Joseph Fiennes

Joseph Fiennes on parenting, politics and banning children from social media: ‘Stand up, Keir, this is your kids’ generation’

He’s played English titans from William Shakespeare to Gareth Southgate, but what does the actor really think about the country today?

Sat 9 May 2026 12.00 BST

We are at a corner table in a breakfast place in Chelsea, Joseph Fiennes opposite me on the banquette with his jack russell, Noa. “Dog duty,” he says, apologetic. Noa looks at me, brown eyes also apologetic. They’ve been in Hyde Park, he says, he lost track, didn’t have time to take her home. Nature is where he’s at his best, where he feels cleansed, connected, observant – his sentences are decorative like this. “It’s when I’m at my happiest, on hours-long, rain-drenched walks. Hot cheeks, freezing hands.” In an ideal world he’d be trekking or wild swimming in the rugged landscape of the Tramuntana in Spain. But if it must be London, “nothing beats Hyde Park”. Fiennes is tidy in a cashmere cardie and thick twill chinos. Noa has a snazzy yellow collar. Anyway, she’s well-behaved, he says: “Aren’t you, Noa?” She curls up to prove it. The scene is a masterclass in unhurried wholesomeness. Until he says Noa will savage me if I’m mean.

…read the full article in The Guardian