THE PERFORMANCE

In writer-director Martin McDonagh’s hit-man comedy “In Bruges,” opening in theaters Friday, the audience hears Ralph Fiennes long before they see him. During the film’s first act, he exists only as a disembodied voice communicating via telephone or expletive-packed missive from afar. But when he finally makes his physical entrance, he takes all of 30 seconds to convey the totality of the character of Harry: a gangster boss severely displeased with the hit men (Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) who botched their last job.

In a moment blending unhinged rage with McDonagh’s unique brand of comedy, Harry pulverizes his telephone and then likens his wife to the inanimate object he just smashed to bits.

“It was provocative, and I never thought I’d be asked to play that sort of part,” says Fiennes, who has lent his talents to roles ranging from Hamlet on Broadway to the romantic lead in “Maid in Manhattan” to the evil Lord Voldemort in the “Harry Potter” franchise. “I was flattered that Martin could see me doing it.”

McDonagh saw Fiennes doing it in a specific way, however. The four-time Tony Award-nominated playwright hears his characters’ voices in his head, and he isn’t fond of actors revamping his dialogue on a whim. But Fiennes proved a master at changing up the pacing, emotions or other nuances while leaving the writing intact, and his Fiennes’ repertory of small inflections and change-ups helped draw out the script’s dark humor.

“It was interesting wanting to honor Martin’s writing and still finding the freedom in it,” Fiennes says. “I would tease him about being authoritarian.”

For all of the faithfulness to the dialogue, the script did undergo at least one massive revision. “The suggestion was in the original screenplay that a priest had molested young Harry, so that’s why he was full of this anger,” Fiennes says. But even though these childhood flashbacks didn’t make the final cut, knowing about this back story enriched the acting process, which is always an exercise in detail for Fiennes.

To get a sense of Harry’s background, Fiennes also studied with a dialect coach, watched East End gangster films, read gangster boss Charlie Richardson’s autobiography and had long phone conversations with McDonagh before arriving on set. “All those things that I hadn’t necessarily thought about before, in some ways, Ralph forced me to, and we came up with some interesting concepts,” says McDonagh. “What would he wear? Would he have an expensive watch? Would he be ostentatious or not?”

The intensity of these conversations may be a reflection of the fact that Fiennes’ perspective on filmmaking has broadened of late. His curiosity extends far beyond acting, in part because he hopes to direct in the near future. “I realize now that I’m very interested in choices directors make,” he says. “I think about directing a lot.”

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Where you’ve seen him

Royal Shakespeare Company alumnus Ralph Fiennes earned an Oscar nomination as Nazi Amon Goeth in 1993’s “Schindler’s List.” Three years later, he earned a second nomination for the romantic epic “The English Patient.” Since then, he has appeared in films of every genre, garnering a following among fantasy fans as Voldemort in the “Harry Potter” franchise.