Ralph Fiennes Tried To Scare Philip Seymour Hoffman in Hannibal Lecter Film ‘Red Dragon’

He might’ve petrified generations of children by playing Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies, but Ralph Fiennes isn’t sure whether he’s ever actually managed to freak out any of his scene partners over the years. This includes playing an unsettling serial killer in an early 2000s psychological thriller that also starred Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. However, it was not Hopkins who Fiennes tried his best to scare in one particularly grisly scene in Red Dragon.

Appearing on Jake’s Takes to promote this month’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which has already received rave first reactions, the statesmanlike actor recalled trying to unnerve his late Red Dragon co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman back in 2002.

“I don’t know if I’ve scared a co-star. I remember attempting to scare Philip Seymour Hoffman in Red Dragon. I mean, he acted scared, he was a brilliant actor, but that’s all I remember. That was a scene where the character is really intending on terrifying someone.

“It’s about power, isn’t it? It’s about, you have someone glued to a chair and he knows what I’m capable of, so you terrify them with what they know about you, what you can do. One’s following intuitive impulses on the day, so it’s hard to… I don’t think, ‘I will do this’, I kind of access an energy or something… an intention in the scene, but it’s often not a rational thing, it’s often a kind of feeling impulse.”

This specific scene unfolds after Fiennes’ demonically-motivated serial killer Francis Dolarhyde (nicknamed ‘The Tooth Fairy’) kidnaps Hoffman’s newspaper reporter Freddy Lounds, who’s been laying into his personality in the press. This results in a hellish punishment where Freddy is tortured and eventually burned to death.

What Is Ralph Fiennes’ Next Movie?

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As mentioned, Ralph Fiennes is currently speaking to the media in support of his next movie: the sequel to last year’s 28 Years Later, in which he portrays Dr. Ian Kelson. “He has this remarkable journey at the end of the first one, where he looks after Spike and his mother,” he told Toronto Sun. “And then in this, he has this unique connection with this Alpha, Samson, who because he wants more morphine starts to basically negotiate or position himself in a place of need, and that’s a human thing. That’s the beginning of an intention, to ask, or debate, or negotiate; to have some social contract is what Samson is looking for. And that journey is what makes the part so interesting.”

This comes after fellow The Bone Temple cast member Alfie Williams teased where his young protagonist Spike finds himself in the movie, having encountered the bizarre Jimmy cult at the climax of 28 Years Later.

“[Spike] dealt with the infected in the first one, and you see him grow up into this strong figure. And in the second one, he hasn’t really dealt with humans, so he goes back to being the scared little kid again, you know? So he’s regressed back to how he was in the first film.”

To get an impression of what’s ahead in director Nia DaCosta’s zombie horror, make sure to have a look at the trailer that was released last month. An official synopsis reads:

“In a continuation of the epic story, Dr. Kelson finds himself in a shocking new relationship – with consequences that could change the world as they know it – and Spike’s encounter with Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) becomes a nightmare he can’t escape. In the world of The Bone Temple, the infected are no longer the greatest threat to survival — the inhumanity of the survivors can be stranger and more terrifying.”