Ralph Fiennes almost turned down Harry Potter role due to 'misplaced snobbery'

Ralph Fiennes had "misplaced snobbery" towards the 'Harry Potter' franchise before signing up to play Lord Voldemort.

The 62-year-old actor portrayed the antagonist in five of the films based on J.K. Rowling's wizardry books but confessed that he wasn't interested in the part until his sister told him how important it was.

Fiennes told The Hollywood Reporter at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival recently: "I hadn't seen the films in order to dislike them, I just hadn't seen them and I hadn't read the books. I was aware of their big success. I think I was probably guilty of a sort of totally misplaced snobbery of witches and goblins and things.

"I was resistant, until I told my sister Martha that I've been asked to play this Voldemort person. She said, 'Voldemort, you've been asked to play Voldemort? You have to do it! Ralph you don't realise, you don't realise'."

Fiennes earned an Oscar nomination for his as Nazi war criminal Amon Goth in Steven Spielberg's 1993 historical epic 'Schindler's List' and admits it was "odd" that the picture was experiencing so much success as he grieved for the loss of his mother.

The 'Conclave' star recalled: "It was a very bewildering time to be part of this film and the success it was receiving. My mother died at the end of '93, just as the film was being launched and being considered for all kinds of awards.

"It was, as you can imagine, extremely painful to lose the woman, your mother, who has inspired you and supported you and all of her children. So it was a very odd and painful time, but having gone through all the grief and loss that you would imagine, I feel she's watching."

Fiennes' latest movie 'Conclave' has been acclaimed by critics and Fiennes felt a connection to the part of a Cardinal questioning his faith.

The James Bond actor said: "'Conclave' was one of those things where I had a feeling of that connecting to the part – you don't know how it's going to turn out, but it's good when you have that feeling.

"There are parts where you feel like that would be fun to do, that's not really me, but it'll test me, like 'In Bruges' – that character's a long way from my lived experience, but a great part, and some parts are closer to your lived experience.

"Clearly, I'm not a priest, but I felt there was something – yes it functions as a political thriller, but there's a search for who is the right leader of a faith that has the right qualities of a spiritual leader."

Fiennes added: "The Pope is real, the Pope exists. So whoever the Pope is is important in our world, so there is a meaning there that resonated with me, and I felt Lawrence is the part who has to guide the Conclave with real integrity and wisdom.

"And in the course, he's carrying conflicts himself, and he weakens a moment and his own ambition comes forward. But I think there was a sort of poetic harmony in all the elements."