Here’s Rupert Everett sporting Asics in London a few weeks ago where he’s preparing to star in a new stage production of Amadeus in London. When Rupert promotes, some awful things come out of his mouth. He’s a miserable, self-loathing beast who keeps mentioning his own gay actor status as a reason for actors to never come out of the closet. He mocks gay men and says gay fathers are the worst. He also makes fun of fat people and will generally whine to any outlet that will listen about how tough his life is. Rupert is in fine form for this Telegraph interview, and he (sort of) admits that his own harsh attitude did in his career. But he still blames most of his problems on being gay:
Does he feel misunderstood? “Not exactly. You can only understand the disaster of your own case yourself. You can’t ever expect the world to see everything about yourself in the way that you do — certainly in terms of conducting a career as a homosexual in showbusiness. Not so much now, maybe, because I’m older. It’s not such a threatening problem. But all through my career it was a huge issue.”
He still regrets coming out as an actor: “There’s a whole side of my business now which clicks its fingers for world peace and equal rights. Movie stars and directors and studios spend a lot of money promoting human rights and being charitable in Africa but, actually, in their own backyard, they really don’t accept that any of these things is happening. So people mostly said to me: ‘Oh, but you’ve been so difficult and you’ve blown everything for yourself, you’ve sabotaged your own career.’ To a certain extent, it’s true, but to a certain extent, it isn’t. There’s only a certain amount of mileage you can make, as a young pretender, as a leading man, as a homosexual. There just isn’t very far you can go.”
On his AIDS fear: “AIDS in the Eighties was a very, very scary thing. There were people walking around with the disease that looked like the undead. Terrifying. I spent the first six years of my career thinking that any minute now I would probably come out with it. The first 10 years of my career were conducted with this interior hysteria of terror. In one sense, it made everything unpleasant. With every lens, I was wondering if they were going in too tight on what I might be hiding. I was very lucky, considering my very sl-ttish behaviour, never to get HIV. But I always thought I had it. I can look at films I’ve been in and see in my face this sheer terror.”
Fame is “addictive”: “You get so many things given to you and you take them for granted almost straight away. Getting into restaurants. Having people be nice to you on the bus. You think that’s how everyone is to everyone. One of the great things about mine is that it’s been so cyclical, I’ve always been so up one minute and then so down. I learnt pretty quickly there was no point going on with ‘successful me’ when I was being a failure. I learned how to move into ‘humble me.'”
Is he vain? “Not so much now. I want to be treated with a certain respect. That’s a vanity. I’m not vain about the way I look, particularly.”
He has facial blood injections every 4 months: “They put it through a Magimix, turn it into plasma and inject it back in. It’s really good for your skin. Blood is the new thing. What you really want to have, if you’re rich, is someone with your blood group running high up in the mountains all day long and sending you down their blood, deliciously oxygenated, which you can inject in various parts of your body. I’d advise you to inject the whole of your face with blood — it will make it look radiant. Then I would have a little bit of laser, which is very good for tightening.”
[From Telegraph]
Most of this interview is just Rupert making an a-hole out of himself as usual. He does talk about how he craves cocaine and gave up weed for Amadeus because he needed to learn his lines (LOL). I am amused at how Rupert claims to no longer be vain and then launches into a discussion about “vampire facials.” They’ve been popular for a few years, but I’ve never heard of “rich” people ordering extra-oxygenated blood from high-altitude dwellers. It makes sense. Olympians often train at altitude for good reason — because it helps you develop a higher red blood cell count. Now Rupert is applying it to his “radiant” skin. Or so he says. Fascinating.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
Rupert you made a good point about being limited for certain roles because producers don’t want to hire a out gay man. BUT, your bitter, angry attitude turns off alot of people.
I have a gay son who is raising his son with his husband(yes they are married) and they are doing a great job.
If you want to see the source of your problems it is not being gay, it is just because you are a bitter, angry person who is afraid of getting old. You have become a male version of Kim K in twenty years without the butt
Yep. Rupert and Morrissey should get together and share their misery.
Preferably on an island with absolutely no access to the outside world. That way, we’d be spared this nonsense.
Vampire facials along with botox and a face lift from a few years back hasn’t helped him at all because he has aged horrible. He is only 55 but he looks much older to me. He simply does not look good anymore. He probably would look better if he would just leave his face alone and stop injecting blood and toxins into his face.
I was going to say that the plastic surgery probably didn’t help. He was looking really weird for a while.
