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RALPH FIENNES: You like it? Because the producer of
Maid In Manhattan told me it was a terrible jacket. Elaine Goldsmith. She
gave me a bad time. And I think it's a great jacket.
*Now let's talk about shirts. Exactly how many
shirts does your character Spider put on at a time in the movie?
RF: I think it's four or five. I just decided that
Spider is ritual obsessed, and that he would never change from day to day.
We had rack upon rack of different shirts, and different kinds of coats.
But we just became obsessed with what was the right one. And I spent two
or three days putting on different shirts, and with different kinds of
trousers. And getting just the right coat.
*What did it feel like, putting on so many shirts at
the same time?
RF: I remember the inside one feeling quite tight,
and quite small on me. It was also made of some very thin material. And it
was a very old shirt, as you might have gotten from a thrift shop. It was
silk, and about to rip any minute. And then the rest of them were quite
crude cotton. But the bulk of them together were quite heavy and hot.
Though the collars all managed to just fit.
*Does clothing tend to enhance a character for you?
RF: I always find that the clothes are very
important. In the process of finding the right clothes, it does help me.
It's a mixture of just finding stuff, putting it on, and somehow something
in your imagination clicks. And then you feel yeah, this feels right and
looks right. And makes me move in a certain way.
*Did you kind of live within yourself a lot while
making the movie?
RF: Yes, to some extent. But I never find it helpful
to be totally sort of transfixed and locked in a part. And totally unaware
of it. Because I feel that makes me rigid. I'd rather just be ready, and
have like a stage of readiness. But be relaxed, so I've got the energy. So
when the camera is turning, it's a release of energy and I'm exploring
something. If I'm only fixed on being Spider, it creates a kind of
solipsism, and a kind of blinkedness. Which I don't find helpful.
*Do you see Spider as pathetic?
RF: I see him as a tragic figure, who is caught up
in some terrible corridor of uncertainty about who he is. And he's running
from something. He's in a state of paradox, where he's running from his
childhood. And at the same time he's confronting it.
*Did you find playing such a mentally confused
character exhausting?
RF: Yeah, there were some days when I was very
tired. There were days when I had to be ready to play those scenes, and
keep the internal anxiety going. So it was quite mentally tiring.
*You got really thin for the part. How did you slim
down?
RF: Yeah, we agreed that he should be very thin. So
I went on this protein only diet. Which does actually work. It's not good
to do it for more than three weeks for so. But the weight definitely drops
off.
*How was it different from playing in Red Dragon?
RF: Well, I don't have a fixed process. As it were,
I try to pick up the vibe or the sense of a character. And often it has to
do with reading stuff, which triggers something imaginatively. I mean
doing Red Dragon, I had to work out a lot. Because the guy had to be very
fit looking. And in a way, just simply having to go to the gym, that
entailed a sort of testosterone aggression. You know, to try and bulk up
quite quickly. And I'm not particularly well built. So that meant that I
engaged in a kind gym type aggression. But I saw that as a way that my
character let out his anger and frustrations. And for Red Dragon, I read
up on a lot of serial killer type episodes. That was very different from
Spider. He felt like a troubled soul who had done something terrible once,
and just stayed in a state of bewilderment and frustration. But my
character in Red Dragon was an adult man consciously orchestrating
ritualized deaths of people. So that seemed very, very different.
*What kind of research did you do to get into the
head of Spider?
RF: I found meeting people like him more helpful
than reading books. I met people with different degrees of mental illness.
Some of them had severe schizophrenia, where they are talking about
extraordinary fantasies which you know can't possibly be true. Or there
was one man who was hardly audible in what he spoke. But it's a very wrong
misconception that they're stupid. They're just in another place in their
heads. And often dealing with voices and smells, or sounds which we aren't
aware of. They're very alert and sensitive. They're like, as it were,
emotionally raw. But the first thing that came through to me, is that
they're totally human. And they like talking. There was one group that was
set up for me in a hospital in South London. They all agreed to meet me,
and they knew I was an actor who was going to play someone with
schizophrenia. They asked me about what I did. And I asked them about what
their illness was like, and did they hear voices. And we just had like a
roundtable conversation. What I came away with, was that these are not
peculiar people. They've all actually got very strong spirits of their
own. But they just have to deal with this thing that's in their heads. And
sometimes they hear voices telling them to do terrible things. It was very
moving, and saddening. I was so ignorant about everything, that I thought
everyone was having therapy. And, you know, this is how they're treated.
