Internationally successful English actor Joseph Fiennes strolls into Studio One at Jasmine in west London unaccompanied. He's wearing a pair of faded Evisu jeans and a bright blue T-shirt. In one hand he clutches a motorbike helmet. "Hey Guys," he waves around the room at the various BLAG team members. Introducing himself as Joe, he makes sure he meets everyone individually and takes an interest in the last few issues of BLAG – a very good way to earn brownie points with us.

Joe Fiennes is friendly, laid-back, down-to-earth and strikingly handsome. He is very well spoken with the slightest "Landin" undertones that lends itself to emphasising, "I dunno" and "sort of" – probably due to his 20 year south and west London residency.

During the shoot there is a haircut, some outfit changes, some comedy statements made to animate the shots and a spotless Triumph Scrambler ridden in and out of the studio.

Quickly, for the record, Joseph Fiennes has a catalogue of great and versatile work to his name. From his screen debut as Christopher in Bernado Bertolucci's 1996 classic Stealing Beauty to his award-winning turns in Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth. He is no stranger to treading the stage boards either, with three seasons of leading roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company including As you Like it and Troilus and Cressida, to playing George at the Comedy Theatre's Epitaph For George Dillon. Aside from acting he is very involved in the charities Breakthrough Breast Cancer and The Prince's Trust.

He will soon be seen in a tri of upcoming films; firstly Running with Scissors, based on Augusten Burroughs semi autobiographical novel of the same name, in which Joseph stars along Annette Bening, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brian Cox and Evan Rachel Wood. Secondly, in the Darwin Awards, he plays forensic detective Michael Burrows, who alongside insurance claims investigator Siri – played by Winona Ryder – take on a road trip to create the profile of a potential winner of the eponymous bizarre internet awards which "salute the improvement of the human genome by honouring those who remove themselves from it". And thirdly in Goodbye Bafana, which is based on a true story. Joseph plays prison guard James Gregory who befriends an inmate, Nelson Mandela, played by 24's US President’ Dennis Haysbert.

A short while later, we are sitting around a table at The Queens Head pub on Brook Green. The table so small it is consumed by two halves of Guinness (BLAG fuel), a ginger beer and a packet of crisps – split open. Joe gently punches each crisp into three or so pieces while he digests each question and munches on them during each answer.

One more thing – just to let you know, at the photoshoot, I asked Joe to think of three questions he'd really like to be asked, based on our ‘Each To Their Own’ theme.

Describe yourself in three words.
"Um" (long pause) fun, loving, adventurous."

Please finish this sentence: My brother Ralph is most likely to describe me as…
"... a joker."

What is your most commonly used phrase?
"Brilliant."

You were born in Salisbury?
"I was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Moved to West Cork."

Wiltshire, West Cork and London, are those the places you've lived?
"Wiltshire, South of Ireland; Cork, Bantry Bay, Kilkenny; and south London and then eventually north of the river, as I got older. I don't know if there's a progression in that though, ha ha."

Can you tell us a story that really reminds you of each location?
"A story? God. Um. Wiltshire, Salisbury... a story... I might have to come back, because things will have to just jog my memory and then open the files. I'll delve. Ireland? Ok, London? Ok. I'll think about that. I'll think about stories that describe them. Well, I remember when I left Ireland, his name was John O'Mahony, he ran a shop which is still there in Cork and he gave me – because I'm a twin – he gave me and my twin... Do you remember when you would go for a lollipop, those big plastic tubs with the big screw top?"

Yes.
"As a goodbye present, he gave me and my twin one of those. That was my memory of the wonderful spirit of Ireland and when you're a kid and you're that young, to be handed this huge great jar – I was probably sick for the rest of the journey – but that was a story. I remember. Also, we were in this wild area in Bantry, I remember seals and jellyfish and dry stone walks."

