"And I'm watching him, thinking, 'You're eating this role alive - rolling on the floor, wielding a sword and leaping balustrades. This guy is Errol Flynn; he's Cary Grant; he's everybody!'"
Geoffrey Rush, actor

"Many of the people I tried out were intimidated by this icon of icons. But not Joe. He was able to jump from comic deftness to passionate intensity, to making pure intelligence watchable on screen."
John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love

"He's a very tricky little character. He's a very naughty man and a wonderful actor."
Cate Blanchett, actress

"We met for a long afternoon in Toronto and I instantly adored him. I liked the fact that he was a cerebral person, yet charismatic and handsome as well. He was my very first choice for this movie and I built the cast around him."
Jean-Jacques Annaud, director of Enemy at the Gates

"Joseph is unbelievably charming and very funny, but his humor is less subtle than Ralph's. Most people enjoy being around Joseph, because he has an utterly sociable manner. He is also very athletic and full of energy. But one shouldn't be fooled by Joseph - in spite of his charming manner he can be hard as nails. No one can make this stubborn guy do anything."
Martha Fiennes, sister

"Having an actor like Joseph does make a difference to box office and profile, but in terms of casting it's made a considerable difference too in that we have now - a week to rehearsals - a full cast and the quality of that cast is of the highest order one could ever expect."
Michael Grandage, director of Edward II

"If you're playing with people who are talented and better than you, some of it rubs off on you. Joe's a terrific actor. He's such a giving man that you feel very comfortable around him".
James D'Arcy, actor

"Joe's impact and sexuality is fantastic to watch, even in an editing room. This is the only man Elizabeth loved - and even historians agree on that one. Such a person has to have exceptional qualities, both as an actor and as a man."
Shekhar Kapur, director of Elizabeth

"He is simply one of the most exciting faces and forces that I'd seen in front of the camera."
Nick Hamm, director of Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence

"Joe has a really extraordinary lightness. His brother wants to be there, while Joe has with a kind of almost Zen absence, this kind of invisible strong presence."
Bernardo Bertoluccci, director of Stealing Beauty

"If I want my career to go on, I'm going to have to find some more Fiennes brothers! However, any similarity between them basically stops at their last name. I was in no way reminded of Ralph by working with Joe. I got on fantastically with both of them. I have huge admiration for them as actors but I couldn't compare them."
Colin Firth, actor, on losing the girl to both Ralph and Joe

"I don't think Joe has to play at turning on the charm and sensuality - he just has it. There's an openness there, a raw anguish and vulnerability. It's a very potent combination."
John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love

"I was in a rehearsal room with Adrian Noble, and after Joe had done his piece, I turned to Adrian and said, "I know you've worked with the brother, but this one's the star."
Ian Judge, director of Troilus and Cressida

"Ralph is very complex and intense, but has a wicked sense of humour bubbling under the surface. Joseph is open, direct, focused and a secret trickster. But both are incredibly beautiful to look at and gifted beyond belief. It is already clear to everyone who has worked with him that Joseph will become every bit as big a name as Ralph."
Cate Blanchett, actress

"You're dealing with a man who is so sensitive, and believe me, I've been around other actors who are not this level of gentleman, and doing the love scene with him was not an issue. I really adored him, he's a very special person."
Gwyneth Paltrow, actress

"He's an extremely gifted and effective actor and a wonderful person. We got along exceedingly well."
Kristin Scott Thomas, actress

"Joe has a gentility of spirit, a warmth and openness and looks great in repose. He's the kind of guy you'd pay to watch at the cinema even if he was just reading a book."
Nick Hamm, director of Martha, Meet Frank Daniel and Laurence

"His passion is very hot, I think. I wouldn't call Joe a cuddly actor. He's not warm in that sense; he's warm in the heat of passion."
Adrian Noble, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company

"It's a family joke because he was a member of a horrible gang at school called the Rough Gang, who were very naughty, and our mother was really worried. He snapped out of it by the time he was seven and never went through the normal teenage rebellion. He just turned overnight into this incredibly sensitive, mature little boy and then grew into a mature sensitive man."
Martha Fiennes, about Joe when he was six

