Ralph Fiennes and the late-night visit to a Thai massage parlour in Soho...
EXITING a Thai spa just before midnight, this is actor Ralph Fiennes after heading to London’s Soho for a late-night massage.
But the 55-year-old appeared to have a less relaxing experience when it was time to pay at the parlour – needing to be escorted to a cashpoint by a masseuse to withdraw the money.
Fiennes was pictured entering Boonsawad Thai Spa at 10.45pm on Thursday, spending about an hour inside. An onlooker told The Sun on Sunday: ‘After paying, Ralph jumped in a black cab and disappeared. He looked as if he thoroughly enjoyed himself.’
Fiennes, who starred as Voldemort in the Harry Potter films and was Oscar-nominated for The English Patient, has previously spoken about how he needed massages after playing Richard III on stage in London.
Telling BBC Radio 4’s Front Row of the difficulties with starring as the hunchback monarch, he said: ‘I already feel it. I’ve got a massage after this interview because I’m carrying myself in a certain way – I’ve got a lot of tension in my left side. I’m monitoring it day by day because it’s three hours where you’re putting your spine out of true. I’m not in pain, but I’m aware.’
The parlour, which is open as late as 4am, offers a one-hour, full-body scrub for £75 which it says will leave clients glowing. Fiennes, who plays M in the latest Bond films, is not the only actor to have been left in pain after playing Richard III. Ian McKellen, who took the role for a 1995 film, said those playing the king ‘bear the scars for the rest of their careers’.
He told The Daily Telegraph: ‘I did indeed have a twisted spine evidenced by a false hump I wore under my shirt. So I divided my body through the middle: one side was normal, fully functioning, and the other was not. The audience got the sense of someone who was fighting all the time against physical difficulties but successfully functioning.
‘It also meant that I didn’t put my back out, which Antony Sher did, and many other Richard III [actors]. They bear the scars of playing Richard III for the rest of their careers. Well, I didn’t want that to happen to me.’
Fiennes is to take the lead in another Shakespeare play later this year, appearing in Antony And Cleopatra at Britain’s National Theatre alongside Sophie Okonedo. A representative for Fiennes declined to comment last night.