It’s Time – Give Ralph Fiennes His Oscar

While it’ll be for his commanding performance in Conclave, this year’s most likely Best Actor award recipient is truly a sum of his parts.

There are three (and really, arguably four) performances in Ralph Fiennes’ career that should’ve earned him an Oscar. The first came in 1994 when he received his first nomination (in Best Supporting) for playing an absolutely repugnant (aka extremely accurate) SS officer in Schindler’s List, but lost to Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive. This is a good performance – from Jones, I mean – but Fiennes is majestically foul. He projects a mix of allure and rat-like desperation, or as director Steven Spielberg put it when reflecting on Fiennes’ audition for the role, “I saw sexual evil. It is all about subtlety: there were moments of kindness that would move across his eyes and then instantly run cold." Yes, Steven, well said. 

While his role in Schindler’s List didn’t nab him a gold figurine to take home to England, it did announce him as one of the new, classically-trained British thespians that was set to chew up scenery in both indies and blockbusters for the next 30 years. So it was no surprise that he was nominated again (this time for Best Actor) in 1997 for his role in The English Patient, a romantic, period-piece war epic that grossed almost $250 million. However, for the second time in a row, Fiennes lost – this time to Geoffrey Rush in Smile, which is definitely a movie. Frankly, Tom Cruise should’ve won for Jerry Maguire that year. However, once again we see Fiennes playing a character caught between sides of himself – both romantic and removed, stoic and heroic, seductive and restrained. 

Then we jump to 17 years later when Fiennes plays the extraordinary M. Gustave in Wes Anderson’s 2014 opus The Grand Budapest Hotel, which – with all due respect to Bruce Dern’s best actor nomination that year for Nebraska, which is fine – is genuinely shocking that he wasn’t nominated for. You may remember this as the culmination of the McConaissance with McConaughey’s win for Dallas Buyers Club, which, uh, sure. We also had fat Bale in American Hustle (no thank you), Leo in The Wolf of Wall Street (he’d get his make up Oscar the next year for that time he got topped by a live bear), and Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years A Slave, which honestly… maybe he should’ve walked away with it because holy shit. That said, “Take your hands off my lobby boy!” lives on, which brings us to the other side of Fiennes career during this time.

While Ralph Fiennes presents as a tower of awards bait, he is also clearly a man who likes nice things, expensive things if you will, because between the awards nominations, our guy Ralph (it looks weird writing his name knowing how it’s pronounced, but bear with me) was getting paid. Here are some of the highlights:

1998 - The Avengers – No, not that one, although I’m sure he was approached, but the remake of the 1960s TV show. That was also the year of The Prince of Egypt where he voiced… Ramses?

2002 - Red Dragon – The prequel to The Silence of the Lambs where he plays another serial killer that Hannibal Lecter is tasked with hunting down, except this time, the serial killer has an ass tat.

2005 - 2011 - We get five Harry Potter films with Fiennes absolutely nailing Voldemort (who doesn’t not look like Ramses). While those movies are far from perfect, he might be the best casting in the entire film series. Well, except for Maggie Smith (McGonagall 4 ever).

2010 - 2012 - Clash of the Titans AND Wrath of the Titans where he plays Hades. Remember these? Don’t.

2012 - 2021 - We get three Bond films – a good one (Skyfall), a terrible one (Spectre), and one that is somehow referred to as both blasphemy and completely forgetful (No Time to Die) – that feature Fiennes as the new M, replacing Dame Judy D and you know what? He’s very good, no real notes.

2018 - Then there’s Holmes & Watson, in which Fiennes plays a perfectly fine Moriarty. And before you think, “Oh I could see him being good opposite RDJ and mustachioed Jude Law,” this is the other adaptation of that story from this time.

2017 - 2019 - The Lego Batman Movie/Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, in which he voiced Batman’s butler Alfred and I’m sure was paid enough to balance out whatever West End production he was performing in at the time.

This is all to say that Ralph Fiennes doesn’t mind a bit of schlock. He’s played Greek gods and fascist wizards, voiced animated IP staples, and clearly did some squats in preparation of getting his cheeks fake inked. He likes to play in both the quality and profitability sandboxes with unfortunately very little crossover between the two. And even in his most successful franchise films – ya know, the ones where he’s part man, part snake, and all horned up for evil – his face is digitally altered to the point where you either know it's him because you know it's him or you don’t and you don’t care.

So when you look back at his career, it should really come as no surprise that all of these decisions have led him to the role that is almost certainly going to land him his third Oscar nomination and most likely his first win as Dean Lawrence in Edward Berger’s pope thriller (lolz), Conclave.

While this hasn’t been the best year at the movies, there are still some big films heading our way, many of which include some more-than-likely nominees for Best Actor. But I’m just not seeing it at this point. Ralph’s biggest competitors at this point include:

Colman Domingo in Sing Sing. Well, this was supposed to be a big movie this year, but instead, Netflix really botched the rollout and Domingo was also nominated last year for Rustin, so… it seems unlikely/

Daniel Craig in Queer. Craig is definitely out there campaigning his ass off, but as this is director Luca Guadagnino’s second movie of the year (Challengers, good film), it simply doesn’t seem like it’s going to take off the way Craig would really need it to in order to contend.

