Joseph Fiennes

Last week, I watched the premiere of the much-hyped new TV show - Flash Forward.

I am not ashamed to admit that the main reason I watched this show was because Joseph Fiennes is in it. I love Joseph Fiennes. I think that he is one of the greatest and most under-appreciated actors of his generation. In many ways, I think that he is better than his brother Ralph, but Ralph is more famous.
Oh Joe how I love thee, let me count the ways. . .

1. He plays Robert Dudley in the movie Elizabeth. Sad but true it is this movie and Joe's character that inspired my honors thesis when I was in college. Granted after spending a year entrenched in Elizabethan history, I lost the desire to watch the movie. BUT, it is slowly coming back.
2. He is perfect in Shakespeare in Love. He's funny, charming, romantic, and handsome. It made me want to fall in love with him. In fact he is the only reason why I watch the movie given that I hate Gwyenth Paltrow and she is truly awful in it. The Oscar should have gone to Joe not to Gwyenth!
3. I love war movies - random I know - and one of my favorites is The Great Raid. As much as possible, this is an uplifting war movie as it is about a rescue mission (POW camp in the Philippines during WWII). It's a great movie and Joe is fantastic in it. He even steals the spotlight from my beloved James Franco. Sadly, Joe's character does not have such a happy ending in this movie.
4. He's also in Enemy at the Gates which is a great movie and under-appreciated. Another WWII movie but this one is about the battle of Stalingrad.
5. His next movie is a bioepic about Vivaldi! How cool is that?!
   
6. He does a really convincing American accent in Flash Forward. That's impressive to me as I cannot do a convincing English accent.
7. He dated Catherine McCormick who is one of my favorite actresses of all time. This shows that he has good taste in women. :)
8. He does a lot of theater work, which in my book makes him super cool.