Fiennes Quotes & Sayings

I go on expeditions for the same reason an estate agent sells houses - to pay the bills. — Ranulph Fiennes

I think religion might throw up a kind of resistance, but I think if one talks about conditioning we can all kind of understand that. — Joseph Fiennes

There are always going to be times when it doesn't flow as much as you were hoping. So of course I'm going to fail. And when I do fail I hope I fail better and better, again and again. I am happy to fail. — Joseph Fiennes

I'm sure acting is a deeply neurotic thing to do. — Ralph Fiennes

The sets were fantastic. The Harry Potter sets are brilliant. You do get transported for a second. — Ralph Fiennes

I've never felt fallow in the sense that there's been no work. — Ralph Fiennes

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. — Joseph Fiennes

I veer away from trying to understand why I act. I just know I need to do it. — Ralph Fiennes

It's great to be on a set where there's time and there's focus and there's also a kind of adrenaline thrill on a set where people are saying: "We have to get this shot, we've have to go, we've got to move on!" — Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes was a pivotal influence on me. He asked me, 'So what is it you want to do?' I very shyly, timidly admitted that I wanted to be an actor. He sighed, and he said, 'Lupita, only be an actor if you feel there is nothing else in the world you want to do - only do it if you feel you cannot live without acting.' — Lupita Nyong'o

There are many actors I admire, but I always look at people who have done a variety of roles - people such as Simon Russell Beale or Ralph Fiennes. — Rupert Evans

I admire the world of the books and the characters that she's created, but I'm not an addict of Harry Potter. I don't feel possessive about it. — Ralph Fiennes

I guess there's nothing I don't like about Merlin, in this presentation. I love everything, even the things I find despicable and abhorrent in Merlin. They're actually a joy to ride on the tailcoats of. — Joseph Fiennes

I think all experience is, in some way, shape or form, filtered down to help you, in your present moment. With Shakespeare, you're trying to act with a fairly archaic language, although in certain aspects, it's deeply modern. — Joseph Fiennes

There is a tension in relationships between wanting to return to the womb, but also wanting to be free. Because sometimes the woman's attentions can be overly maternal, and you want to go, 'Ahhhh!' — Ralph Fiennes

The film depends on the audience's belief in this relationship. — Ralph Fiennes

You're meant to be playing the distillation of evil, which can be anything. — Ralph Fiennes

So much of movie acting is in the lighting. And in loving your characters. I try to know them, and with that intimacy comes love. And now, I love Voldemort. — Ralph Fiennes

When you get into the edit you'll understand what making a film is. You'll see all the things you missed and all the possibilities you have from what you shot. — Ralph Fiennes

In the best material, you always should be able to somehow make a case for a story to be transposed to any other time. — Ralph Fiennes

Success ... Is all about being able to extend love to people ... not in a big capital-letter sense but in the everyday; little by little, task by task, gesture by gesture, word by word — Ralph Fiennes

There are people who travel because they want to push themselves to physical limits, people who walk across deserts or cycle across the Antarctic - like Ranulph Fiennes, who just does it because it's there. And then there are people like me, who are just genuinely curious about the world. — Michael Palin

I'm not very good at being domesticated. I've tried. The domestic life I find claustrophobic - the rituals and habits and patterns. — Ralph Fiennes

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. — Joseph Fiennes

The actor shouldn't edit themselves or be anxious. And the actors that I admire are always the ones who are inventive and their imaginative life in free-willing. It's a director's job to go, "No here, don't do that, go there." — Ralph Fiennes

God is not anything human. God is a force, God is chaos, God is unknown. God is terror and enlightenment at the same time. — Ralph Fiennes

You know what? Joy is the only guide. I'm going to have fun regardless. — Joseph Fiennes

People fear they won't get what they want. — Ralph Fiennes

Working with the likes of Joseph Fiennes was just an incredible experience. — Alice Eve