"Joe's quality is his seriousness - his lack of knowingness. He's easy to work with because of his intelligence. He has innate good taste and all the best attributes that come with being an ambitious young actor without any of the negative bits. He's incredibly popular with the cast. During the rehearsal period for Son of Man, when we finally got round to doing his big speech when he delivers the Sermon on the Mount, the entire cast stood up and applauded him. That's rare."
Bill Bryden, director of Son of Man

"He's got slightly old-fashioned, smoldering good looks. I think that's what women respond to - a harking back to that knight-on-a-white-charger kind of thing."
Alison Owen, producer of Elizabeth

"Joe has an artist's face and build. He is not your run-of-the-mill heart-throb. He is sensitive with a very macho centre."
Tom Stoppard, co-writer of Shakespeare in Love

"There may come a day when the table will turn and Ralph will be known as Joseph's brother."
Dad Mark Fiennes

"Joseph's very funny actually, he's a comedian at heart. But he's also got that incredible, brooding intensity. It's always there in those brown eyes."
Rachel Weisz, actress

"Joe's a lovely guy; he's really, really sweet. Sometimes I'd look at him and think, "Oh my god, you're so beautiful; you're more beautiful than I am!" Those lashes! I can't believe those eyelashes! He is just a complete joy!"
Lynn Collins, actress

"I don't think he even begins to be fazed by his brother, because he's all animal. Ralph is about the cool, intellectual probing of passion. But with Joe, cynicism has passed him by. His acting personality is more that of a theatre animal."
Ian Judge, director of Troilus and Cressida

"Joe was the unchallenged candidate from a very wide search. He just stood out head-and-shoulders above the rest. He was the only person remotely believable as the man who wrote the plays. He has the romance and the humour and the looks - and so much more. The part belongs to him. He was my choice and I made it very clear that I didn't want to make the movie unless I could find the right person. Joe was the one."
John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love

"He's not corrupt at all. It's so nice to direct such a pleasant, articulate, intelligent actor. He's unable to do something he doesn't like. He has enormous integrity. Already, at his age, he commands huge respect. He's a very pure man."
Jean-Jacques Annaud, director of Enemy at the Gates

"Proteus is so noble and true, he could easily have come off as flat, but Joe did an amazing job. He brought a dynamic to Proteus that conveys how he wrestles with every decision. You understand that this is not a guy who immediately and easily makes the noble choice. He is somebody who understands how much sacrifice is sometimes involved in doing the right thing."
Tim Johnson, director of Sinbad - Legend of the Seven Seas

"Joseph is a private man, but he's not, for want of a better word, a luvvie. His focus on the work is extraordinary, given that his profile is international, he's young, and is attractive to lots of seventeen- year-old girls... he doesn't let it go to his head... But it's about time he had a closer shave. Every night I get stubble rash and that really doesn't do it for me. Maybe if he got one of those Mach 3 blades something would blossom, I don't know."
James D'Arcy, actor

"I thought he was terrific; I enjoyed [working with him] enormously. I enjoyed the encounter, because we had many variations of tempo and feeling in that encounter. It was wonderfully complicated to play."
Sir Peter Ustinov, actor

"Joseph is not a celebrity, he's is a fine artist. He's chosen work that speaks to him, and if that means Hollywood or the public doesn't vibe with it, I don't think it matters."
Lynn Collins, actress

"He had hardly slipped on the first costume when something amazing happened: he was no longer an actor in a strange costume. He adapted himself to these clothes, shawls and cowls, felt himself in them as a young monk, pilgrim, scholar and finally reformer. He tried them out, tested the conditions the clothes must have placed on Luther's walk, his posture, his attitude. Within ten seconds it was clear that our cooperation would flow naturally - with very high standards but without primadonna allures."
Ulla Goethe, costume designer of Luther

"One of the many wonderful things about Joe is that he has this open quality about him which is absolutely genuine. So when you're acting with him, you never feel like anything is being manipulated. Things start to happen because of his openness. He's a wonderful actor."
Sam Shepard, actor and writer

"He's a very talented young actor. I don't think there is anyone better in this movie." [Leo]
Dennis Hopper, actor

"Joseph Fiennes attracted me to this project [Leo]. Looking in Joseph's eyes, whenever my character is brave enough to, is a delight. It's a delight. You just go swimming in those eyes. He's such a great individual and such a fantastic actor."
Deborah Kara Unger, actress