"We grew up with a lot of moving around and I do think you have specific memories, sometimes things come back via certain smells or sounds, things like that. Mmm, Oh, something's coming back in terms of Wiltshire. At the end of a school year, I burnt my tie. In celebration, I went like that [mimes swinging his around over head] but it was made of polyester and it burnt and these bits flew off into my eye. So I was blind for a day and went into hospital, that was one memory. You want more romantic memories, don't you?

Well you can think of those if you like, you can just chip in. Ok, can you tell us about when you left art school in Suffolk to go and work at the Young Vic Youth Theatre?
"I left Art School after my one year foundation, I was supposed to go on and do fine art or specialise for three years, but I left. I went to Italy for six months and was a builder in Tuscany, doing more restorational work on a 12th century villa, and then during that time, being away sort of solidified what I wanted to do and I went to the Young Vic after that. I came back to London, auditioned, spent 18 months at the youth theatre doing anything, from backstage helping, building and painting the sets, to performing in the plays."

You then studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, what age were you then?
"I was 20."

What really stands out from your time there?
"Do you know what, it was the other departments, you've got Opera singers, Jazz singers. Joolz Holland would pop in and teach some master classes on Jazz. Then you would get all these people singing arias in the corridors, so the dynamic of the building – I have to say the architecture wasn't so dynamic, but the actual dynamic within the building was a reminder of the power of discipline. When you got into school, to see people who'd been there since six doing their scales in the classical department and you'd sort of waltz in after a student night out and got on and did the play, it sort of reminds you of what discipline's about."

Have you kept up with your art?
"Not really, no. I think that what I've learnt is, unless you want to be a Jack of All Trades and Master Of None, then doing something, it's a lifetime's achievement. It takes a lifetime to get it right and I think if you want to go and do art, it has to be sort of ritual or a religion if you want to execute your fullest potential. It's something I love and appreciate and I occasionally sketch but when I do I'm reminded – if I haven't done it for several months - that you're back to square one."

It does make you feel very great, does it?
"No, it makes you feel even worse."

I know I'm like that, having had an art background.
"You know what I mean, if you don't do it, don't you think? If you sketch, you think, 'Oh, what am I doing?' You have to do it everyday, it's a religion."

So, are there any contemporary artists you really admire?
"I'm crazy about Bacon. I love photography more than I do art. I collect a lot of photographic books and things. But I'm not big on modern art, I'm out of touch. I'll hit Frieze for a crash course. I love the photographers; Don McCullin, Paul Strand, Mary Ellen Mark, Paul Outerbridge, Robert Frank, Guy Tillim and Weegee you know, the famous crime scene photographer. They're very cinematic. I love photographic portraiture, I guess my interest lies in digging for characters."

Have you had any more thoughts about your stories?
"Well, I remember, London, very important. I've said it in one or two other interviews but, in Southfields where I was at school, being given the opportunity to act age seven, eight or nine, I can't remember when, but that kind of gift of being asked to be in a character in a play. And the feeling of suddenly being picked up by the scruff of the neck and dropped into the department I wanted to be in. From that day I knew I was in the right area. So, that's my story of South London, there are millions of others I can't think about, but that in terms of acting."

"Ireland was certainly the countryside and the people. Rowing with my Dad across Bantry Bay and seals and jellyfish. What else? Breaking into a cinema. Oh yeah. Oh God, yeah, yeah. Oh dear. Dismantling a MG Midget, being a bit reckless, because I'd seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And me and my Irish buddies, at that age and time – it was in Kikenny – we completely dismantled a MG Midget and it shows how wonderfully forgiving the community was, because it really was a write-off and the police were called in. But then all the mothers went [in a Irish Accent] 'To be sure, if you're gonna have Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, what sort of effect do you think it's going to have on children?' So we were forgiven, ha ha."

Wow, lucky. Your first professional role was in The Woman in Black?
"Out of school, yes that was my first."

Can you tell us how that was?
"Baptism by fire. Eight shows a week."

