Ralph Fiennes
About.com - November 2, 2005
Ralph Fiennes on Playing Lord Voldemort in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
Ralph Fiennes on the Pressure of Playing Lord Voldemort in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:" Fans are expecting big things and that can add a lot of pressure on any actor who’s taking on such a well-known character. But Fiennes said he didn’t really feel any pressure while tackling the part of Lord Voldemort.
“I kind of, the hype for that, for this particular ‘Harry Potter’ film…I don’t really feel it. I don’t really feel. I mean, I’m told about the hype. I don’t have a fan’s investment in the books myself. I like the books. I admire the world of the books and the characters that she’s created, but I’m not, as it were, an addict of ‘Harry Potter.’ So I guess I don’t feel that sort of thing where you feel slightly possessive about something. I don’t feel that,” explained Fiennes.
Fiennes did read “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” while preparing for the role. “I did, yeah, but I was only interested in my scene and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes which I did, dutifully, get through. I got my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times and that was my research,” said Fiennes.
Ralph Fiennes Describes Working on the Set of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:” “I think a bit of me on the ‘Harry Potter’ set is like a kid sort of entering into the fantasy set that when you’re young you watch those movies, and you kind of, it all becomes... The sets were fantastic. The ‘Harry Potter’ sets are brilliant. When you walk on to them they just are amazing. …You do get transported for a second.”
Ralph Fiennes on Playing a Truly Evil Character in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: “Well, that was one of the blessings of, you know, a part like this where you’re meant to be playing the distillation of evil, whatever that is, which can be anything. I got, you know, lots of takes to... I think the one thing we were aiming for was a sort of question, a certain amount of unpredictability in him, so no one quite knows what he’s going to do next or say next, which I hope makes him slightly sort of dangerous.”
Fiennes has played evil characters in the past in films such as “Schindler’s List” and “Red Dragon,” but playing Lord Voldemort in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” required a little more restraint than in his previous performances. Fiennes said, “Well, I can’t go and shoot people in the back of the head because it’s a kids’ movie. I mean, I have to find a way of doing with within sort of the vehicle that it is, which is actually quite a good test because you haven’t got the overt threat of, you know, a knife in the face or something really horrible like that. This is all in the threat that you create.”
Because “Harry Potter’s” a fantasy film, that presents its own specific challenges in playing a bad guy. “I like that though. …I guess there’s a challenge to playing these fantasy figures because, you know, they are fantasy figures so you have to somehow enter into this sort of imaginative world of the writer.”
Ralph Fiennes on Working with “Harry Potter” Star Daniel Radcliff: “The poor guy had to be sort of in the grip of a statue of death holding him…while I pranced about telling him how evil I was and the genius I was, threatening him. And he had to go, ‘Aagh, aagh, aagh,’ and I had to go [in an evil laugh], ‘Ha-ha-ha-ha.’ He was great.”
Ralph Fiennes compares his work in indie films to “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:” “Well, the atmosphere of the movie is completely different. They have so much money on ‘Harry Potter’ that they can take their time. You know, you can get three or four set-ups a day and things are very leisurely, and it’s also compounded by the fact that the children have different hours to the adults. So, it’s a whole different [mindset]. On [‘The White Countess’], you know, a Merchant Ivory film, it’s quite hard to finance this kind of films, so there’s a sort of pressure to move through the day and get it done.”
Asked if that shorter shooting schedule can be beneficial to an actor, Fiennes said, “Yeah. I really believe, though, in a way the more you’re sort of pinched by resources and time and money you have to commit, you have to connect, you have to just dive over the edge. You haven’t got time to mess about. Although I was grateful to have two weeks to shoot this one scene in ‘Harry Potter.’ It’s a big, big scene, but they have to deliver. And, as I’m continually being made aware by everyone I talk to, they have high expectations.”
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