22 Jul 2011 01:26:34
Ralph Fiennes, who portrayed the noseless warlock with the unhealthy cruciatus curse habit, told Newsweek that he got under the skin of Voldemort by imagining him as a lonely, damaged soul.
"Young Voldemort was an orphan and denied any kind of parental affection or love, so he's been an isolated figure from a very young age," Fiennes said. "But I always think there has to be the possibility of good in someone, too. It might have been eroded, repressed, suppressed or somehow distorted within him after he was really damaged."
Fiennes said he could "understand" Voldemort's "loneliness", which he put down to the villain never having experienced love. "He's all about acquiring power and controlling and manipulating a lot of people," he said. "It can be thrilling and quite freeing to play, because all the rules disappear. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, director Mike Newell encouraged a switchblade explosion of venom and rage. When somebody is contained and has the ability to explode, that makes people nervous."
Not content with offering the world an entirely new perspective on Potter's principle enemy in JK Rowland's wizarding tales, Fiennes went on to delight in his ability to make small children cry when in character.
"I felt very good about myself," said Fiennes in reference to an incident in which the young child of a script supervisor was apparently reduced to tears during a set visit. "When I was young, there was this character in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang called the Child Catcher. I remember being terrified by this figure. I think children should be really scared of Lord Voldemort."
Underneath the makeup, however, Fiennes is not such a bad chap. "Some actors enjoy signalling the evil in characters called 'bad guys,' but you want to be a human being first of all," he said, adding that he has a "sense of completion" after playing the character to the end of the franchise's run. The actor has now played Voldemort in five Potter films, beginning with 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
