In his 23 years as executive director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Roger Durling always had one actor he wanted to celebrate.
On Thursday, the time finally came when the festival honored actor Ralph Fiennes with the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award for his performance in “Conclave.”
The film, which tells the story of leaders of the Roman Catholic Church selecting a new Pope, has earned eight Oscar nominations including best picture and best actor for Fiennes’ performance.
When Fiennes accepted his award, he said that the fires in the Los Angeles area reminded him of his values and the power of art and storytelling.
“Life is fragile, and looking back at some of my work tonight with Scott, I just realized how profoundly lucky I’ve been to have had these opportunities and shared them with so many remarkable people,” Fiennes said.
Scott Feinberg, Executive Editor of Awards for The Hollywood Reporter, took Fiennes down memory lane as they discussed his long career from “Wuthering Heights,” “Schindler’s List,” and the Harry Potter films.
Fiennes shared how, despite the disturbing nature of “Schindler’s List,” there was a sense of community among the actors working on the film.
“I never can forget the extraordinary sense of community among the actors,” Fiennes said. “They knew they were shooting something that was upsetting and disturbing but there was also the wonderful bonding between all the actors.”
A memory that stayed with Fiennes is how the German actors playing soldiers, and Israeli actors playing prisoners, were all sitting and talking together in a Jewish cafe in Poland.
“They were all talking to each other and having conversations and being interested in each other,” Fiennes said. “I always thought that was the wonderful quality of healing, and something about art and making of a film, bringing people together across these terrible traumas of history.”
When it came to the villainous role of Voldemort in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” part one and two, Fiennes admitted he was originally not interested in the role.
“I just was ignorant. I hadn’t seen the films in order to dislike them. I just hadn’t seen them and I hadn’t read the books,” Fiennes said. “I was aware of their big success. I think I was probably guilty of a sort of totally misplaced snobbery about witches and goblins and things.”
Fiennes said he was pressured by casting director Mary Selway to take the part but it wasn’t until he told his sister about the offer and heard her excitement that he decided to do it.
However, when it came to character of Lawrence in “Conclave,” there was something about the character and the idea of grappling with faith that spoke to him.
“Sometimes there’s a spirit in the screenplay and you go on a gut feeling about something and you sort of have a feeling, dare I say, where you go, ‘I’m meant to do this,’” Fiennes said. “That doesn’t happen very often, and I had that feeling.”
The director of “Conclave,” Edward Berger, presented Fiennes with his award for outstanding performer and spoke about how he was inspired by Fiennes performance.
“Ralph, I learned so much from you, from your kindness, from your generosity, from your ability to listen,” Berger said. “I’m eternally grateful for the trust that you gave me in this film.”
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will continue until Feb. 15. To see the full list of panels and movies, visit sbiff.org.
