Rupert Everett - Actor HARDtalk

The latest headlines: Members of the Shia minority in Pakistan have

taken to the streets in protest after increasing attacks from Sunni

Muslims. The government has sacked an official who was there on

Thursday when 90 people were killed and bombings. France has wind this

campaign against Islamist militants in Mali. On -- widened its campaign.

A good night for Les Miserables in Hollywood. It won best film in the

music and comedy category in the Golden Globes. Other winners

included Ben Affleck for best director and Daniel Day Lewis tick

Now it is time for HARDtalk. My guest today is an actor whose

life has been flavoured with a twist of melodrama. Rupert

Everett's career has been marred by vivid highs and extreme lows. The

same could be said of a personal life which at times featured

copious amounts of sex, drugs and alcohol. He had Hollywood success

but it was fleeting. He says the movie business remains biased

against gay actors. He has won a new audience as a writer and is

Rupert Everett, welcome to HARDtalk. Thatcher very much. Let's begin

with that thought about wildness and use. When you look back today

at the young Rupert Everett, do you feel that you are the same person?

Are being middle age now, one area of my life I cannot understand is

my twenties. I think though wildness was to do with things that

happened. AIDS had started when I was about 21, 22. I had had a very

faded sex-life from the age of 16 until when it happened. You were

very promiscuous. Mike career and the arrival of AIDS happened almost

on the same day. When I look back on my twenties, most of it was

lived with a real sense of terror. I think one of the things people

forget about AIDS now, since it has become treatable, or manageable,

let's say, is that when it first happened, there were people with it

on the streets and it was a most terrible, ravaging disease.

there ever a point when you thought you had contracted it? I was

certain that I had. I could not imagine how would not have. I

embarked on this career on front of the camera. Every day, I would say

not a minute went by when some panic button was not going off.

Terrifying. My first film was successful and I was wondering,

what would happen now if I came out with it? It is a very visible

disease. Looking back, my whole life was collared by sheer terror.

Terror in faded every area of my life. They dictated how I behave at

work. It becomes a very strange views. -- once Fiore has become

very strange. It was a very successful part of your career,

your twenties. I wonder whether part of you were seeking self

destruction in a way. It is a marvellous idea that people seek

self destruction. I never know, before Sigmund Freud, and no one

understood that. You do not have to be Freud to understand that. The

nature of your sexual activity, forgive me, at least for a while,

you would a male prostitutes. That is the most risky off behaviour.

You spoke about the drugs, the alcohol, going on stage, as you put

it, plastered. This behaviour suggests that you knew things would

go wrong. I am not sure. I came from a tradition of actors.

Character actors on the 1950s and 1960s, Richard Burton, Elizabeth

Taylor, everyone was plastered non- stop. Going on stage drunk at that

time was not that weird. It seems weird now because I but not do it

any more. Sex is sex, whether it is for money or not. Self- destruction,

I think it is too easy. I think I came from a very very solid and

straight and conservative background. Also, religious. I was

brought up in a monastery. I was indoctrinated with Catholicism. The

escape from it, escaping from that, it almost seemed intolerable. --

impossible. The only way to deal that was to break it down. It was

extreme. At 16, how could you say you wanted to destroy yourself and

have lots of sex? I just wanted to be as different as I could from

Greg came from. I wanted to burn the bridges. Their stuff down. It

brings me to an interesting thought at the other end of your life. This

end of your life. In the last couple of years, you have had to

deal with the death of your father. You talk about your conservative

upbringing, your mother and father were very much Conservatives with a

small C. Your father went into the world of finance and you had a very

comfortable, conservative upbringing. It intrigues me that at

the end of his life... luxurious. That was about rationing.

It was a comfort that was built out of Peter Jones rather than Harrods.

What I am getting at is that you spent issued amount of time of your

father as he came to the end of his life. -- a huge amount. You have

reached a new stage in your relationship with him, before he

died. It surprises me because in some ways I would have thought your

values and those of your parents would have been so diametrically

opposed that that would have been difficult. The idea that I had for

my second book, the second chapter, it was me going to my grandmother's

house in Norfolk and comparing life which is spring tides. This notion,

I can't believe that the genes sometimes draw you back to the

beach are foolish. -- of your youth. Not that I would become a

Conservative led by Father, but, when someone dies, you'd realise

you have given them a hard time through their life for their values.

What you would think is desperately conventional. You must have shocked

them to their core. To their core but my father was very good about

it. I mentioned in the book, my father put my brother into business

with some colleague of his and he wrote to this colleague seeing "I

don't think Simon, my brother, is working hard enough. Closed was

This Kohli, who is a bit gay, said you're younger son is a drug addict,

a prostitute and a, sexual. None of my parents said anything about it.

