Ralph Fiennes hit the motherlode in the early 1990s with his performance in Schindler’s List, earning huge acclaim and an Oscar nomination – but it left the actor feeling unnerved.
The British actor, 63, played the evil concentration camp commandant Amon Göth in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 holocaust drama, a performance considered his breakout film role. Fiennes had spent the last decade performing on stage and, just two years before, made his big screen debut, playing Heathcliff in Peter Kosminksy’s Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights.
But Schindler’s List – a blockbuster hit that went on to win Best Picture – sent his career stratospheric. Although Fiennes found it exciting, he has opened up about having mixed emotions about the experience.
“I’ve never felt overwhelmed by fame, but I have been unnerved by it,” he told The Times.
“Around the time of Schindler’s List, the film and my performance got an incredible positive response. It was exciting, but also unnerving because the whole orientation of the press related to the movie industry turns its attention to you.”
He said that while he initially found it gratifying, it “got a bit too much as people are projecting something onto you”.
Fiennes won a Bafta for the role, but lost the Oscar to Tommy Lee Jones for The Fugitive. Following Schindler’s List, Fiennes appeared in Robert Redford’s biographical drama Quiz Show (1994) before receiving another Oscar nomination for Best Picture winner The English Patient in 1996.
Notable roles in the 2000s included Maid in Manhattan, The Constant Gardener and In Bruges, as well as Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise.
The actor recently said he thinks the “ship has sailed” on ever returning as Voldemort, having played the villain in five films from 2005 to 2011.
He told the BBC’s The Claudia Winkleman Show: “I remember being asked the question, would I reprise the part? This was some years ago. And I said, ‘yes, I’d love to.’ But then, nothing’s happened. I think that ship has sailed.”
Harry Potter has been adapted for TV by HBO Max, with Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stour and Arabella Stanton the new child stars p;aying Harry, Ron and Hermione. Other actors cast in the show include John Lithgow (Dumbledore), Nick Frost (Hagrid) and Paapa Essiedu (Snape).
The first season of the TV version will hit screens this Christmas, and wil adapt JK Rowling’s first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