He still looked good when his film career fizzled out, the terrible plastic surgery started a few years later. It will certainly stop him making a come-back, but his film career was pretty much dead anyway so I don’t think it’s had that much of an impact.
Wow – I am stunned at how much he has aged. Really shocking. He was so so handsome. I just can’t believe this is what he looks like. Rupert must be receiving some tainted blood.
From his description of the process, they are using his own blood (they process it and “inject it back in”, he says). He was just joking about using high altitude athletes’ blood… Anybody with his fear AIDS would be unlikely to inject somebody else’s blood anyway. That’s how it initially spread to hemophiliacs. They can screen for HIV now, but they can’t screen for everything and some day another problem will arise with the blood supply. This is part of why stockpiling your own blood before elective surgery is recommended and why there is such interest in developing synthetic blood substitutes.
He doesn’t really look that much older than 55. People always say that, it’s almost never true.
I agree. He’s 55. He looks about what a 55-year-old would look like. He stopped doing the botox so he has forehead lines. He changed his face years back with bad plastic surgery, but that’s a different story.
Yep. He actually doesn’t look too bad for 55.
He looks fine for 55. He just doesn’t look at all like Rupert Everett. I picture the guy from My Best Friend’s Wedding and plastic surgery took that person away forever. Like Jennifer Grey’s plastic surgery. A mistake.
I see no radiance here.
Seriously, he looks ROUGH. money not well spent on bs facial treatments.
OMG is he only 55? He looks like hell. At 52 I’m nowhere near as wrinkled as he is, despite my sun worshipping ways. I do botox my forehead and I’m thanking God if his forehead is unbotoxed and anything to go by!
PS: My husband will be 55 in October. He doesn’t do botox or anything like that, but we are vegetarians so very healthy diet. He isn’t wrinkled like Rupert either. Rupert just looks bad.
He is just completely nuts. He was still a better Sherlock than Benny the Bouncer, though.
Rupert doesn’t annoy me, even when he’s being the world’s greatest curmudgeon. There’s a degree of unself-censorship that I like. At least he’s an honest arse.
Oh God, I thought I was the only one who doesn’t like Benedict as Sherlock.
I don’t DISLIKE the Bouncing Bomber as Sherlock (well, until the disaster of the third series) – I just think that Rupert the Misery was better.
yes i´m with you. Rupert was great as Sherlock. I watch The Case of the Silk Stocking everytime it´s on.
Never understood why there aren´t more movies with Rupert as Sherlock… he rocks Sherlock, but then yes he is difficult as person.
I agree. He is what he is and is never politically correct. As annoying as he can be, there is something refreshing about his no-holds-barred attitude even if it makes him look bad or bitter or whining.
Rupert worked with Benedict Cumberbatch in Parade’s End; they played brothers and seemed to get along fine while working.
Maybe the combination of RE’s sourness and BC’s bouncing exuberance kind of cancelled each other out and they wound up on neutral ground somewhere in the middle.
http://deareje.tumblr.com/post/30128288546/benedict-cumberbatch-ladies-and-gentlemen-from
He’s done so many costume dramas that I LOVE!! The Importance Being Earnest and An An Ideal a Husband are two of my favorites. But he really has done a dis service to himself. I will gladly watch a gay actor in a straight role and vice versa. I feel he’s in Katherine Heigl territory now.
Did he really think he had the IT factor to be a leading man even if he were straight? Homophobia exists but in his case its a cheap excuse to hide that his big mouth, average talent, lack of screen charisma and penchant for making high profile enemies are what held him back.
He was so handsome and charismatic in My Best Friend’s Wedding. Women were gaga over him. I could see him as a leading man in a hot minute during that period and he could have gained momentum from it, but probably being out as a gay man hurt him for leading roles he might have gotten after that.
Rupert did have the IT factor. He’s absolutely brilliant in films like Another Country and Dance with a Stranger and these were made in the early 80’s. Rupert was and is a very talented actor.
He came out in 89, and people in the industry knew long before then. He was typecast almost before his career had even begun. I mean even 25 years on people are always talking about Matt Bomer and how he won’t get cast in this or that because he’s gay. So it certainly affected Everett’s career trajectory.
He’s difficult, but he’s hardly the most difficult British actor of his generation, and he wasn’t always quite so bad, the worst of the diva antics and general whingeing came after his career stalled. I think it’s a bit of both. If he had of been a dream to work with people may have been more inclined to see past his sexuality, but since he was a bit of pain people had an extra excuse to overlook him.
