Ralph Fiennes: Very established stars, actors, people suddenly are told they “don’t mean anything anymore” because they were successful three years ago – now it’s so-and-so. And, of course, I give in wondering whether, “Do I have any meaning?” in this sense. Harry Potter certainly helped.

Andrew Marr: It’s a very strange thought that, thanks to J.K. Rowling, we can get Shakespeare and Dickens onscreen.
Fiennes: Well, yes. There’s definitely a very funny reality that you don’t really encounter if you’re just being an actor and you’re waiting for the phone to ring and you get the jobs. But if you’re looking for the money to make a film, the money people – the distributors, everywhere, studios – they have this thing about who has me in it. And it’s actually very uncomfortable to go there.

Marr: Going back to Dickens, I hadn’t realized, but he was a very, very serious thespian himself. He loved directing.
Fiennes: Well he wanted to be an actor as a young man.

Marr: You think he was quite a good actor.
Fiennes: I do. I came across a book. I read a review of his acting. It said something like, “Mr. Dickens does not come to the footlights and grandstand his emotions. If he’s a man depressed, he is a man depressed. If he’s a man in a bad mood, he is a man in a bad mood. We absolutely believe him.” [That] was the gist of it.