Something else in mind

Fiennes didn’t originally want to be a movie star

Ralph Fiennes(Bild: AP/Alessandra Tarantino)

British actor Ralph Fiennes did not have a film career in mind when he took on his first roles in the theater as a young man. "Shakespeare in the theater was the reason I wanted to be an actor," Fiennes (61) told the German Press Agency in London.

 "I didn't foresee a life as a film actor. That wasn't one of my ambitions."

"Pure cinema"
In the Vatican thriller "Conclave" (cinema release 21.11.), which is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris, Fiennes plays a cardinal who has to organize the papal election while going through a crisis of faith himself. "Conclave" is a chamber play that almost has elements of Shakespeare. "But not for a minute did it feel like theater," emphasized Fiennes. "This is pure cinema." Fiennes praised director Edward Berger for this. The Wolfsburg-born filmmaker has "a sense of cinema"

Difference to the stage
The difference to the stage is what makes the film business so interesting, says Fiennes. The fact that the Sistine Chapel and other sets were authentically recreated in the famous Cinecittà studios in Rome suited Fiennes. "When you come to the film set, you don't want to feel like you're in the theater," he said. "You want to feel like you're in a real world and you're being filmed."