Agreed. I remember when he came out and it made waves; it was also decades away from the acceptance movement we’ve seen since the early aughts. For a few years, he was pretty much the only out gay working actor in English-language film who had any kind of name recognition. There was a lot of pushback against him and he was dropped from opportunities. You look at Neil Patrick Harris’ career today and it’s like night and day in terms of acceptance. He was 20 years too soon and I honestly think his career would have looked different if he’d been born later.
I also agree Rupert’s a bit of a fart, but so are TONS of celebs who still get loads of work. If they draw money, and unless you’re Lohan or Cokehead-RDJ (as opposed to post-rehab-RJD, who won his career back), producers put up with your shit and cast you anyway. Out gay actors in 89 did not draw money. So, I don’t think it’s all down to his personality.
O Rupert. We’ll always have “Dellamorte Dellamore”…
I agree — he came out very early and I think he makes a good point about Hollywood appearing left-wing (in support of human right etc) but being ruthless when it comes to casting movies.
I have read Rupie’s autobiography, and whilst it was too long, parts of it were fascinating. He was honest about himself in the book, but also about other people he worked with (hello Madge!). I admire him for being one of the few people in the movie-world who are that honest.
I am not sure I would like to be on the receiving end of his sharp tongue, but I do admire him for being open about his sexuality so early. I do hope he gets over his bitterness and anger — in some ways it is justified, but life is full of suffering and I think part of maturing and growing up is realizing that life is unfair for millions and millions of people.
I think you are being too generous. He had some very influential Alister friends, he could have pulled a Jonah Hill and he was doing ok around My Best Friends wedding. But he had to go and antagonise both his networks and his colleagues. IIRC he outed Ian Mckellen or atleast revealed their affair and all for drug money. He didnt help his own case.
I agree with you two.
And I don’t discount the effect that AIDS terror had on people of his generation, either.
My friend’s uncle, who was very handsome in his day, was terrified in the ’80s and even ’90s and stopped having sex at all, just pulled away from having a relationship. He was that terrified. It was a hard time for the gay community as they were losing friends left and right.
You’re not difficult, Rupert. You’re a miseravle, misanthropic sod.
Way too intense.
OMG, what happened to his face!
Evidently he got the face he deserved. A miserable face for a miserable person.
I was coming to say that his attitude might be part of it, but that awful plastic surgery he had is what really did it.
I think he is entertaining and gives a good interview. He seems to revlel in being a miserable old sod. But his face though…
I’m going to disagree here, I remember when he came out & it absolutely affected his career. His attitude sucks but so does Bruce Willis & he’s had a long career. Julia Roberts is difficult & she’s had a long career. And his attitude has everything to do with living with fear of AIDS. ..I remember living with it myself & I was a virgin lol. . The paranoia was very strong in the late 80’s & early 90’s. Attitudes have definitely shifted towards gays but we still have a LONG way to go.
Ditto!
Difference enough – Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis WERE prior Lead Stars and bring money for their films in many times. Yes, currently we can debate, but for came in different aspects. You can be an arse when you bring the money or full respect, otherwise not – Eddie Murphy, Katherine Heigl, Ruppert Everett.
I saw him play a straight husband in a film with Sharon Stone, it must have been made in the last five years. He was excellent. I think he’s a wonderful actor but I believe coming out did sabotage his career.
Even the young guy who plays Spock In new Star Trek films, I feel sabotaged any chance at a leading man career in the future in anything except Star Trek films.
Many complain that actors don’t come out, but after seeing how several careers were affected by doing so, I can’t blame them if they don’t.
On top of that if he was difficult, he brought his own downturn to his career.
Maybe he and Val Kilmer can discuss how to ruin your career by becoming difficult.
Val Kilmer torpedoed his own career with by being difficult.
Rupert also played a straight guy who has an affair with a married woman in Separate Lies. He was pretty good in it. I think his attitude and the plastic surgery torpedoed his career. It can’t help that he’s made himself completely unrecognizable.
Yes he was great in Separate Lies, but his career has been on the down swing since he came out. IMO yes bad surgery but coming out did hurt him.
I agree. The funny thing about Zachary Quinto (Spock) is that to me (a hetero woman), he is one of the sexiest actors in Hollywood. I don’t mean just handsome, I mean sexually attractive. I thought so before I knew he was gay and him coming out had absolutely no negative affect on that.