When I think about that, it was very clever not to have mentioned

it. They must a project will vomited over the letter. Let's talk

about your career. Your first huge success was in another country. You

played a young gay man. You got huge acclaim for it. You were then

tipped to be one of Britain's great male stars. For quite a number of

years after that, it did not go that way. I start in another film

which was also very successful called Dans with a Stranger about a

woman who was hanged. In your twenties, you appeared to have

everything within your grasp. only that, I nearly got even more

everything because, of the back of that, added a phone call from Orson

Welles saying he wanted me to come to Hollywood to star in his new

film and I thought, at that point, I had taken the ladder to the top.

He was faultless. He did not need to be commercial. He was Orson

Welles. My agent rang the up and said" Rupert, the money is not

enough. "I went and it never happened. Talk about going from the

top to the bottom. Then, everything fell apart. We cannot go through

every bit of that fall apart but what strikes me is that when people

look at you now, many will associate you with another country,

which people don't forget, and also with Mike Catt by best Friend's

Wedding. You played a huge role as a gay man. You Korea may be defined

by playing gay men. You are a gay man. -- your career. How does that

connect? You might be seen as a successful gay actor playing gay

roles. I think no but a lot of people think yes. I don't know what

the answer is. One of the frustrating things about a career

in cinema at the moment, in the current climate, straight men did

every opportunity to play departs when they want and when done

towards doing so but it doesn't work the other way. -- when they

want to do so. You would advise someone to come out if they are

being Hollywood. Is that still your advice? I am talking about

Hollywood and theatre. That comes into play a lot. The theatre

community is a fairly right wing organisation. -- theatre awning

community. Since actors began to look at themselves, there are more

commercial things involved, perfumes and the like. The

mainstream actor has had to become straighter and straighter and

straighter. I look at a young American actor playing such parts,

and some are openly gay. You had this lifestyle which she discussed.

Other gay actors may not have had the same opportunities. Maybe it is

not being did it is the problem Bucher wild past. Who is to know? I

don't think so. It in the recent past, have you experienced this

discrimination against homosexuals in your industry? Is it changing?

Is it changing today? Judy in Hollywood, for example, I have not

been in Los Angeles for three, four, five years. Hollywood has changed

in every sense in the last few years. It i years. It ig. It

is not easy. Summoned a breakthrough, maybe many people

will break through. -- someone will break through. One of the things

you need to have a successful career as an actor is wives,

girlfriends, arm candy for the red carpet. It is now as important a

part of an actor's career as the product. The perception of a

person's success is as important. can tell thinking when you talk

about arm candy, you had that. You had a very open public relationship

with Madonna for a while. You walked out with horror and squired

her to a number of high-profile events. What was the nature of that

relationship? I suppose it was a mutual

masturbation in the way. I think it was fun for boaster was in a way.

We had known each other for a long time, a release in starting. I

adored Madonna. I still do. She definitely does not adore you any

more. You have written about her in somewhat challenging terms. Very

challenging. What I wrote about were was very loving and in defence

of four. You describe tier of putting herself to bed with

clingfilm wrapped around her, plotting her next move. When you

talk about the grand parties, the moments that you had, particularly

in the late 1990s come up and you were a big star, you were self-

aware enough to say that behind the veneer, everyone was desperately

vulnerable and you lodge itself and the toilet and snorted cocaine to

put your face on. It was all fake, I think that the years before her

11th September are extraordinary to think about. It would not have been

there if it had not happened. It would have been more of the same.

Again, in your own words, you're powerful words, you talk about the

vulnerability that lay behind the party scene. What had happened to

show business since the 80s, when Reagan started to deregulate

everything, it happened in showbusiness as well. This meant

that actors who never ever promoted perfumes and skincare lines and

underwear were not allowed to. They started acid stripping themselves.

They became very red carpet for re- entered. -- asset stripping. -- a

re-entered. Everyone has his schedule. Everything is just a

piece of work. What one feels, although I was not there in the

last golden age of Hollywood, the 70s. Is that people were much more

real. People were what they were. They were not just on promotional

schedules. Here is what I find really intriguing about you. Even

when you can see through the corporate career, you have part of

it. You said it was orgasmic. I find we look as though I am in with

Richard Curtis. We knew that it was a deeply flawed business. Yes, of

course. We not get out of that? is a well-lit game that I enjoy. I

actually enjoy it. It thinks you a deeply conflicted person. you admit

that a lot of it is, well you know the word I am thinking of. A does

one have to be so fussy about everything? You can take an

attitude about so many things. It has never been a clean business,

showbusiness. I still think now, for example, I want to be part of

it. It seems, from reading a lot of things you have written, you feel

that you could have made a great James Bond. You could have played

one of the contemporary statue Grant played. I could have done.