Adrien Brody in The Brutalist. OK, this might be Fiennes’ biggest competition as the narrative around this almost four-hour American epic is going to be something during prime awards season. Not only is this movie going to be a huge discussion topic, but Brody’s return to the spotlight after flying extremely under the radar over the past few years. Although he did crush it in his approximately 90 seconds of screen time in Asteroid City and he was fantastic in his cameo role on Succession. That said, he already has an Oscar (remember when he smooched Halle Berry after winning and he was truly, for a second, the king of the world?), so I’m just not seeing it.

Paul Mescal in Gladiator II. Look, I want Mescal to be great because I want this movie to be great (in the history of movies with characters named “Max,” Gladiator holds the top spot). And even though Denzel is reportedly singing Mescal’s praises, something tells me that GII is going to be perceived more along the lines of last year’s Napoleon than the original Gladiator, in terms of the great Sir Ridley grading scale. I’m sure we will all be entertained, though.

Timothée Chalamet in… hm, good question. Technically, Timotay could get nominated for his role in Dune: Part 2 or for his performance in the upcoming A Complete Unknown. However, one of those movies has him as the face of a growing rebellion, the chosen one sent to lead his people into a new age! And the other is Dune: Part 2. There’s also a good chance that Chalamet as mid-sixties Bob Dylan is not good and he’ll have another chance with Dune: Messiah anyway, so… I think not.

Unlike all of these actors in all of these parts, however, Fiennes just feels right. The Academy loves rewarding all of the following: acclaimed British actors, mass market, successful movies (OK, Conclave isn’t taking the world by storm, but man, that shit is gonna rock on streaming), and tenacity. Fiennes has appeared in over 100 movies and TV shows, been a part of great works of cinematic art and one of the biggest franchises of all time, and is capable of being the funniest, sweetest, most evil, and sympathetic performer on screen at any given time. And it’s all of these traits that make his performance in Conclave so memorable.

Fiennes plays Dean Lawrence, an English cardinal who is tasked with running the conclave to elect a new head of the Catholic Church after the death of the sitting pope. While this doesn’t seem like the most enthralling framework for an entertaining movie – there are many scenes centered around voting for the new pope, like literally watching cardinals write names on pieces of paper that are then counted, punctured, and burned – Fiennes’ ability to change speeds and shift roles depending on who he’s acting against makes the movie not just enjoyable, but actually fun. 

There’s his ordering around of fellow cardinal (but non-conclave participant), Cardinal O’Malley, who is sent on various fact-finding missions by Fiennes’ Lawrence while the College of Cardinals is sequestered away to decide on the next pope. There’s his sparring with Stanley Tucci (who is really fantastic) as Cardinal Bellini – the most liberal cardinal considered to be a contender for the big chair – and his dueling with John Lithgow (who is very tall) as Cardinal Tremblay, the most moderate contender for pope. But Fiennes also has to assume a dominant, yet semi-understanding role in his scenes with Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini), a tender and forgiving position in his private exchanges with Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), and his downright sassy arguments with Sergio Castellitto’s Cardinal Tedesco, who actually steals the movie at various points and is down right delicious as the hyper-conservative and cartoonish Venetian villain. 

But even after all of these moments – when Dean Lawrence discovers the deceased pope’s secret files on all of the cardinals who will contend to take his place after his death or when he finally accepts Bellini’s claim that all cardinals dream of being pope and Dean Lawrence utters that he’d choose John as his title or when he performs multiple monologues in multiple languages in full cardinal ceremonial garb (man, the Catholic Church is odd) – it’s the last scene when Fiennes really takes it up 1,000.

It is in the film’s last moments, when Cardinal O’Malley reveals to Dean Lawrence that the mysterious Cardinal Benitez of Kabul, played very well by Carlos Diehz, a figure who has only just appeared after the death of the pope (who secretly appointed Benitez in the first place), traveled to a clinic in Switzerland under the order of the previous pope to receive a specific treatment, which Benitez opted not to go through with. We, the audience, don’t learn what this treatment was in this scene – which is shot in a much brighter, open space in what’s supposed to be the Vatican – and instead learn after Dean Lawrence tracks down the person who has just been elected as the new pope to ask them if they did, indeed, decide not to have a hysterectomy. 

This wild ass twist at the end of this movie caused actual shock and awe in the theater when I saw the film and you can see that same surprise, confusion, and judgment in Fiennes’ eyes as he realizes that the College of Cardinals has elected an intersex person to lead the Catholic Church. While Dean Lawrence never says how he feels, it's through Fiennes’ eyes, showing equal parts grimace and acceptance, where we see that this man – a character who opens the movie explaining how he previously attempted to resign from his post due to a crisis of faith – confront his own concept of not just what the church is, but what he really believes. It’s equal parts M. Gustav and Moriarty – and maybe even a splash of Harry Waters from In Bruges.

Oh shit, In Bruges! That was the fourth one that Fiennes could’ve been nominated for. Remember at the beginning when I said there were arguably four? Oh well, come March 2, 2025, we won’t have to wonder which movies Ralph Fiennes should’ve won for as he’ll finally get to take an Oscar home and – just like Spielberg said about his audition for Schindler’s List – it’ll be for a role where “there were moments of kindness that would move across his eyes and then instantly run cold." Who knew that Fiennes’ portrayal of an SS officer and a cardinal 30 years apart could have so much in common?