, and there's something about the idealism of Oscar Hopkins in Love when he he offers this mad scheme to the character Lucinda. There's something about his faith, actually.

Ralph Fiennes15:28

It's his faith that for all his awkwardness and his eccentricity, he's actually a very strong character. So although he's th thin and his clothes don't fit and he's he's quite i idiosyncratic, there's something at the heart of him to do with his faith that is very, very s strong and

Ralph Fiennes15:47

I don't know that I have that strength, but I was inspired by the strength of Oscar Hopkins, and thought what a wonderful set of things to to play.

Presenter15:56

Which one of all the characters you've played do you like best? Do you have a favourite?

Ralph Fiennes16:02

I don't have a favourite. No, I've I've

Ralph Fiennes16:05

They've been the only thing in my life at the time that I've done them.

Ralph Fiennes16:09

And then I suppose you you bid them farewell and they go out they get sent out into into the world and people you know, people either accept them or they don't.

Presenter16:19

Next I code

Ralph Fiennes16:21

Well

Ralph Fiennes16:22

On my travels I've taken I've always have carried the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, played, all of them by Alfred Brendel, so they've become, if you like, a sort of talisman or a s a safety net when one is feeling a bit bruised, battered or just needs to put one's mind into another place.

Speaker 417:35

Yeah.

Presenter17:40

Alfred Brendel playing part of Beethoven's piano sonata number thirty-two in C minor. Tell me about um quiz show, Rafe, in which you were directed by Robert Redford. You played Charles Van Doren, the uh the good-looking, clean-cut American son of famous academic who colluded with the producers of uh of a nineteen fifties television show um to win. It's a true story. He was he was told the answers beforehand. Did you research it heavily?

Ralph Fiennes18:06

Quite. There's lots of material about it, lots of and certainly I I watched the old footage of the shows. You can see Ch Charlie Van Doren giving these answers and

Ralph Fiennes18:16

That he actually has known beforehand or the trees.

Presenter18:18

What did you tell he was acting?

Ralph Fiennes18:20

Redford said, Oh, he's a terrible actor, you can see it. I have to say I thought he was quite good. I I I met Robert Redford, I was asked to meet him in the middle of shooting Schindler's List and I had to fly, I had some days off and I had to fly to meet him in New York, first time ever in America, to play up for playing a very waspy American part. I'd never played American before.

Presenter18:23

Uh

Presenter18:41

Why would he have thought you could do it?

Ralph Fiennes18:45

I don't know. I know that he had seen.

Ralph Fiennes18:48

I attempted to play T. E. Lawrence for television.

Ralph Fiennes18:54

And I suppose Lawrence is hating publicity and yet being drawn to it. It seems that De Lawrence posed for portraits and photographers and wrote a hu huge book, Seven Pillars, about his experiences, and at the same time retreated completely from the limelight. And I suppose maybe Redford saw in De Lawrence that sort of confusion at the heart of someone. Maybe, I don't know. But I think that in Charlie Van Dorn, someone

Ralph Fiennes19:24

who comes from a background of of principle. His father's a very famous lecturer in English at Columbia University, and and then drawn to this tacky world of television and getting the audience figures up and manipulating the audience and, you know, winning a lot of money and getting a lot of recognition and being recognized in the street. And I suppose there's a link between

Ralph Fiennes19:47

In the kind of qualities an actor might have to play in both parts there's a link.

Presenter19:50

Huh.

Presenter19:51

How did working for Redford as a director, in the end, work out differently from working for Spielberg? How do they compare?

Ralph Fiennes20:00

Well the obvious difference is that Redford is Robert Redford's an actor.

Ralph Fiennes20:04

I love working with both of them, but they I mean, Steven Spielberg comes with an extraordinary at his fingertips knowledge of the technical.

Ralph Fiennes20:14

Aspects of filming. If you put that lens on, it'll have this effect. If you move the dolly this way, it'll have. Whereas I felt.

Speaker 420:15

Hmm.

