A biography for Joseph Fienneshasn’t been written yet.
“If you want to make idols accessible - which I think Shakespeare should be - then you have to bring a human touch, make it self-effacing and warm.”
“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.”
“I may seem to have worn a lot of tights in films, but actually, those are just the films that have been most visible or worked best. I have worn jeans a lot, too, but those ones haven't tended to work so well.”
“I think everyone around me played a part in raising me; there isn't one individual I could pick out - it was more a case of it taking the whole village to raise the child.”
“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.”
“You know what? Joy is the only guide. I'm going to have fun regardless.”
“People call my family a dynasty, but I'm not sure what a dynasty actually is. And I don't feel part of one. It belies the truth of my real upbringing, which wasn't grand at all, and it flies in the face of the fact that, at root, I'm just a jobbing actor.”
“I have two sisters that are directors: one's in documentary, one's in film. My mother was a writer and a painter, so I've been surrounded since childhood by dynamic women and female voices in arts.”
“There is more meat and mileage in complex characters, like 'Running with Scissors.'”
“The idea that I had a bohemian childhood is laughable.”
“Give me a sword fight any day.”
“I think academics are infuriating. For every expert on Shakespeare there is another one to cancel his theory out. It drives you up the wall. I think the greatest form of finding out the truth is through fantasy.”
“There is a bit of me if I'm pushed in one way I might bounce back and go the opposite.”
“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.”
“When you wake up, and you see that America has pulled out of the climate deal in Paris, that sends huge messages about putting coal before the planet.”
“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.”
“I think 'The Handmaid's Tale' always had that power since it was written over 30 years ago. This extraordinary piece of feminist literature had its fan base then, but TV has given it an enormous reach.”
“I like language, and in film, language is diluted by the visuals and the music. Theatre is what I was trained for.”
“What I don't find compelling is doing classical plays that everyone already knows - and people are following with the text in their hand because no one is listening.”
“I don't know what my limitations are until I reach them. I look for the challenge.”