In 1998 Shakespeare in Love catapulted Joe Fiennes to stardom. His youthful energy, unique good looks and comic timing helped the film win seven Academy Awards. This put Fiennes in the enviable position of being primed to enter the field of young leading actors like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt. Instead, he chose to walk away from a five-picture deal with Miramax in favor of a trip to India.

"I didn't want the pressure of making money," says Fiennes, looking back. "I was new. Shakespeare was my second film, and I didn't know how it would work out. In the end it worked out very well, but I just felt that I wanted to take things at my pace. I needed to have time out, to be at home and revive, or to travel and explore different cultures. My job is to bring qualities of life and an understanding of the human condition to the characters I play. I didn't know if I could do that if I just went from film to film, or play to pay, because then one is living in a fake vacuum. I need to live in the real world in order to bring something back to the work that I do."

Fiennes's subsequent film and stage work reveal an actor who carves his career in terms of personal taste rather than with the advice of a money-hungry entourage. As a result, his credits include everything from absolute clunkers like Forever Mine - in which he played a cabana boy having an affair with an older woman [sic] - to more respectable, if not completely box-office-friendly projects, like his turn as Bassanio in 2004's Merchant of Venice. "I am taken by stories," Fiennes says, "and for me the independent films have the more interesting narratives. They don't dabble in rehashed cliches or updated television series. That's not why I went into acting. Look, I love good-quality popcorn, but I'm into the more quirky stuff. It's just my personality."

But Fiennes's taste for a great story may have led him now to a blockbuster with his latest role. He plays Neil Bookman in writer/director Ryan Murphy's inspired adaptation of Augusten Burroughs's quirky memoir, Running with Scissors. Bookman is the 35-year-old lover of 14-year-old Burroughs.

"It's certainly uncomfortable material," Fiennes confesses, "in that it is a man of maturity with a young boy, and I have concerns about that. It was a challenge for me, and I took a lot of time to think about it to see how I would tackle it. But it is a true story, and when I talked to Augusten, he said, 'This was a real love story and I think that Ryan has dealt with that very delicately. I like the fact that we have created a quality in this relationship where the audience can have some sympathy for Bookman and Augusten's predicament."

The "predicament" includes bizarre and hilarious encounters with mental illness, sex, prescription drugs that were handled out like candy, and counter-culture therapy. Think To Kill a Mockingbird on LSD and through the looking glass. "I knew I was going through something that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Burroughs says. "And I knew that if it didn't kill me, it would make me better in the end."

The extreme story fascinated Murphy, best known as the creator of Nip/Tuck. "Even though it is a very specific story about childhood," Murphy says, "it is also about the universal quest for family and identity." He rounded up a top-notch cast to bring to life its very expressive characters. In addition to Fiennes, Bening and Cross, the film stars Brian Cox, Alec Baldwin, Jill Clayburgh, Gwyneth Paltrow and Evan Rachel Wood. But the opportunity to be reteamed with Shakespeare in Love co-star Gwyneth Paltrow stands out as a highlight for Fiennes.

"It was wonderful to work with Gwyneth again," Fiennes says. "It was great because I felt I had a really strong friend on the set. And it's always nice to be working with people you admire, so it was good to be sharing a bit of screen time with Gwyneth, albeit in a totally different capacity."

Though making the switch from playing opposite Paltrow as a love interest to playing her adopted brother may have broken new ground for the pair, Fiennes was in somewhat familiar territory playing a gay character. In 2001 he played the lead role in a highly acclaimed production of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II.

"It's not so much that either one of these parts is a gay role," Fiennes says. "I don't look at it from the point of [wanting] to play a gay or straight character. The biggest excitement for me in theater or film is the language. It's paramount that the language speaks to me. Theater is my background, language is my first love and doing Marlowe's play was an amazing experience for me in one of the truly great classical roles."

As for playing Neil Bookman? "I have to admit that this was one of the most, if not the most, enjoyable film experiences that I have ever had," Fiennes says. "Just in terms of being able to push myself, push the boundaries and have great fun with it. It was a tremendous experience for me."

Joe has a twin brother, Jake, who is a gamekeeper. The two are the youngest of six children. "I had a magical childhood," he says. "We are all very close."

Joe's older brother Ralph is also an actor, most noted for roles in The English Patient and The Constant Gardener. "He was a tremendous help to me when I was starting out," Fiennes says.

Joe was a dresser at the National Theatre while he was in drama school. "Going back to the National to play in Trevor Nunn's production of Love's Labours Lost was poetic justice for me. I didn't have to pick up someone's smelly underwear," he says.

Joe is the cousin of world famous explorer Ranulph Fiennes, whose full name is Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham Fiennes. He led the world's first surface journey around the world's polar axis; the expedition lasted three years.

Joe was director Roman Polanski's first choice for the lead role in The Pianist. He turned it down due to a previous commitment. "I know that I got Shakespeare in Love because someone else turned it down. It's a very small marketplace."

One of the funniest lines in Running with Scissors occurs when Gwyneth Paltrow claims she put the family cat in the stew. Joe's retort - "I don't eat pussy" - was his own ad-lib that director Murphy left in.

Joe's preferred playwright is Christopher Marlowe. "They talk about Marlowe's mighty line," Fiennes says. "And every now and again a line rings out, and when it does, there is simply no better classical writer in the world."