Ralph Fiennes20:22

With Robert Redford, that was less in the forefront of his mind. He really wanted to find ways of teasing out of the actors sort of different nuances of

Ralph Fiennes20:32

performance. Not to say that Stephen didn't also, but um just the vocabulary is different, that's all.

Speaker 220:40

Next record.

Ralph Fiennes20:41

I met Antony Mangela for the first time.

Ralph Fiennes20:44

to talk about the English patient, but also shortly after meeting him I met the wonderful producer of the English patient, Saul Zantz. And because the character I play, Count Olmashi, the English patient, has a private obsession with with uh jazz music or swing music or dance band music of that time, thirties, forties, Saul sent me a whole batch of C D's of different artists. And I played this a lot um during the filming.

Speaker 421:13

And in the evening when the sun goes down

Speaker 421:17

Never dark whence he's around.

Speaker 421:21

He's affected.

Speaker 421:23

I'll say this, that when she kisses me, I sure stay kiss.

Speaker 421:28

When my sugar walks down the street, all the birdies go tweet, tweet, tweet.

Presenter21:40

Turk Murphy and his jazz band with When My Sugar Walks Down the Street recorded in Los Angeles in nineteen forty nine.

Presenter21:47

And now Rafe finds we're about to see Onyagin, Yevgeny Oneegin, the nineteenth century Russian dandy and cynic who rebuffs the love of a beautiful girl and then only to fall madly in love with her years later and get rebuffed himself. Tchaikovsky wrote the opera, of course, as we know. Why did you want to make this film? This has really been a passion, hasn't it?

Ralph Fiennes22:09

Yes, it's been a sort of quiet passion that's that's sort of

Ralph Fiennes22:13

Here we get it.

Ralph Fiennes22:15

obsessed myself and my sister Martha, who is who's directed it. I first read Eugene and Yeegan by Pushk Alexander Pushkin. I didn't know the opera. I read it when I was at drama school.

Ralph Fiennes22:28

and became just intrigued by this character, Oneegin. He's the first of a Russian literary type called Lelishnichelaviek, or superfluous man, a man who has no role, who's lost. He's quite well off, he's a bachelor, but he's he's taken himself almost out of the world and he has a sort of cynical stance on things, and he's a narcissist and an egoist, and but not stupid. He's sort of removed himself, or in in mentally somehow removed himself from really emotional involvement or interaction with the world. And definitely he's based on types created by Byron, like Child Harold.

Speaker 422:41

Huh.

Presenter23:07

It's a wonderful part. It's a demanding part.

Presenter23:12

Why did you want to do more than just play that part and exec produce it as well and take on board all of those kind of

Ralph Fiennes23:22

It came about because we had well principally the the the the key producer initially on the film who really was responsible for for helping us find the money Eileen Mazell she uh said to me that I you know I think you should be executive producer I didn't quite know what that would involve it turned out to involve and I think it involves different things on different films in this case I think it involved really having a say creatively particularly on on the screenplay the development of the screenplay.

Presenter23:50

But are you saying you exec produced it because no one else did? Are you saying you were pushed into it? Or was it that you actually wanted to have that kind of control for the first time?

Ralph Fiennes23:59

I wanted to have involvement com involvement in creative decisions.

Presenter24:04

Did you enjoy having that kind of control over yourself, as it were?

Ralph Fiennes24:06

Over your

Ralph Fiennes24:08

Yes, but it's I came away from the whole thing with a hu uh a completely different respect and admiration for anyone who makes a film, who gets the finance, who works on the script, who fights the battle with people who want to change ideas, change the initial vision, often often because there are voices that appear in the process who says the audience won't like it, the audience won't this, the audience wants such and such, the audience want emotional music.

Ralph Fiennes24:39

And

Presenter24:39

You've got to go with your gut and you've got to trust your gut.

Ralph Fiennes24:40

Well I think I think one of the things was that Martha and I

Ralph Fiennes24:44

You know, ninety-nine percent of the time had the same gut feeling about it and

Presenter24:49

And the other one percent was was creative tension.