It's still in the same place isn't it?
"Yeah, I mean, it's a camp gothic horror. It's kind of fun, it cheats a lot. It draws on all the kind of Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe, and the wonderful sort of detective march-like settings of north mysterious England and ghost stories. There is nothing that can prepare you for the leap from the institution to the real world, that was as tough as it gets in a wonderful way. But to go from a safe environment suddenly to people paying West End prices for a show and you're doing that show for six months, it was gruelling. I mean, I've done a few since and they always are gruelling. Six months in the West End, eight shows a week I think sorts the men from the boys, it really does."

You're very well known for your roles in Elizabeth and Shakespeare in Love, can you choose two other films or productions you think you should be remembered for and why?
"Well, certainly this one, Running With Scissors, because it's a really challenging part and also for me, creatively, I haven't had so much fun, maybe since something like Shakespeare in Love. But I've done many films. I tend to do more independent projects and often they're with directors who have come to notoriety through films in their own language and then subsequently been embraced by the west and America.

"I'd like to be remembered for challenging characters like Neil Bookman (Running With Scissors). Roles that really stretch me, that are more of a challenge. Ones that are quirkier and darker, which lie in the independent more than commercial side of film. And actually a film which hasn't come out yet called Goodbye Bafana about Nelson Mandela and his jailer.

I was just about to ask you about these.
"So, there you go. Segueing in there."

Yes, exactly. So my next question was, could you give me a synopsis of each of each of your new projects, Running With Scissors, The Darwin Awards and Goodbye Bafana, plus a funny story from the making?
"Um, I don't know about a funny memory, but Goodbye Bafana I worked in a prison. It was more of an eye-opener, there was nothing funny about it at all. But what comes to mind is me working in a prison in preparation for Goodbye Bafana, I arrived off the plane, was given a uniform and started work at 5.30am. I arrived eager, but was told to go home and iron my shirt and present myself in an orderly fashion. Did a few days shadowing a prison guard, observed the stark and said reality of prison life. The prison was full of gangs, rife with AIDS and generally terrifying. I soon came to the conclusion, the best form of defence is defencelessness, so I looked them in the eye, shook their hand and treated them with the respect that I would afford anyone outside the prison.

Running With Scissors is an off-the-wall, dark, twisted, hysterically funny and bitterly sad story of a boy's survival struggle and ultimate escape through an upbringing in a mad family. In a mad household with a mother who's off-the-rails and this boy becomes a writer. His name is Augusten Burroughs, he is adopted and brought up in this crazy household of Doctor Finch. It's his own story, it's a really semi-autobiographical tale.

Any stories on set, I dunno? I guess it was a bit peculiar having worked with Gwyneth in Shakespeare in Love to meet up with her on Running With Scissors and in such a different relationship, where we're so opposite to the one we'd been, so it was great to team up with her again, albeit in a completely opposite guise."

And then The Darwin Awards.
"The Darwin Awards."

That's really mad.
"It's crazy, yeah. It's an internet phenomenon which started in the 70s, awards given out to people who kill themselves in such a ridiculous way that they remove themselves from the human gene pool. It was just an off-the-wall kind of screwball comedy, written by a really wonderful director called Finn Taylor, who is San Francisco's number one alter-filmmaker. I guess one of the best things was to meet Metallica. They're in the film. It was kind of fun meeting the guys from Metallica and subsequently going to a concert of theirs at Sundance."

Can you tell us about Street Riders, the film you're thinking of making?
"The inspiration is from two phenomena of young adolescent boys in urban areas who look after and race ponies. I was struck by this happening in Ireland and Philadelphia and this has subsequently inspired me to engage a writer with a view to making a film on the subject."

What is a typical day off for you?
"On the bike!"

Well, I'm going to amalgamate this into the next question, because I think it'll work with it.
"OK."

As an internationally successful English actor who is London based...
"Say that again, faster!"