I think I have about as good of a chance of sleeping with him or Matt Bomer as I would if they were straight. 🙂
I loved the quote from one of the directors who worked with Val that he would not work with Val Kilmer again if he was making the Val Kilmer Story. I never fancied Val when he was young, far too cheesy, but he was excellent in that great film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with RDJr, and should be given the chance to do a bit more comedy.
I have always liked Rupert. I love The Importance If Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband and My Best Friend’s Wedding and others as well. I will watch him in any movie because his characters are always so delightful. Nothing he has said had offended or annoyed me. He isn’t pulling a “do you know who I am” it “I am an American Citizen” on anyone so for that I am thankful.
I adored him in My Best Friend’s Wedding. I haven’t seen the other two movies you mentioned. I will have to check them out. Thanks.
I liked him a lot in The Next Best Thing that came out in 2000 about a gay friend and his best friend having a baby together and all is wonderful and then five years later she falls in love with someone and wants to move away and then develops the child custody battle and the demise of a deep friendship. I saw it later as a home movie. He was the best thing in the movie. Madonna was wooden at first in her acting but got better as the movie progressed , but he was great. By the end I liked the movie for a home movie.
See, I really like him too. He’s a great actor and I love his period pieces as well, particularly IoBE. Remember when he was Christopher Marlowe in Shakespeare in Love? So great.
I can’t blame him for being bitter. I think his coming out did affect his career. His Heigl-esque attitude I’m sure had much to do with it, but I think it’s foolish to pretend that his being openly gay didn’t. Hollywood is still racist even though we have Denzel Washington, still homophobic even though we have Neil Patrick Harris, and still ageist even though we have Meryl.
Idk, Sir Ian isn ‘t having any problems getting roles. Anthony Rapp, Zachary Quinto – these men aren’t stereotyped into playing gay roles. Rupert’s most memorable role yet was Julia’s bff. Everyone thought he was hot – gay or straight. Maybe he has limited acting range? Or Maybe it’s that botched plastic surgery?
I’m so glad you said that, when he moans about being a gay actor I immediately thought of Ian McKellan as well who actually came out publicly in 1988, a year before Everett. I suspect the real difference between them is that Ian McKellan can act. Personally I always thought Rupert Everett had the misfortune of being in the same generation as Daniel Day Lewis, Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Colin Firth. He couldn’t hold his own with any of that lot and that’s the real reason his career has been second tier – not his sexuality – which in the UK at least doesn’t seem to count against an actor the way it does elsewhere.
Ian is a brilliant actor, but he was 49 when he came out to the public, had had a solid, established career and was moving into a different phase of his career as far as roles. How old was Rupert? Thirty, That’s almost 20 years age difference and 19 years of roles in his prime before Ian publicly came out compared to if he had come out at 30. Who knows what difference it could have made at 30 if he was out to the public and what roles Ian got from then on.
Excellent observation: there really was an explosion of talent at the time.
(Older gay actors, Jacobi, Wilson, Sher, Hawthorne, and Sir Ian, out or ‘supposed’….they pulled through those very testing times).
Don’t give up though Rupert, you’re not pn the scrapheap.
Zachery got his big Star. Trek role BEFORE He came out.
Zachery Quinto biggest role as a leading straight man will probably be Star Trek which he got before he came out. The rest of his roles since are smaller even if straight roles, Zachery will never be the main Big Leading Man Star of a film besides Star Trek besides straight leading man.
IMO Coming out as a male actor slows down a possible leading man Big Career.
Yes, times 1000. It SHOULDN’T matter what an actor’s sexual preference is, but it does. IMO ignoring this is just like saying there isn’t a whitewashing problem in Hollywood. Don’t tell me, “But Denzel. But Neil Patrick Harris.” Because I can name fifty straight white actors for every one of those you can give me.
It’s so sad that he doesn’t recognize and feel proud of himself as a groundbreaker, as someone brave, as someone others could look up to and take courage from back before coming out of the closet was practically trendy. I hope eventually he finds some peace of mind.
Name one BIG Leading Man who audiences Know are Gay and has come out as Gay who is in Blockbuster films as a leading man After coming out? ( Besides Zachery Quinto in Star Trek which he booked BE fORE he came out)
I can’t think of one gay actor who came out and still had huge career upward tragectory as a leading man.
Not one who openly admitted being gay , I just can’t.
I think it was the bad face job he had done. He was almost unrecognizable after that. He should have left it alone, he was incredibly handsome before.