I'm a huge admirer of Pope Francis and everything he stands for. I think he's an incredibly connected spiritual and authentic being. — Joseph Fiennes

When I first filmed things, they were always slightly awkward. — Ralph Fiennes

I learned a lot about acting - watching not just myself but other actors and learning how to distinguish between two great takes. It's also about one's own taste in performance. — Ralph Fiennes

So getting that balance between what is honoring scripture and the Word and also acknowledging the fact that by the virtue of putting it on film there's going to be a variation and adaptation, I mean, it's a fine dance and a balance. Our producers and directors have worked so hard to get that right and I'm really proud. I think it's a pretty good job. — Joseph Fiennes

I don't feel I'm playing villains all the time. — Ralph Fiennes

The tensions between authority and the people need to be heard, especially when they are suffering and they can't eat. — Ralph Fiennes

I think Shakespeare is like a dialect. If I heard a broad Scots accent, I'd probably struggle at first but then I'd start to look for words I recognise and I'd get the gist. I think Shakespeare is like that. — Ralph Fiennes

There's a challenge to playing these fantasy figures because they are fantasy figures. You have to enter into this sort of imaginative world of the writer. — Ralph Fiennes

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. — Joseph Fiennes

I also wanted to have fun with it. I wanted to have the scope, which I felt Merlin has, in his Machiavellian bi-polar way. He's not to be trusted, yet he is fighting for this great power and is really a master, to some degree, in orchestrating Camelot and King Arthur. He's a strange, dark devious character, and I just wanted to have fun, and get away from the cloak and long beard and pointy hat. — Joseph Fiennes

Whether you're a believer or not, I think there's a huge value in understanding the quality of redemption. — Joseph Fiennes

I have a great editor and I enjoy, in a masochistic way, being ruthless about my own performance. There's an initial point in the editing, if you're directing yourself, especially in my case, where you go, "Ouch, ouch, ouch, I can't watch this." And then, there's a point where you become hard-nosed and just take your neurosis away and go, "What's working? That's okay. That's okay. We can lose that, and lose that." You get objective about it. — Ralph Fiennes

The ultimate starting point for planning any adventure or expeditionby far and away the greatest book on earth — Ranulph Fiennes

'How do you balance the creative with the biblical?' One could pick up the scripture and read it to oneself and you would be communing directly with that information. As soon as you go into film, as soon as there's a camera, and there's an angle, and there's lighting, and there's editing, you're into the adaptation. — Joseph Fiennes

As an actor, there's a bit of you that's decided you want to be looked at and watched, but there's a paradoxical bit that wants to run away. — Ralph Fiennes

I was nervous. I was thinking, 'Gee, he's Ralph Fiennes. What an amazing actor, and I can have this scene with him.' But I enjoyed it, you know. That's what I got into acting to do - to push myself and see if I can do these things. — Matthew Lewis

I couldn't get as big as a bodybuilder. I tried to put on as much weight in the right places as I could. My weightlifting was impressive for me, but not for some of the guys I see down at the gym. — Ralph Fiennes

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. — Joseph Fiennes

We'd all like to believe that perhaps people could stop killing each other. — Ralph Fiennes

One of the things that binds us as a family is a shared sense of humor. — Ralph Fiennes

I've been such a fool, Vassili. Man will always be a man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that was equal, where there'd be nothing to envy your neighbour. But there's always something to envy. A smile, a friendship, something you don't have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a Soviet one, there will always be rich and poor. Rich in gifts, poor in gifts. Rich in love, poor in love. — Joseph Fiennes

There is a humanitarian impulse that one aspires to and there are days when one doesn't do it very well. — Ralph Fiennes

He's really sort of the devil. He's completely emotionally detached. He has no empathy. You find that in psychopaths. It's about power with Voldemort. It's an aphrodisiac for him. Power makes him feel alive. — Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes and Edward Norton are among my favorite actors. — Vance Joy

