Ralph Fiennes Reveals He Almost Didn’t Play Voldemort

by · July 8, 2016

Actor Ralph Fiennes recently shared in an interview with Digital Spy that he almost didn’t play the role of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter film franchise. He explained if it hadn’t been for his sister, he wouldn’t have had any interest in playing him:

I didn’t know the books. I had seen the first Harry Potter film, and I didn’t feel that sort of material was something that appealed to me…But then my sister rang me up and said, ‘They’ve asked you to play Voldemort. Do you not realize how big this is?’

Upon hearing that his sister’s children were highly enthusiastic about the book series, he became aware of how major the role truly was. Fiennes has done a superb job as Voldemort, inspiring fear in the hearts of adults and children everywhere. Daniel Radcliffe himself had admitted in the interview that he was a bit fearful of Fiennes when they were shooting those first scenes with him in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:

I remember when I was 15 doing scenes with Ralph for the first time. He was even scarier than Alan (Rickman) was at first…Ralph genuinely scared me for a few years.

Fiennes is no stranger to playing villains. He has spent a good majority of his acting career playing villains such as the serial killer from Red Dragon (2002), Heathcliff in the 1992 adaption of Wuthering Heights, and the voice of Ramses from the 1998 animated classic Prince of Egypt. Despite Fiennes’s ultimate success playing Voldemort, he announced that once Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was completed, he would no longer play villains:

I just didn’t want to play malign spirits…I lost interest in going ‘Try to see it from their point of view, they’re not really bad, they’ve got a good side.’

Fiennes said, during the interview, he had tried to find Voldemort’s good side or some reason behind Voldemort’s evil doings. He realized that from the moment of birth, Voldemort had been raised an orphan and was deprived of any parental affection, giving Fiennes something to sympathize with. It had also made Fiennes realize Voldemort’s loneliness and his desire to want to manipulate and control those around him. With that being said, it is understandable that Fiennes has drawn the line playing the villain.

Could you imagine someone else playing Voldemort? Comment below!