This makes me think about what Madonna’s done…not to veer off track here but, imo, she looks downright wrong now, and I think she acted precipitately. So did Rupert…both seem to have panicked early, before ageing ever made itself apparent. One wonders what difference delaying intervention for 5 more yrs would have made…given that both were bound to do it anyway.
Still…. I think Rupert’s looks fine, albeit not what he might have been. Mother Nature reserves compensations and snares for us as we age: I find 50+ men the most attractive now…. (Colin Farrell excepted of course)…….but as we know, the guys do not reciprocate! 🙁
I don’t even recognize him anymore, wow.
There are a number of gay successful actors but not one Icahn think of who is known primarily as a heartthrob leading man. Matt Bomer comes the closest and he has yet to test audience acceptance outside White Collar since it became known he was gay.i think that’s the difference. Ian McK was already a fabulous middle aged character actor,NPH plays a Lothario but on a comedy,Zachary Q bookedStarTrek prior and I see him going character actor anyway. Would people buy Channing Tatum as the lead in Magic Mike (not supporting ala Bomer) or The Vow if he were a known homosexual? I don’t think so and that’s why so many are closeted. I think that’s RE’s point–he had a brief window for the leading man roles but being openly gay hurt him. Now being difficult or having bad plastic surgery didn’t help but that was more for work overall not the leading man roles. As a middle agedBrit he could be carving out a nice niche ala Ian McK but those factors plus the level of talent will bite him unless he can affect a change. I don’t think he looks as bad ow as he did a few years ago and attitudes can change if you deliver. I still think there’s a way to go before an openly gay man carries a mainstream leading man career. A 25 year old coworker of mine who is favorable towards gay equality admitted she had a hard time think of Matt B in a romantic way on screen since finding out he was gay. I told her it didn’t faze me because it’s all based on fantasy anyway. I mean, I’m an overweight married mother of 3 who is in her 40sand will most likely never even meet Matt B. yeah his being gay is the ONLY impairment to any fantasies! Lol You can think anything you want so who cares about the reality.
•Kori•
Matt is so MY boyfriend! I don’t like competition…
*eyes narrow*
😉
Meant no poaching, LadySlippers. 🙂 Just using him as an example as to why a certain star being gay isn’t reason to not imagine in a romantic way is all. Hugh Jackman has always and will always be my ‘movie star husband’. He’s been #1 on my list for over a decade now. 🙂
•Kori•
Okay… But I’ve got my eyes on you. 😉
I do think being gay/lesbian *and coming out* can kill a career though, even delish Matt Bomer has said so. As have other people that have come out — and I’ll take their word on it.
It’ll be an awesome day when that’s no longer the case.
Wow, I don’t get all the dislike. I haven’t followed his career but I love watching him in anything I happen to see of his, and I like this interview. He sounds like an English eccentric to me. And I’d hit it in a New York minute if he were straight!
He’s not vain but he’s jacked his face so much that he’s unrecognizable. Riiight.
I cant help it, i love him! He needs his own satire comedy show !!!
I think what did Rupert’s career in was that he was never particularly talented. I found him to be boring and bit one dimensional. The younger generation has no idea who he is and don’t care what he has to say. They are much more comfy who they are in the world – he should be happy that he helped to contribute to that acceptance and comfort that he never got to enjoy but helped to make possible. His only regret should be acting like a giant ass this late in his life.
He’s gone from a very pretty boy to a very handsome man. Whatever surgery he may have had has obviously worn off. He looks an older version of the 30 year old.
He’s just as talented as Oldman, Firth and the others mentioned above. I hope he does more movies.
He is such a glorious curmudgeon.
Maybe constantly bring up your sexuality cost you leading man roles? Yeah, you have a shitty attitude, but having a shitty attitude and zero mystery to yourself did you no favors. Running off at the mouth about being gay makes it difficult for movie goers to believe that you are capable of sweeping a female lead off her feet. I think all actors, gay straight or other need to STFU about their personal lives because it can do wonders for their careers when we see them as a blank slate with no political/sexual/religious affiliations.
My sister saw him in London about 20 years ago. She said he was devastatingly handsome, he was tall and wearing a Sherlock coat. Still hasn’t gotten over it. I enjoy his work, but wish he hadn’t played about with his face – he could have aged well.
It would be fun perhaps for Rupert to grow out his hair, move to Jamaica, get dreadlocks, smoke lots of weed and live a happy life eating rainbow cookies on the beach.
he’s completely unrecognizable.