The Guardian - 30.07.2019

• The Guardian
  10 Tuesday 30 July 2019
  Arts

R upert Everett

is directing his fi rst play and a few

unfortunate incidents have occurred

before opening night. It is David

Hare’s new version of Uncle Vanya ,

in which he also stars, and all did not

run as expected in its fi rst preview.

“In a fi ght scene I elbowed the

leading actor, John Light [who plays

Dr Astrov],” says Everett. “He hurt

his eye and had to go to hospital. He

came back and then, leaning around

the stage with his one eye, he fell off

it and really hurt his leg.”

The play’s opening has been

pushed back a week, until Light is

back on his feet, but if this production

returns Chekhov’s 1898 play to the

farce that Everett says it was written

to be, and not a straightforwardly

bleak tale of mid life ennui and angst,

then the mishap has an edge of black

humour, too.

He lit up the

screen in the 80s

• but things did

not go to plan.

As he takes on

Chekhov, Rupert

Everett speaks

to Arifa Akbar

about stardom,

midlife crises and

penis padding

‘I’d have done

anything to be a

Hollywood star’

PHOTOGRAPHS: SAM FROST/THE GUARDIAN; NOBBY CLARK; RONALD GRANT ARCHIVE

Talk about breaking a leg, I say.

Yes, says Everett, and describes the

strain of the unexpected on stage.

“I’m in a state of collapse.”

Perhaps because he is an actor

accustomed to playing arch,

unfl appable types, he does not look

as if he is in a state of collapse. He

appears equanimous and elegant,

sitting in a back room of the Theatre

Royal Bath , bearing the mildly

aristocratic air of a gentleman

farmer. Aged 60, he lives in the

West Country these days, having

moved in with his 85-year-old

mother a few years ago , together

with his accountant partner of

10 years. “I now like trees and birds.

And cows. I love cows. ”

It wasn’t always so. In the late

70s he ran away from private

school, the shires and his military

family’s Catholicism to make his

name in acclaimed fi lms such as

Another Country and Dance With

a Stranger. He also spent years doing

drugs, clubs and parties, looking

incandescently beautiful alongside

Hollywood types. Life now is a far

cry from all that. The ferocious

beauty has mellowed into a gentler,

crinklier handsomeness. He has a

modesty that may refl ect the lessons

learned from the extreme gyrations

of his career – from A-list stardom to

much-documented wilderness years.

When I ask him about directing

a play for the fi rst time, he says it

has been challenging “for a fl ake”

but , at this age, he feels lucky to

be challenged. While directing is

new, the stage isn’t. He learned

his trade at the Citizens Theatre in

Glasgow. Three years before the

fi lm of Another Country, he starred

in the play. Where is he more at

home? “Because one is continually

questioning oneself and what one is

doing, you’re never really at home.

You’re always starting at zero. I love

being involved with theatre and

fi lm and with stories in general.

I fi nd each of them very challenging.

Everything is a potential train crash,

but that’s the nature of our business.”

Vanya, the character Everett

plays, is 47 and in the grip of mid life

crisis. The play grapples with

the loss of youth alongside the

complications of love. Does ageing

bother Everett? “No, I feel thrilled

not to be young. I’m older, but I

haven’t got any maladies yet.”

And when you look in the mirror?

“I don’t look in the mirror. Not

much. I’ve spent a long time looking

in the mirror ... I had that gay shame

when I was young. I wanted to be

better looking all the time. I was

always striving to look right.”

Some of it was because of his size.

He grew 12 inches when he was 15.

His limbs are still rangy though he

swears he has shrunk a couple of

inches from his once 6ft 6in(-ish)

frame. Back then, he had a 19 in

waist and was rake-thin. “That’s

why I never felt good-looking.

Immediately after I started working,

I found these two queens who

made padding. I had a padded bum,

padded legs, padded shoulders.”

Things have got better as he has

aged. “I learned how to be more

interesting as an actor. I learned how

to write a bit. I feel very lucky that so

many things came along.”

His two autobiographies

showcased a genuine talent , though

writing is hardly an easy option , he

says. “An actor is a group animal

and a writer is a solitary animal. For

a group person to isolate themselves

and have just themselves to feed off is

complicated. Sometimes it goes well,

but mostly it’s a process of endless

reworking and getting it wrong.”

Writing has also given him the

freedom to create roles that were not

being off ered to him in fi lm, he has

said. He came out as gay in an era

when it could kill an actor’s career ,

at the height of the Aids epidemic.

He has said that it led to typecasting

ever since, exemplifi ed by his role as

the gay friend opposite Julia Roberts

in My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Might he be tempted not to come

out if he had his time again? “For me

it wasn’t possible. There was no

way I was going to pretend. I was

so proud to be part of it all. The

gay scene at the beginning of the

Thatcher years was so remarkable

because you counted just for

showing up. And it was classless and

People who say

they have no

regrets are a bit

wacky. There

are so many

things to regret

‘I’m in a state

of collapse’ ...

in Uncle Vanya

with Katherine

Parkinson

‘I feel thrilled
not to be young’
... Rupert Everett

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