The world is a giant community now. This excuse of distance, time, doesn't work ... We're all so connected. We can't spend every second of our lives worrying about another family miles away but we somehow have to factor it in where we can. — Ralph Fiennes

I certainly gained a lot by reading about Shanghai. — Ralph Fiennes

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. — Joseph Fiennes

I'm sure if you dig deep, Joe and Ralph Fiennes do it because they want to be noticed. — Steve Guttenberg

In the studio system, things are expected of a film. By the first, second, third act, there's a generic language that comes out of the more commercial system. — Ralph Fiennes

Awards are like applause, and every actor likes to hear applause. — Ralph Fiennes

Merlin is really at the forefront, in that regard. We get a glimpse into the dark, Machiavellian corridors of power. I like the fact that, although he has powers, his powers are almost in his political guile as much as what he relies on, in darker forces. — Joseph Fiennes

A large part of how an actor works and their process is the stimulation of what's around you, and none more so than in a period piece. This is a modern piece, as much as it is set in a different time, age and myth. If it wasn't relevant, it wouldn't have been made and we wouldn't be putting our energy into it. It's relevant for us today because, in some ways, it throws up a mirror to all of us. As an actor, you get stimulus and you're effected by that, whether it's costumes or funny beards or castles. — Joseph Fiennes

I felt it [Shakespeare's Coriolanus] is sort of an examination of our dysfunction as a nationalistic, tribal entities. I think the world is rocking and cracking open in weird and worrying places. And I think Coriolanus, the play, reflected that. — Ralph Fiennes

It's not great if someone gives you sort of bland praise without giving you clear direction and say, "This is good, let's try it like this." I have worked with someone who seemed quite inarticulate and just would say, "That's good, that's good." That's very frustrating because - it's nice to know something is good but you know it can always change. — Ralph Fiennes

It's all about human condition, ultimately. That's what you're looking at. You're also looking to have some fun, as well, because that also translates. Maybe wearing tights once in awhile helped. Getting up on a horse a couple of times before might have helped. — Joseph Fiennes

If I had a gun to my head and I had to choose between theater and film I'd choose theater. — Ralph Fiennes

News reports can overwhelm us. We can be appalled, we can sympathise. But what is hard to grasp is the sense that, at this moment, people are working, organising - not just at an executive level, but on the floor, in the warehouse. A man is packing a box of oral rehydration tablets; maternity kits are being prepared; education kits are being packed. And somewhere, tomorrow, those boxes will be unpacked and a child with life-threatening diarrhoea will be saved, a baby will be born in more hygienic circumstances, a girl will receive her first exercise book and her first pencil. — Ralph Fiennes

I'm more relaxed about how the editing process will create a performance and that, in a way, gives me a sense of freedom. — Ralph Fiennes

I can't go and shoot people in the back of the head because It's a kids' movie, which is actually quite a good test because you haven't got the overt threat of a knife in the face. — Ralph Fiennes

I love new writing, new blood, modern works by unknown writers. — Joseph Fiennes

I have grown up loving Shakespeare. — Ralph Fiennes

Whenever feasible, pick your team on character, not skill. You can teach skills; you can't teach character. — Ranulph Fiennes

Going to the movies was a big event in my youth. My father would be the initiator - he'd have me put on a jacket to see a film. — Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes was a big hero of mine acting-wise growing up and while I was training. I just find him so watchable. He was playing this very intimidating character when we worked together and it certainly felt like he was in character off set as well! He was very cool. Before a scene, he'd be like, "Come on. Let's improvise. Let's just do stuff." But Jesus Christ. He's Ralph Fiennes! — Jeremy Irvine

Conditioning can be not a big heavy thing. (For instance I've got a brand new pair of shoes, by mistake you step on it and you make them muddy and dirty, I'm conditioned to go "Hey, what are you doing?" That's my conditioning, I have a response. So, maybe we have to learn to find the pause before we react, because reaction is our conditioning. — Joseph Fiennes

