Fear can be wonderful or destructive! How to negotiate with doubt, with Joseph Fiennes
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
4.7 • 15.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Without something creative to pour himself into, actor Joseph Fiennes says he'd eat himself alive.
In this chat with Fearne, Joseph thinks about why if he doesn't have a challenge to wear him out, restlessness and doubt will take over entirely. They also explore the strange duality of loving your craft... but dreading the judgment that comes with it.
Joseph has played England football manager Gareth Southgate on stage, and now on TV; he draws parallels between their principles around negotiating fear and encouraging vulnerability in men.
Plus, Joseph explains what struggling with reading and writing taught him about knowing who he is, and reveals the hilarious reality of forgetting your lines mid-Shakespeare...
You can watch Joseph in Dear England on the BBC from May 24th.
If you liked this episode of Happy Place, you might also like:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Happy Place. I'm Fern Cotton and this is the show that builds confidence through creativity. |
| 0:08.5 | Today I'm chatting to Joseph Fines. It's a very human condition, doubt. It's a beautiful condition, doubt and fear too, but as long as it doesn't rule you. |
| 0:17.8 | And I think that I certainly have it, but if I'm really connected |
| 0:22.0 | and if I'm really joyous in what I'm connected to, it kind of evaporates. But if I'm not connected |
| 0:29.1 | and I don't find a joy within the creativity, then it emerges. If I can't get to do that meditative, |
| 0:36.4 | creative moment, I'm completely lost, I'm stressed, I'm gnarly, I kind of, you know, I'm prickly. |
| 0:43.1 | I mean, what treat to chat to Joseph Fines? I am so buzzed about this conversation. |
| 0:48.0 | Here's an actor that I've obviously grown up watching. I'm very much a Shakespeare in Love era person. |
| 0:52.6 | I was a teenager when that film came out. But also, |
| 0:56.6 | I'm riveted by people like Joseph who have always remained firmly at the top of their game in |
| 1:02.3 | the acting world, not only on the screen, but also in the theatre. I am fascinated by theatre |
| 1:08.5 | actors. I love going to the theatre. I don't go that often, |
| 1:13.4 | but I do love it. I haven't been probably for a couple of years now, but I'm weirdly going to the |
| 1:18.1 | theatre tonight to watch Dangerous Liaisons. Now, I like going to the theatre because, for |
| 1:23.2 | instance, like this evening, I know nothing about dangerous liaisons. I've not seen the film, |
| 1:27.9 | the film adaptation that was out, maybe that was in the 90s as well, and I've not read much about |
| 1:33.7 | it. So I'm sort of going in with fresh eyes and ears to this very well-told story. And also, |
| 1:40.1 | I like anything that takes me out of my own head and life and off my phone. |
| 1:46.4 | And the theatre seems like a real old school discipline where you have to sit, usually in quite an uncomfortable chair, and concentrate on something. |
| 1:55.0 | And you get to learn about life with storytelling, learn about yourself. |
| 2:00.4 | But I just like the fact that it's an old school |
| 2:02.5 | discipline. So I feel really excited that I'm going to the theatre tonight. And of course, |
... |
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