Risen: the Joseph Fiennes interview round-up (2016/2/12)

Risen: the Joseph Fiennes interview round-up (2016/2/12) February 12, 2016

My interview | The Rome Q&A | Round-ups: Jan 18 | Jan 29 | Feb 8 | Feb 16 | Feb 18

risen-clavius-tree

Time for another batch of interviews with Risen star Joseph Fiennes.

Ann Schneible of the Catholic News Agency spoke to him while he was in Rome:

Pretty much all films I’ve seen that depict the life of Christ end with the Crucifixion, almost like the filmmakers don’t know what to do after. And, it’s a very heavy place to end. It’s a very upsetting place to end, believer or nonbeliever. It’s a very powerful image. So, we start with the Crucifixion, and we go to the Resurrection and the Ascension. As the title Risen (implies that it) might explore the theme of resurrection, it also I think imbues the film with a sense of uplift.

Fiennes also spoke to the Devils Lake Journal about his earliest experience on stage:

The first stage experience British actor Joseph Fiennes can recall is when, at 7 years old, he was chosen to play Joseph in a school production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

“I felt as though I’d been picked up by the scruff of the neck and dropped off in the right department, and when we started rehearsing, I felt at home,” said Fiennes, 45, who stars in the new film “Risen” as Clavius, a fictional Roman military tribune who is ordered to find the body of Jesus when it disappears shortly after the crucifixion.

Fiennes spoke to Zenit about why the film appealed to him:

What really attracted me to this is that we kick off with the Resurrection and we end with the Ascension, via the Resurrection and that’s very uplifting…..And that adds to the mystery which hasn’t been tackled in a film.

Something in the modern age we shy away from. And we don’t shy away from [it in the film]. I love the fact that we don’t shy away from that, that we take it on via a respectful description, but also being creative and inventive, and cinematic at the same time.

The Catholic News Service also has a story that quotes a few words from Fiennes here and there, but no complete sentences:

Similarly, shaping the film as a detective story — Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth) commissions Clavius to find Jesus’ body and so put an end to the spreading rumors of his return — will, Fiennes hopes, help broaden its appeal. He pointed out that, as penned by Reynolds in collaboration with Paul Aiello, “Risen” qualifies as a mystery story in both the religious and the literary sense.

Fiennes is also briefly quoted, along with producers Pete Shilaimon (who talks about the effect that making the film had on his Chaldean Catholic faith) and Mickey Liddell, in an article that Patheos blogger Kate O’Hare wrote for Angelus News.

There are a few new video interviews, as well.

Fiennes talked to CBN News about getting into the mind of his character:

He spoke to Rome Reports about how his character “intellectualizes” what he sees:

And he talked to the Catholic News Agency about meeting the Pope:

February 13 update: Fiennes also recorded this video for CBN:


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