Ralph Fiennes began a nearly two-hour conversation at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Thursday by addressing the important thing first: the pronunciation of his first name.

“It’s one of those funky old English things; my parents dealt me this hand with this name,” the actor — whose name is produced “Rafe” — told the crowd inside Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre. “I can hear my father — [me] coming back from school, saying, ‘People keep saying it’s Ralph, it’s Ralph.’ And my father said, ‘No, they’re wrong.'”

Fiennes was honored with the festival’s outstanding performer of the year award, and sat down with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg for a look back at his long career. The conversation began with a discussion of Fiennes’ discovery of his love of acting and his big break in Wuthering Heights, which caught Steven Spielberg’s attention as he was casting 1993’s Schindler’s List.