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. — Joseph Fiennes

There's a lot of people who feel there's a tabloid journalist who had it coming. — Ralph Fiennes

Actors use who they are to be someone else, but I would hate to ever think I'm playing myself. It's imagining being someone else that is the key motivating thing for me. So when people want to know about me, it makes me a bit unnerved. — Ralph Fiennes

I don't know what my limitations are until I reach them. I look for the challenge. — Joseph Fiennes

Unicef's education initiative does not seek to impose, but to initiate and integrate. It does, however, aim to address the huge bias towards education for boys at the expense of girls in so many cultures. — Ralph Fiennes

In Shakespeare, keep it simple. Don't over-inflect. The speech needs to be naturalistic and simple and accessible as much as possible. — Ralph Fiennes

It [the scene] can be something given to you and you go, "Ah this is a good idea, I can work with this." Sometimes it cuts right across your instinct and that's when I might resist. Even if the director might be insistent, I think it's very important to say, "Look, I'm not feeling this. I'll try to make it work but I got to let you know." — Ralph Fiennes

I'm interested in the spirits of people. In the theatre, there's the acting part of acting - and I'm not saying that can't be great - and there's the essence. To explore that essence, you need a key, a look, a gesture, an insight that unlocks the person's soul. — Ralph Fiennes

People who go to the polar regions are statistically less likely to die than salesmen who drive on motorways in England. — Ranulph Fiennes

I guess I'd love to be surprised by something I had never thought of. — Ralph Fiennes

Give me a sword fight any day. — Joseph Fiennes

I think everything I do is my early work. I can't wait to get on to the later stuff. — Joseph Fiennes

Having gone through editing process, I can see that in actor's faces there's point where they're not managing their performance and that's, I think, the best place to be. You've done the homework, you've learned the lines, at that point you just sort of let it out. — Ralph Fiennes

I had a really small role (playing goddess Aphrodite), and I was only working for just over a week with Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson. I'd done a few short films before and thought acting was really creative, but when I worked with those guys, I was just like: "Wow!" They had such fun and freedom. They were trying things and stretching themselves. It was so inspiring that I was like: "I definitely want to do this!" — Agyness Deyn

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 they have high expectations. — Ralph Fiennes

I spent the past week here in India getting a sense of the reality of HIV and AIDS in people's lives. Fathers and mothers are dying, leaving children with no support. Stigma and discrimination is ruining the family lives. There is an urgent need for education, information, and increased awareness of HIV and AIDS. The response needs to be now. We cannot afford to become fatigued. — Ralph Fiennes

I think I feel more like you're an actor for hire and you take the jobs you want to take, obviously, and some pay well and some don't pay well at all but you go on a gut feeling and it's all a big adventure. — Ralph Fiennes

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. — Joseph Fiennes

I was only interested in my scene, and I had to go through thousands and thousands of other scenes. I got my scene and I read it many, many, many, many, many times. That was my research. — Ralph Fiennes

Most films are rooted in a book or a comic strip, but I don't go out there saying I want to do adaptations. — Ralph Fiennes

Ridicule is also a weapon against forces of evil. Really clever, intelligent ridicule. — Ralph Fiennes

I like the fact that we're stripping the icons away. They're the WikiLeaks for the age that we're revealing, with the transparency of the characters. We're unearthing the truth beyond or underneath the myth. I love that aspect. — Joseph Fiennes

I wanted to say, "Hey, Pope Francis," but I cried like a baby. I was reduced to a very humble set of feelings, because it was not about what was said: There's a presence. That was a blessing for myself and my family and everyone there to be a part of that. — Joseph Fiennes

There are those moments when you shake someone's hand, have a conversation with someone, and suddenly your all bound together because you share your humanity in one simple moment. — Ralph Fiennes

I love life. I'm fascinated by human behavior because that feeds back into my work. — Joseph Fiennes

When theater becomes a soothing middle-class thing, when it's packaged as the Night Out, then that's the death of it. — Ralph Fiennes