INTERVJU / INTERVIEW
Jones in reliving his 1971 expedition to conquer the Canadian wilderness is his cousin, Emmy- and BAFTA-nomi- nated star actor Joseph Fiennes, who is best known to us for his roles in Hollywood blockbuster Shakespeare in Love and hit TV show The Hand- maid’s Tale. Speaking in this exclusive interview for Elevate, Fiennes reveals what proved decisive in him opting to embark on what he himself assess- es as being an important life journey with his cousin, but also what he dis- covered about himself in the North American wilderness.
- This isn’t my first adventure with Sir Ranulph. Five years ago, I relived his first great expedition, the one in 1969 that saw him conquer the Egyptian desert, journey down the Nile and discover the secrets of the pyramids. It was an unforgettable journey that brought many chal- lenges my way. One of the greatest was certainly getting acquainted with a man, my close relative, about whom my father had spoken with great admiration through- out my childhood. I’m proud that the fairytales I listened to growing up were a bit different to those that parents read to other children – says Joseph Fiennes at the be- ginning of this interview, adding that he only met his famous uncle for the first time 20 years ago. What did it feel like to share his life experi- ence? - He is a man who lives all of his adventures. That’s his way of life. That’s why he dismissed and disregarded some things that seem normal and routine to the rest of us. He has spent most of his life in the wilderness, and when he hasn’t been in the field, he’s used that time to come up with new expeditions. It was a great honour for me, but also an inspiration, that he allowed me to be- come part of his world, particularly considering that, un- til about 20 years ago, exploration was all that interest- ed him. Believe it or not, but he didn’t even know who his relatives were. Apart from his immediate family, he had no interest in others and no intention to meet any- one. The fact that I’m now in front of a camera sharing what he’s lived through during his rich life is something I see as a great blessing. The series isn’t just about adventures and han- dling the wilderness? - Yes, there are a lot of those kinds of projects and I don’t believe we would leave a special impression if we focused solely on that. An important aspect of this se- ries is actually that intimate confession, or that element of connection between me and Sir Ranulph, which actu- ally gives this documentary a special touch. When you are alone in the wilderness, with a man who has been presented to you throughout most of your life as a living legend, but who was all but untouchable to most of the world, a sense of magic is created that’s difficult to de- scribe. You see him right there in front of you, exposed to
all the same dangers and risks as you, while at the same time you are reliving part of world history with him... What is the bigger challenge: being an actor or enduring an adventure like this? - There’s no acting in this kind of project and no academy exists that can prepare you for such an expe- rience. The essence of this kind of adventure is that in the wilderness, as a human laid bare, you are confronted by all your inner demons. Solitude is a very strange and awkward thing, because it poses questions from which you cannot hide. You can’t escape them. And you don’t even have a reason to pretend to be some other version of yourself, because you are the only audience. From that perspective, this experience was an important life journey for me. I also had the opportunity to experience Ranulph as an ordinary man confronted by the same challenges that I was facing, and not through the prism of the hero of my father’s stories. This is an emotion- al story about two men connecting in the wilderness, two cousins, but also two men, one of whom is proba- bly facing the greatest fear in his life. Sir Ranulph spoke openly, for the first time, about the Parkinson’s disease that he’s been struggling with over recent years and the problems it causes him. Was there anything that surprised you about your cousin that you didn’t know previously? - There were many things, but what surprised me the most was his passion for chocolate (laughs). Ranulph is a big chocolate lover and few people know that he takes kilos of chocolate with him on every adventure. I re- member as a child, when my father told me about him, looking for some picture of him and finding the famous one from the North Pole in which we see him wearing a hood and with his fists clenched in front of his face. I’d always thought that he was warming up his hands in that picture, but when you look a little closer at that pic- ture now, you’ll realise that he’s actually holding choc- olate. That was the biggest revelation I got from hang- ing out with Ranulph. It’s unbelievable how such a little thing can change the entire reality you’ve been living in for decades. Imagine, in his most famous photo, the man is eating chocolate, while the whole world believed that he was blowing on his hands to warm them up.
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