Lord Voldemort is the epitome of evil.
A snake-wielding murderer, Voldemort's hideous looks outwardly match the wickedness within.
Thankfully, it's all make believe, because the actor who portrays him is not only a genuinely
nice guy, but he also happens to be gorgeous in real life.
Most actors excel at talking about themselves, usually to the exclusion of everything else.
Not Ralph Fiennes, however.
He doesn't talk publicly too much about his personal life, and he has admitted that he
was rather reserved and introverted as a child as well.
He suspects that his reserved nature has something to do with his working process.
In 2012, he told Saga Magazine,
"In order to create an emotional life for any character I play, I tend to scan my own
life, my own experiences and fit them into the imaginary world my character inhabits."
Exactly what life experiences did Fiennes draw upon to play Voldemort, a wizard who
gleefully tried killing an infant Harry Potter?
Alas, it seems the actor prefers staying mum on his process, but we do know a few things
about his childhood.
The oldest of six children, Fiennes comes from an artistic family.
His mother Jennifer was the author of six novels, while his sisters Martha and Sophie
Fiennes are both directors.
And his brother Joseph is an actor who has appeared in everything from Season 2 of American
Horror Story to the acclaimed Hulu drama The Handmaid's Tale.
The Fiennes family constantly moved around when Ralph was young, which turned him into
something of a control freak.
He claims this need for control is "absolutely" due to the fact that he comes from a large
family that moved fourteen times in fifteen years, but there's a part of him that yearns
to embrace the chaos, too.
Fiennes may be reserved, but there's one subject he doesn't shy away from: Hollywood's bureaucratic,
cutthroat heart.
It's a sentiment that he's echoed in several interviews, such as when he pointedly told
The Independent in September 2018 that "the film world is too horrendous."
Discussing The White Crow, a film he directed, he revealed he never intended to also act
in the movie, but studio execs forced his hand.
He lamented,
"I was made to feel my participation as an actor would help to finance the film … Finance,
money, everything about it hinging on what the distributors feel they want."
Go ahead and thank makeup artist Mark Coulier for bringing Voldemort's hideous visage to
the silver screen.
In June 2016, the two-time Academy Award winner shed some light on his process in an interview
with Bustle.
After creating the designs, the art department took a head cast of the actor.
Voldemort's nose, or lack thereof, was achieved through digital trickery.
Meanwhile, eyebrow blockers were applied, so that when you look at the Dark Wizard,
he has no eyebrows.
On top of the gruesome artificial teeth and his witchy talons, the makeup department really
went to town on Fiennes' eyes.
Coulier revealed that they employed a lot of little tricks to make him "look more intense."
And as anyone who has had any Harry Potter-related nightmares over the past 15 years can attest
to, they succeeded.
With a long list of iconic characters on Fiennes' resume, one would think his home would be
filled to the gills with Academy Awards.
Alas, he has yet to win one of those gold statues, although he has been nominated twice.
Fiennes was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1994 for his unforgettable performance
in Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama Schindler's List.
He portrays Amon Goeth, the merciless SS commandant who delighted in killing random concentration
camp prisoners without remorse.
He was then nominated for Best Lead Actor in 1996 for The English Patient, which was
also set during World War II.
But this time Fiennes played a Hungarian cartographer who can't remember his name when we first
meet him.
Playing the role of a would-be child murderer with formidable magic powers has messed with
Ralph Fiennes' mind more than a little bit.
And this isn't the only time he's portrayed a rather monstrous character.
In addition to a Nazi war criminal in Schindler's List, he was also an unrepentant serial killer
in Red Dragon.
On the matter of whether or not he would ever play Voldemort again, Fiennes sounds conflicted
to say the least.
In 2016, he told The Evening Standard,
"Well you can never say never, but ... I decided I didn't want to be that definition of evil
anymore.."
Nevertheless, if J.K.
Rowling suddenly rang him up and said a new Harry Potter was in the works, he'd almost
definitely be up for portraying the wizard one more time.
Indeed, he told The Evening Standard that he would feel "possessive" and "protective"
of the character.
And after such an iconic role, who can blame him?