Empire Australasia – July 2019

He is, after all, the actor who has menaced us all
for years as slithery sorcerer Voldemort — not to mention as
Schindler’s List’s Amon Goeth, one of theatre’s best Richard
IIIs and, er, Holmes & Watson’s Moriarty. So much so, in fact,
that when he arrives for his Empire photoshoot and I stand
up to shake hands, I manage to awkwardly drop my voice
recorder. Bending down while still shaking my hand, he
retrieves the fallen object and passes it back. Considerately,
he doesn’t even laugh. It turns out that the real Ralph Fiennes
is not quite so scary.
Empire meets Fiennes near the National Theatre in London,
where he’s currently appearing opposite Sophie Okonedo in an
acclaimed version of Antony & Cleopatra.
At the same time he’s promoting his third film as director,
The White Crow, a biopic covering the
turbulent early years of ballet legend
Rudolf Nureyev (played by Oleg Ivenko).
As you might expect if you’ve seen
his previous two directorial outings,
Coriolanus and The Invisible Woman,
it’s not the story of a clean-cut hero.
That’s not to say Nureyev is evil, but
he is someone who could, as Fiennes
puts it, “be extraordinarily rude”.
Whether in front of the camera
or behind it, Fiennes is an expert at
building psychologically complex
characters. As an actor, though his
usual manner is quiet and deliberate,
he has a chilling capacity for sudden,
unpredictable outbursts of action. And
as a director, he works to make sure
that even small characters have depth.
This is a man who can keep the multiple
layers of a person, or a story, all dancing
in the air at once. The difference between
Fiennes and the rest of us is that he
doesn’t drop the lot on the floor.

How much did you know about Nureyev
before The White Crow?
I knew nothing, really. I grew up hearing
adults talking about him, “ballet at its

a strong contender. On film, it’s what’s

churning around inside people that

leads you in, the unsaid things. I’m

thinking of Glenn Close’s performance

in The Wife, the mask that’s covering

a deeper [self]. So that was the thing

to get Oleg to understand, that if he

really was feeling something, we would

sense it. But he’s very smart and a very

good listener, and he completely gave

himself up to it.

Nureyev could be pretty monstrous even to

his friends. Did that make the film a

best” conversations. I know Julie Kavanagh, who wrote Nureyev:

The Life, a bit and she sent me the first six chapters before

publication. She might have hoped I would pass them

on to Anthony Minghella or something, but I was completely

struck by his childhood, his student years, and the defection

at [Paris airport] Le Bourget. I subsequently read the rest of

the book and it knocked me for six.

What made his story stand out?

It was the depiction of this young man with this ferocious

will to realise himself as a ballet artist [despite] his

environment, the poverty of his upbringing and his father’s

deep reluctance. He gets a place at the school in Leningrad

and he’s exposed to culture and, I suppose, an intellectual

elite. Then, he gets on tour to Paris and suddenly sees another

world of possibilities in the West. The story sat with me, but

I never knew what should be done about it. Basically I thought,

“Wow, amazing story! Could be an amazing movie. Someone

should do that.” Cut to 15, 16 years later. I’m working with

Gaby Tana, who produced Coriolanus, my first film as a

director, and The Invisible Woman [his second], and she [said],

“Do you want to do this? I’ve got the rights.” And I realised

I didn’t want anyone else to do it.

How hard was it to find your lead actor, Oleg?

Our casting directors did the big search of the Russian ballet

schools and ballet companies. I always wanted a dancer

who could act, and it was quickly apparent that Oleg was

THE

PROSPECT

OF

MEETING

RALPH

FIENNES

IS

AN

INTIMIDATING

ONE.

Left, top to bottom:

The White Crow,

Fiennes’ third film as

director, in which he

also stars; Bloodied but

unbowed in Coriolanus

(2011); With Felicity

Jones in 2013’s The

Invisible Woman;

A final hurrah as

Voldemort in Harry

Potter And The Deathly

Harrows — Part 2.

ROLL NECK: JOHN SMEDLEY (AND PREVIOUS SPREAD). JEANS: JOHN ELLIOTT. CHELSEA BOOTS: JOSEPH CHEANEY & SONS