Rupert Everett's conversation and prose is as seductive as his stage presence. And the show goes on, with a new book, film and role in Emily in Paris. Delilah Khomo catches up with the greatest wit of our time Four kings, three princes, two poets, and a Queen Camilla inspired drag headmistress.
Rupert Everett has the range. The greatest wit in Britain has forged a career in the devilish, the charming, and the disarmingly melancholic. From his breakthrough role as a heartbreaking schoolboy in to his most recent turn as a lascivious interior designer in , Everett has mastered , , and Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.
He’s shared the screen with the likes of Cate Blanchett, Colin Firth, Julia Roberts, and Derek Jacobi; wined and dined supermodels, rockstars, young ingenues and old queens; and in ’s October issue, he dishes the dirt with Delilah Khomo on a career that constitutes the ultimate succès du scandal. Ever the iconoclast, this rebel in satin has long been an outspoken advocate for the causes that matter most to him, be they increased rights for sex workers or the ‘grotesqueries’ of heterosexual marriage. Louche yet learned, darling and daring, it’s no wonder Everett has long enjoyed his reign as the go-to actor when the world’s leading directors need an aristocrat – be it an imprisoned Charles I in or a salty Duke of Wellington in .
Lest we forget, he can trace his illustrious family tree back to the baronets Vyvyan of Trelowarren and the Baron von Schiedern. Now, as he graces the cover of , we revisit some of the British barnstormer's most iconic roles. We begin with the comeback of a generation.
Everett had won hearts in his early roles, commanding the screen in and high-fashion romp . But after coming out as gay in 1989, Everett’s status as a leading man began to wane in the face of social prejudice. Until, that was, his star turn as George, editor and gay best friend to Julia Roberts’ Julianne Potter.
One fake relationship and stunning rendition of later, and Everet was back on top of Hollywood's roster, garnering himself golden globe and bafta nominations. Devilishly charming – but what else would you expect? Love blooms on the early modern stage – but not, alas, for poor Kit Marlowe. Everett is charming as the debauched playwright, murdered in a bar brawl.
History cannot say why: The rumours of his espionage? The scandal of his atheism? The queer machinations of his iconoclastic plays? While Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow may have gotten top billing for , as the Bard and Viola de Lesseps, Everett brings the kind of adventurous, naughty energy that audiences had come to expect after his comeback in . The actor himself wasn’t so sure: ‘I was very, very bad in it,’ he would later tell the press, ‘I was a bundle of f—-ing hideous nerves.’ Not that anyone needs reminding, but it certainly doesn’t show.
The first of Everett’s virtuosic turns in a Wilde remake. As dashing Lord Goring, this farce of ebullient parties and ethical dilemmas saw the actor facing off against Julianne Moore’s femme fatale Laura Cheveley. With an all-star cast rounded out by Cate Blanchett and Minnie Driver, was an acting masterclass in blackmail and mistaken identity among the upper classes.
Rest assured: this is a theme that Everett will revisit many, times. From Wilde’s farce to one of the Bard’s sexiest comedies, Everett played Oberon, King of the fairies in this supernatural romp. Donkeys heads, love potions, and a less a love triangle than a romantic rhombus, this Shakespeare remake saw Everett flit his way through a stellar cast: Michelle Pfeiffer as his ass-infatuated wife Titania, Stanley Tucci as mischievous imp Puck, and Christian Bale and Dominic West as romantic rivals Demetrius and Lysander.
This cult classic really is such stuff as dreams are made of. Widely-regarded as one of the greatest plays of all time; the of the aristocratic comedy-of-manners; the ultimate test of an actor’s wit and charm. Everett’s Algernon in this remake is as close to definitive as one can get with Wilde’s slipperiest of plays.
When a harmless spot of bunburying spirals into utopian froth of language games and ad-libbed queer kisses, the lords and ladies of the English countryside must contend with the louche antics of the liberal London set. Bringing together Judi Dench, Reese Witherspoon, and (yes) Colin Firth, it really doesn’t get more fun than . Ok, an outlier, but hear us out.
Who else but Rupert Everett could pull off this smarmy, bratty mummy’s boy? Who else could render the line ‘he will rue the very day he stole my kingdom away from me!’ with such Shakespearean verve that you almost forget it’s yelled by an animated narcissistic prince throwing a temper tantrum over a Scottish ogre. Beautiful, awful, and profoundly un-charming, Everett is clearly having a ball in this cult classic. Just listen to him sing ‘I’m Too Sexy For My Shirt’ to a panel of Princess Fiona and Simon Cowell: cinema peaked.
A dragged up Rupert Everet playing a Queen Camilla inspired headmistress at a badly-behaved all-girls boarding school. What else is there to say? As Camilla Fritton, Everett not only woos Colin Firth once again, but commands the attention of posh tottys, geeks, ‘emos’, ‘chavs’, and super-spies in this OFSTED-unapproved crime caper. The only question is: where was his Oscar? Call the Academy! Despite the marathons of column inches dedicated to Everret’s love life, one of his most enduring relationships has been with the Irish playwright, Oscar Wilde.
First playing the genius on stage in a 2012 revival of – becoming the toast of the West End to boot – Everett said of Wilde: ‘For me, he’s a patron saint figure, or even a Christ figure, because in one sense he was crucified and then came back to life and, for the gay movement, he was the beginning.’ The actor then wrote, directed, and starred in this biopic of the legendary fop’s tragic final years in exile. Reuniting with Colin Firth (as Reggie Turner), Everett is witty and woeful, mournful and mouthy in equal measure.
The role he was born to play, and the performance of a lifetime. A British legend. A hero in the eyes of his public.
A salty old dog. The Duke of Wellington was a natural fit for Everett, who embodied Napoleon’s nemesis in Ridley Scott’s epic biopic. Lighting up the screen alongside Jaoquin Phoenix, Everett brings humour, gravitas, and a stiff-upper-lip to this most recent role.
Sure, the French emperor never met the Duke, but when we get to watch chemistry like this, surely we can permit a little bending of the rules...
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