Ralph Fiennes’ favourite co-star: “It’s good in those situations to have a friend”
For the last 30 years, Ralph Fiennes has been quietly going about his business of becoming one of his generation’s best actors, having started off as so many British greats do by spending the formative years of his career treading the boards and performing the works of William Shakespeare.
These days, he’s one of those names everybody knows will deliver the goods. If anyone sees Fiennes’ name as part of a cast, whether he’s playing a leading role, lending support, or popping up for an extended cameo, then it’s virtually guaranteed he’ll steal at least one scene.
He can play chilling villains, kindly father figures, real-life people, literary creations, noseless evil wizards, and almost everything in between, although 1998’s The Avengers made it perfectly clear that casting him as the focal point of a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster is hardly the best use of his undoubted talents.
It was Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List that announced his arrival on the international stage, with Fiennes delivering a mesmerising and haunting turn as Amon Göth that deservedly landed him on the Academy Awards shortlist for ‘Best Supporting Actor’. It was his breakthrough, but it wasn’t his first film.
It was still only his third, though, but his feature debut carried the additional benefit of pairing him up with his favourite co-star for the first time. Fiennes’ first flick saw him cast as Heathcliff in Peter Kosminsky’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights, with Juliette Binoche as Catherine.
They’d go on to re-team in Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient and Uberto Pasolini’s The Return over the next three decades, with Fiennes telling the director of the latter that Binoche was the only name on his mind to play the Penelope to his Odysseus in the dramatic interpretation of Homer’s The Odyssey.
Reflecting on their bond, Fiennes explained to Vulture that she constantly inspires him. “All I know is that not only working with Juliette, but when I see her work, there’s an extraordinary ability to access the truth,” he said. “I find it so inspiring. And it’s a friendship, one that grows through the pressures of filming and the expectations and the long hours. It’s good in those situations to have a friend. And we laugh.”
Even though they’ve only made three films together, Fiennes and Binoche make a point of occasionally seeing each other between their infrequent onscreen reunions. “I feel our friendship has just got deeper,” he explained. “I feel Juliette sees me. All my faults, all the things. And I think I see you.”
The three-time Oscar nominee said he always finds it “terribly meaningful” when they watch each other perform onstage, and he’s probably understating things when he opined how their connection “feels like a really strong friendship.” A trio of films in 30+ years doesn’t make them ubiquitous co-stars, but it’s clear that Fiennes personally and professionally values Binoche above anyone else he’s worked with.
Will they make a fourth movie together? Maybe, maybe not. Even if they don’t, they’ll still make a point of checking in on each other whenever they can.