Are you bitter that you did not? Not really. I have been through

periods of bitterness about things. It must be the same in your

business. It is so up and down. It is up and down for everyone. You're

in, you're out. You clearly want to go on it. You are having great

success at the moment. You are having a great moment with Oscar

Wilde. It is interesting you have become so involved in this. You

have long described Oscar Wilde as a hero. Is that because of the link

with sexuality and him being a gay man in a climate when it is

extraordinarily difficult. Is that why you connect with him? He is a

kind of Christ figure for me. anti-union? I think he saw himself

as a crass figure. -- How do you mean. He saw himself as a mixture

of man and God, God been his genius. He was this kind of extraordinary

macho. -- marjoram. He is one of the great! Between the 19th century

and 20th century. He is funny and pathetic and moving. There is a

senior that sort of suggests that your sexuality has been an

incredibly important part of your world view. And the way in which

you interpret the world. You have spoken out on some issues are

relevant to gay campaigns. On these issues you have upset the gay

community. That is just dealing with the press and the media. It is

quite difficult, sometimes. If we take them one at the time, I didn't

interview for the Sunday Times called relative values. -- did an

interview. It is meant to celebrate, in some shape and form, the

relationship between family members. I said that this is only me, but I

would not like to have two gay fathers. I could not think of

anything worse. Within the context of an interview that is talking

about, presumably, a relationship between a mother and a son. The

same day, the Times, the media loved the same something like that.

They said I was very judgmental. I am not against or for anything. I

like being in England because it is a liberal country. I do not want to

get married. I do not like marriage and they do not want to have

children. I am not against anyone else doing it. What he seemed to

suggest is the way in which the gay community was aping the behaviours

and the institutions. I did not say that. I said I could not think of

anything worse than two gay fathers. But taking the broader issue about

which a mindset is in the state of being gay today. A will tell you

exactly what it is. You cannot say what the ideal parentis. Just

because there are a couple of University Teachers who have a job

you child. There is no such thing as the ideal parent. It is

perfectly fine to be a gay parent. But the words used in one interview,

you said that for me being gay was about wanting to do the opposite of

the straight world. That is the problem with some of the issues

today. Do you still feel that? loved being gay when I was young.

There was something kind Steyn about it. When you went to a gay

bar or club in the 70s, it was a completely different world. It

included a gay Duke talking to a milkman. There was a feeling that

everybody counted just for being there. There was a certain risk.

There was a specialist that maybe is gone. It is different. There was

always the risk of a raid. There is something still quite weird about

public displays of affection. But what happened to me very quickly

was that I really enjoyed that outside a nurse. -- being an

outsider. It is a different life I am living than other people who are

further down the line. I do not want to have a family. What I love

about being gay is not having a family. A final thought, we have

talked about acting and writing. You are going to direct next.

going to direct myself in a film I have written. Again about Oscar

Wilde. It is about the last four weeks of his life. As he is dine

with a series of flashbacks. Just a thought about directing, we have

talked about the wild reproach and you have talked about the change

and mellowing of it. Are you ready to direct other actors, to lead a

team in a way that a successful director has to? You can never say

that until it actually happens. I hope I am going to be able to do it.

I hope it will be a tremendous success for an utter disaster.

Times have -- lots of worse films than mine have been made. That is

not an issue. I can direct it. I can definitely do reckless one.

hope we give you back when you have Temperatures have been taking a dip

through the course of the weekend. As we start the new working week,

things are looking pretty wintry. There are warnings in force from

the Met Office for ice and snow. And amber warning for snow across

parts of eastern England. It could be quite disruptive. We have seen

snow pushing across central areas overnight. That could leave some

icy stretches. The next area of rain and snow heads in from the

north-west. In the morning, we will continue to see some rain for

Scotland. Further showers to come. As it heads into the north of

England, it will be increasingly turning to snow. For Wales, mostly

rain on low ground. Largely dry across the Midlands and the south-

east. There could be slight accumulations of snow. It is going

to be a wet start to the day across Devon and Cornwall. Anywhere north

of the Midlands, quite widespread snow. Amber warning sin force. We

could see up to five centimetres of snow. To the south of London,

mainly falling as rain. For East Anglia, some further snow. A cold

feeling day on Monday. It will be drying up from the West. Needless

to say, when the icy conditions and the snow fall, we are likely to see

some disruption to the travel networks. BBC local radio always

the best place to keep in tune to the latest. Heading over Monday

evening, the bulk of the rain and the snow pushes off to the east. A

few wintry showers for Wales and the south-west of England. Another

cold start to the day. Sub-zero temperatures. Through the day on

Tuesday, again we have got warnings in force around eastern coasts.

Further west and north, many places looking dry, bright and still on