No, I'll just stutter all over it again. If I drink the rest of that (Guinness) I'll be able to do it three times, really fast.
[Laughs]

Can you give us a short guide to London for other people in your industry, including where to stay, shop, relax, dine and visit? Can you get your bike in there?
"Well you know what, whenever I've been abroad like, I dunno, Rome - I think the last place Barcelona – I always go and get a scooter. I go to a hire store and get a scooter for the day, because at street level you can get off and go wander. So, I'd say get on a scooter – and London is becoming more and more scooter friendly, thanks to Ken. I would say, see London and let the road take you. That's the best thing about travel is to actually throw away the guide book and just ask people on the street and go wander. It's full of surprises."

What has been the strangest thing you've read or heard about yourself?
"After a play I did, a girl came to see it with her friend and she was looking at me fairly aggressively and I said, 'What's wrong?', and she said 'What's your name?' and I said 'Joe Fiennes', and she went, 'It wasn't you, was it?' And I said 'What do you mean, it wasn't me? And she went 'Fuck. Some guy came up into a club and said he was you and hassled me all night, under the guise it was you. But it wasn't you.' So that was really weird to hear that somebody had kind of used me to... but anyway."

Maybe you've got a namesake?
"Huh, I've got to find him. Anyway, that was a bit odd."

What has been the biggest personal achievement and your next goal? You know, sometimes people will really put somebody up on a platform for something because everyone else appreciates it, but there might be a smaller thing that you have done that you really feel like you've actually achieved something by.
"The ongoing achievement is my support of a charity, Breakthrough Breast Cancer and being involved with them and raising money, and knowing what that money goes towards. To be a participant in that and know that when you talk to the guys in the laboratory and there's been great insight and movement towards development of treating breast cancer, to be part of that team for me, is the biggest achievement."

So, you actually get involved in finding out what sort of research is being done?
"Yeah, absolutely. There are two charities and one's Breakthrough Breast Cancer, and I give up a lot of time and attention to the research. And if it's the Prince's Trust, I'll go down to places and do workshops with children or young adults using drama as a tool. Or I'll go down to Brompton Road which is where the laboratory is and talk to the main guys there and find out what is new and improving in terms of the research. They're doing an amazing thing where it's like 200,000 women and it'll throw up a lot of answers for cancers in general. I'm on the fund-raising board, so I have to think of events. We raised a lot of money earlier his year and that was a huge achievement, and just knowing where that goes to is, for me, the best."

Excellent. So, have you thought of any questions you'd like to be asked?
[Laughs.] "Huh."

Don't worry if you haven't. I though it might be quite fun.
"What was the theme?"

Each To Their Own.
"I guess that would have to incorporate travel, because I love travelling. So, why do you feel the need to travel when invariably you're living out of a suitcase and hotels 70-80% of the time?"

That's good you see. I couldn't ask you that, I could never say 'Why do you feel the need'...
"Do I have to answer my own question now? Who answers it for me? You should answer it for me, that's how it should be, existential, kind of weirdness."

Well, in actual fact I can. I've done jobs with travel involved and you never actually get to see anything.
"Right, there you go. Yeah."

You need to be able to actually look around yourself and throw the guidebook away and just follow your nose.
"Thank you. That's my answer. That's my answer, yeah. Good. Do I have to do three of these?"

You don't have to...
"I was thinking that I've already mentioned the charities."

I can answer the questions, see what I've learnt about you from the interview.
"Yeah, ha. See if you've learnt enough. Um, with exposure through your medium to the public eye, how do you use that to your advantage…outside of work?

Outside of work? Um, I don't know apart from your charity work?
"That's it, yeah. What is the epitome of blissful solitude?"

Is it travel-related again?
"Kind of. Kind of."

You're in this little zone!
"Well hey, I'm on the spot here!"

No, it's good. That's good, maybe we'll just finish it with that, what is the epitome of blissful solitude?…Oh, hang on a minute, being on your bike?
"Ha, yeah, the open road!"