On A Role
RALPH FIENNES IS ODYSSEUS
THE ACTOR PLAYS THE MYTHICAL KING IN ITHACASET DRAMA THE RETURN
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
Girding his loins: Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus
THE LOCATIONS
Fiennes’ turn as Odysseus, based on the end of Homer’s The Odyssey, is something that began years ago, when director Uberto Pasolini invited him on a trip. “There was a moment when he asked me if I’d like to direct it, and we went on location scouts together with that in mind.” That trip was to Ithaca, the island kingdom to which Odysseus returns after his ten-year, well, odyssey following the Siege of Troy. Fiennes eventually passed on directing, but remained attached to the role, and when filming did begin in Corfu in 2023, that brought an authenticity to his performance. “It was lovely to be in a part of Greece, to feel that coastline and those rocks and that sea,” he says. “That helps, in a way, being in the place where you think it happened, or close to.” Another key sequence took Fiennes to Italy, and “an Etruscan burial site called Cerveteri. It’s not Greek, but it could be. That was very atmospheric”.