But it's not the case at all. It's only people who can afford to go and
pay to have therapy. So they're just drugged. And I had a debate with one
doctor. He's a consultant at a high security prison. And he said, it's a
hard battle to convince the world that these are sick people. They may
have done terrible things, but they are denied access to talking. They're
given drugs, so they're just contained. So I had all these questions about
how they're treated. Because I certainly felt in talking to them, how much
they liked to discuss, to talk, and to have another person in the room to
be able to talk to about their problems.
*Playing Spider must have taken so much out of you
emotionally. Were you able to wind down after that?
RF: Well, I thought I would. But then I....got
offered Red Dragon!
*What about now?
RF: I don't know. I'd be open to doing something
that's more light.
*What about Maid In Manhattan, did that help?
RF: Yeah, that was quite light. Now I'd like to do
another comedy, but one that has a bit more edge to it, maybe.
*Edge?
RF: Yeah, you know. A bit more provocative. Or
naughty!
*Were you surprised at the success of Maid In
Manhattan? You'd never done anything quite like that.
RF: Yes. But it's typical of its genre, isn't it. A
kind of Cinderella set in NY. I mean, it's not the most original of
screenplays at all. But I thought it was very charming, and there are some
charming little moments in it. But Maid In Manhattan just opened up a
whole other window for me. After being in Spider and Red Dragon, it was
really peculiar for me. Because I had to gauge this sort of warm, upbeat
tone. Which I think you have to have, if you're going to make a film like
that. I mean, I was always looking for the dark angle, and the dark corner
of my character. And of course there wasn't any. And there shouldn't be
any. Unless it's in the script.
*What was it like playing the leading man to one of
the biggest stars on the planet, J Lo?
RF: Um, well it was....fine! People keep asking me
what Jennifer was like. I mean, to work with, she was certainly fine. In
fact, she seemed very at home in this genre. I guess because the part was
written, or certainly adapted with her in mind. She was sort of playing as
it were, right from her center. And she was a great acting partner. I
can't say I got to know her particularly well. She was always going off to
write another song, or design another article of clothing.
*What would be your pearls of wisdom to convey to
younger actors?
RF: Well, I don't think I have any. I would try to
share experiences. There's no one way to act, there's no one process. I
mean, I think every person has their own unique spirit and thing which is
theirs, and which you shouldn't try to change or mess with. Just encourage
it, and keep people's heads open to all possibilities. I mean, I just did
this run where I thought I was okay to begin with. I was a little nervous
and a little tense. But then as I played it, I relaxed. Suddenly, just
moments, even tiny little things, you inhabit them with more confidence,
and more generosity. You can see, even with just a number of takes for a
movie, how one changes and grows. And that's all there is, really. I'm not
a great believer in that sort of, you know, breaking someone down, and
terrifying and upsetting them. I don't like that being done to me, and I
wouldn't want to do that to anyone else. But I think all actors sometimes
need pushing, maybe, I don't know. I love working with directors who just
have the ability to let you grow, and give you confidence. I think the
most important thing is that confidence. And to go on to a stage, and feel
supported. And that takes time, sometimes.
*Many actors now are joining the anti-war movement.
Have you thought about that at all?
RF: A lot, yeah. I mean, I think I'm instinctively
anti-war, definitely. I'm uneasy, I'm just instinctively uneasy. I feel
uneasy about the way it's being forced by this Republican government. I
don't think that Bush is a visionary president for the world. I think he's
got a real sense of how to put the US first, above everything else. What I
would like to see in the world, is someone with a great Mandela-like
vision of getting different communities to sit around and talk, and to
harmonize the world. And I'm not sure that Bush is that man. So what is
the future after you get rid of Saddam? What is it going to be in the
Middle East, and what is the Palestine-Israeli solution? Well, there's a
solution to that. And I don't hear that language enough. For me, the great
leader would understand what happened on 9/11, work with it, and transform
it into something even bigger and more long term, and which is more
global.
*Do you ever feel inhibited by negative reactions to
actors who speak out?
RF: Well in this situation, I'm just another guy on
the street with an opinion. And I do think this is an important thing to
discuss right now. I think it's important to push the debate. I don't
know. We'll see what happens. But I don't think anyone going to war should
be able to go easily.
Copyright 2003 by Prairie Miller
VIA CINEMAN SYNDICATE
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