PEOPLE MAGAZINE - C H A T T E R (1/18/99) by Chuck Arnold

"Fiennes art"

British actor Joseph Fiennes, who winneth Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, says that filming their love scenes was nothing to rhapsodize about. "Oh, it's not as glamorous as one might think," says Fiennes, 28. "Let's start with the fact that Gwyneth's boyfriend, Ben Affleck, is in the movie, and he's a big guy. You don't want to get on the wrong side of Ben." But Fiennes, the younger brother of Ralph, was undaunted about playing the Bard. "In one sense he's sacred ground to so many people like academics and theatergoers," he says. "On the other hand, from the research that I did, William Shakespeare is a blank sheet. No one really knows anything about him as a man. You can profile him from the sonnets and the plays, but his take on life is a mystery. From my sense, that's great. No one can say I did it wrong."

© 1998-2000 Joy of Joseph Fiennes