Rupert Everett Says Actors Shouldn’t Come Out If They Want To Make It In America

Rupert Everett is nothing if not outspoken, and he’s certainly not one to toe the party line on gay issues (having previously said he ‘can’t think of anything worse’ than two dad families, and said he can’t understand why gay people want to get marries). Now he’s returned to another of his bugbears – whether it’s possible to come out and then have a major movie career.

His answer in the last few years has been decidedly ‘no’. Talking to the BBC’s HARDTalk programme, he says “Straight men get every opportunity to play gay parts that they want and then win tons of awards for doing so, but the other way doesn’t really work out.”

He adds he think coming out will harm a young actor’s career, saying “I don’t think it works. The structure of the whole of Hollywood, and also theatre owners, come into play a lot in America. The theatre-owning community is another fairly right-wing organization.

“Since ‘Reaganism’ and actors began to asset-strip themselves, it became possibly worse for an actor to come out because now perfumes are involved, skin care lines are involved and that means shareholders [are involved].

“The mainstream actor has had to become straighter, straighter and straighter.”

Many have suggested Everett’s comments (both these and previous ones) are down to disappointment over his own career. His star was on the rise in the 1990s with the likes of My Best Friend’s Wedding and Inspector Gadget, however in the 2000s Hollywood generally lost interest in him. He has suggested this is down to the fact he publicly acknowledged he was gay.

While this may be true, others have said the rise and fall of his Hollywood career could just have easily been due to what happens to many ‘flavours of the month’, who are popular for a couple of years and then disappear. It’s also been suggested his outspoken ways could be a bar for some roles, with studios more worried about what he might say that the fact he’s gay.

However Everett certainly seems to think coming out harmed his career and thinks other actors should keep quiet if they want to be big in America. Do you agree?

Everett’s interview will air tomorrow (January 15th) on BBC Two at 10.30am GMT. (Quotes via GayStarNews)