Ralph Fiennes24:52

Creative, healthy, healthy creative expression.

Presenter24:53

Healthy, noisy.

Ralph Fiennes24:55

Not too noisy in there.

Presenter24:57

Record number six.

Ralph Fiennes24:58

Well, in the film of Onjeegen we

Ralph Fiennes25:01

I'm sure the purists maybe will think why have they why have they put Beethoven in the film about Russia? But it's from Fidelio, and it's the quartet Mie Istzo vundo Bar. And m Martha came to me when we were discussing what music we should use and she said, I just want to use this piece of Beethoven, this Fidelio, I think it's wonderful and I said, Oh my god, that's I kn I know, I th this piece is extraordinary.

Speaker 425:27

We pass the post this year.

Ralph Fiennes25:32

Uh

Presenter25:59

Ingeborg, Hallstein, Christa, Ludwig, Gottlob, Frick, and Gerhard Unge singing the quartet Meer Istso Vundeba from Beethoven's Fidelio, with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer.

Presenter26:10

Mm.

Presenter26:11

You said that the theatre is your base camp, Rafe. Um do you despite all this great success in films, do you find it more thrilling still the stage?

Ralph Fiennes26:20

Well the process f I think for an actor is more a bit more pure in that the process of filmmaking is very chopped up.

Speaker 426:27

Hmm.

Ralph Fiennes26:28

After a while I th you you you long I've longed to to have that sort of open that open run, if you like of rehearsing and then then playing, playing playing a part right through.

Presenter26:39

And getting that instant reaction from the audience which is there.

Ralph Fiennes26:41

Yeah, and yeah, that instant that interaction is is is what you miss, I think, when you're when you're filming.

Presenter26:44

Suze.

Presenter26:47

But more of an excuse to to go home and and beat yourself up every night, as it were, because you can't redo a performance. And and I think you do agonise, don't you do fret.

Ralph Fiennes26:57

Whereas one of the worst feelings is feeling y that that night you missed it.

Ralph Fiennes27:01

And it's a it's a horrible feeling knowing that that night people were in and you you feel you messed it up.

Presenter27:07

But do you always, Fred, do you find it very difficult to find professional peace?

Ralph Fiennes27:12

I think I'm probably naturally a bit over anxious and a a worrier.

Ralph Fiennes27:18

Yes, it's it's not a help. Being anxious is can be a hindrance, I think.

Presenter27:24

Your your mother died, as I said earlier on, of breast cancer in 1993.

Presenter27:31

She didn't really live to see you become a big bankable star. The big bankable star that you are, did she?

Ralph Fiennes27:38

Well, she didn't live to see Joseph become a Banque star, sadly, nor did she live to see Martha directing Oneagin. But her own novel last novel, Blood Ties, we managed to publish thank you to Liz Calder of Bloomsbury Books, and that I wished she had seen.

Presenter28:00

You were thirty one when she died and um you had a a pretty turbulent time of it, one way or another around around then. Have you come to terms with all of that now? Have you formed

Ralph Fiennes28:12

Well, we we all have, all of us all I mean, I think, you know, I think it's not unique to us as a family if if a family loses a a parent or or any member of a family that is much loved, then then for anyone I think it's turbulent and we've all

Ralph Fiennes28:31

I think come as a family have I think become stronger because of it and closer.

Presenter28:39

And if you if if professional peace continues to elude you, have you found personal peace?

Ralph Fiennes28:48

Uh slowly, but uh

Ralph Fiennes28:51

I swear.

Ralph Fiennes28:52

I I suppose I think they're some they're intertwined.

Presenter28:55

And you might find peace one day.

Ralph Fiennes28:58

How well this some of this music that we've been playing gives me peace.

Presenter29:02

Let's have another piece of it.

Ralph Fiennes29:03

This is about feeling good. It's Nina Simone and uh

Ralph Fiennes29:07

Feeling good?

