Rupert Everett confirmed that he’s writing and acting in a movie about Oscar Wilde. And, of course, the increasingly vocal actor used the occasion to criticize his peers. No, he didn’t question George Clooney’s sexuality, but Everett did piss on screenwriter David Hare and director Richard Eyre, who collaborated on Wilde biopic, The Judas Kiss:
Yes, I’m writing a screenplay of a film I’m hoping to get made with myself in it, about Oscar Wilde, after the trial, his life in exile…It’s provisionally titled Sebastian Melmoth, after one of the aliases Wilde adopted after his downfall.
…
…Those people should never ever have thought about attacking the Wilde story, because they have no sympathy, or sensitivity or sensibility…They’re rigorously straight, the two of them
They cast Liam Neeson as Wilde – why? Because he’s big and Irish.”
Everett’s neither of those things, of course. He’s just gay.
John Santos
This time I agree with Rupert. Give ’em hell, Rupe!
Mike
Everett should watch his mouth our he’ll fuck himself out of a career. As for Liam Neeson playing Wilde–he actually looks a lot more like Oscar Wilde than Everett does. We know what Wilde looked like–there are photos of him. It’s difficult to make a case for gay actors playing gay roles because it involves people’s personal lives playing a role in their professional lives. Unlike race, gay people have no identifying physical features so it’s impossible to knowingly cast a gay person in a gay role without asking them a lot of personal questions and depending on them to tell the truth.
Mike
ALSO, it’s possible Hare & Eyre didn’t want to work with Everett because of all the bad press he’s been getting lately. A loose canon like him can be a real liability to the success of a film.
angie Cox
Being a straight woman maybe I shouldn’t comment but I see Rupert’s point. I don’t expect men st.or gay to really understand the hell the menopause puts me through . I think my mixed race daughter has fears that I try to understand but really can’t .I wouldn’t have cast Rupert as Charles 1st but my goodness he was the best thing in it he can expess a lot of emotion with his eyes .He is a very sensitive actor and yes I suppose he can seem insensitive with remarks but he feels it passionately. So many people go through life never having to worry if their sexuality might mean being murdered or badly beaten .I’ve been called some choice things just for holding hands with my husband so I really admire Rupert’s coming out so early .
hells kitchen guy
Ruppert – being gay doens’t have anything to do with playing a (closeted, married & parenting) gay man. That’s why it’s called “acting.”
Matt
Has poor dear Rupert gone quite utterly mad?
dons888
Sad and bitter has been is writing his own movie because nobody wants to hire him. Maybe if he just shuts his piehole and not create more enemies, he would get a job.
Walt Whitman
Great Scott, Rupert has aged terribly! He is close to the age Oscar Wilde was when he died, and looks to be about ten years older. He needs to clean up his act a bit if he wants to land a job. Hollywood is all about the pretty, especially the young and pretty.
The Ghost of Your Last Gay Nerve
More than playing “gay,” whoever plays Wilde has to be able to play “witty.” And by “witty,” I mean one of the wittiest people on the face of the earth in the last hundred years or so. Witty to the point of genius. And while Liam Neeson vaguely has the same general physical characteristics as Wilde ~if you pumped his lips up with some collagen and give him some long, wavy, black hair extensions ~I don’t know if “wit” is something he could “act” without coming across as a stereotype.
Not to mention that Neeson is a full 10 years older now than Wilde was when he died in 1900. Fifteen years older than when the Marquess of Queensberry left his calling card at Wilde’s club accusing him of “posing” as a “somdomite.”
hells kitchen guy
Ghost: Rent the movie if you want to see how Neesen “could ‘act'” – it’s been out on DVD for years. and he was very, very good in it, too.
The Ghost of Your Last Gay Nerve
Wow. He must have been brilliant in it since I haven’t heard of it. I had to go to IMDB.com and the only thing Oscar Wilde related listed there for Neeson is a 2004 televised tribute to Wilde on his 150th Birthday in which a bunch of celebrities recite Wilde’s most famous lines and his portrayal of Wilde in “The Judas Kiss” play by David Hare at The Playhouse in London, England.
So in what movie did Neeson actually play Wilde? I’d love to see it.
hells kitchen guy
Ghost: My bad. You’re right. I was thinking of Stephen Fry. Sorry.
The Ghost of Your Last Gay Nerve
Dear Hells Kitchen Guy,
Rats! I was hoping I’d caught IMDB in a slip up.
Ever see Salome’s Last Dance?