Speaker 429:09

Fish and you see, you know how I feel.

Speaker 429:15

River running tree, you know how I feel.

Speaker 429:22

Blossom on the tree, you know how I feel.

Speaker 429:27

New dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life.

Speaker 429:35

And I'm feeling good.

Presenter29:39

Nina Simone and feeling good. So um off to a desert island with you, Rafe Fienes. Um to an extent you ought to be able to cope. I mean you had this, as you say, rather nomadic

Presenter29:49

Childhood, lots of people around you must have you must know how to fend for yourself.

Ralph Fiennes29:54

Oh yes, I think my father would be very disappointed if I couldn't.

Presenter29:57

Would you miss an audience or is is um is acting

Presenter30:01

More to do with intellectual fulfillment than that.

Ralph Fiennes30:03

No, I don't think acting I don't think acting is at all intellectual activity. In fact, going back to what we were saying, I think more and more it's a it's a physical thing. It's closer. It uses the part of the brain that that you use if you're I'm a terrible sportsman, but I think it's a it's a physical activity. You can have lots of

Ralph Fiennes30:21

analyses of performance or in rehearsal but

Ralph Fiennes30:24

The moment of commitment to a part, whether it's in front of an audience or a camera, I think it's.

Ralph Fiennes30:32

It's more physical, really, or sensual.

Presenter30:35

And

Presenter30:37

Back on the Desert Island.

Presenter30:39

You seem to me to say that an audience is important for you in the theatre in that interactive sense, but as far as public admiration is concerned, you don't need it.

Ralph Fiennes30:51

Oh, n n I mean, I think everyone who wants to get up on the stage and be looked at wants to be liked somehow, but you I think you have to sort of accept that and get beyond it and value that the moment that you do it for what it is. And I I I feel more and more that if in choosing a any any job, any any character, any part to play,

Ralph Fiennes31:14

the process of now, that's your life, so the process of making that work and bringing that together is what important as and and and the odds are it'll if the process is thorough and enriching and inspiring and enabling, then that will show in in the finished result, in the final performance.

Presenter31:32

As your mother used to say, you've got to get your guts into it.

Ralph Fiennes31:35

Not to get your guts into it, that's right.

Presenter31:38

Last record.

Ralph Fiennes31:41

Well

Ralph Fiennes31:43

I had a wonderful collaboration with Anthony Mingella on the English patient and

Ralph Fiennes31:47

One of the a ge a wonderful gesture that he made was to give me some music, some of which is in the film, but he this this piece of music is not in the film. I know it's one of it's been one of his choices on this same programme.

Ralph Fiennes32:03

Coincidentally, it's also mine.

Speaker 432:55

Uh

Presenter33:01

Dietrich Fischer Diskau singing part of the Aria Mache diechmein Herze Rhein from Bach St. Matthew Passion with the Munich Bach Orchestra conducted by Karl Richter. Now, if you could only take one of those, Rafe, which one would it be?

Ralph Fiennes33:15

Ultimately, if I had to choose, I'd take the Fidelia because the layering of those those voices and the intensity of emotion, I think it would

Ralph Fiennes33:24

It lifts my spirits.

Presenter33:26

And what about your book as well as the Bible and Shakespeare?

Ralph Fiennes33:30

Well, I've just in fact, next week, I'm starting a a a very unusual B B C programme about Proust based on a book that I had not heard of until I was asked to do this by Alain de Botanc on How Proust Can Change Your Life.

Ralph Fiennes33:46

And because I'm going to be.

Ralph Fiennes33:49

In fact playing Proust in this.

Ralph Fiennes33:51

I think I would take all rechef de tempes du in English.

Presenter33:55

What about your luxury?

Ralph Fiennes33:57

A pan with

Ralph Fiennes34:00

I think it have to be limited supplies of ink and paper because I think it would make me focus.

Presenter34:07

Ray Fienes, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island is.

Ralph Fiennes34:10

Thank you very much.

Speaker 234:19

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.